When advertisers think about digital media, they usually think about screens: feeds, videos, search results and banners. Yet a large share of media time is spent listening, on streaming music services, podcasts and digital radio, often while people are doing something else.
Audio reaches people during moments that visual media struggles to reach, such as the commute, the gym, household chores and focused work. It is also a channel where attention can be surprisingly strong, because a voice in someone's ear is hard to scroll past.
The main ways to buy audio
Digital audio advertising comes in several forms, each with its own strengths.
Host-read podcast ads.
The podcast's host reads the advertiser's message in their own voice, often with personal commentary. These feel native to the show and benefit from the trust listeners place in the host.
Produced spots.
Pre-recorded ads, similar to radio commercials, inserted into podcasts, music streams or digital radio.
Dynamic insertion.
Many podcasts now insert ads at the moment of listening rather than baking them into the recording. This allows targeting by audience, location and time, and means ads can run across back catalogues of episodes.
Streaming music platforms.
Services such as Spotify sell audio ads to listeners on their free tiers, often with self-serve buying tools and audience targeting.
What makes audio creative work
Audio has no visuals to fall back on, so the script does all the work.
| Say the brand early and clearly. | Listeners cannot glance back at a logo. |
|---|---|
| Keep one message. | A single idea, stated simply, is remembered. Several are not. |
| Write for the ear. | Short sentences, natural rhythm and words that are easy to hear work better than copy written for a page. |
| Make the next step easy. | A simple web address, a memorable search term or a promotional code is easier to act on than a long URL. |
| Match the setting. | An ad that suits a comedy podcast may feel wrong on a news show. Tone matters as much as targeting. |
Measuring audio
Audio has historically been harder to measure than clickable media, because most listeners cannot tap an ad at the moment they hear it. Measurement has improved, but it still relies on a combination of methods.
- Promotional codes and vanity web addressesgive a direct, if partial, signal of response.
- Brand search and direct trafficoften rise during audio campaigns, and can be compared with periods without audio.
- Attribution toolsoffered by podcast networks and platforms link listening to later website visits using privacy-preserving matching.
- Brand lift studiesmeasure changes in awareness and consideration among people exposed to the ads.
Combining these gives a far more useful picture than any single number.
Where audio fits in the plan
Audio works particularly well for building familiarity and trust, reaching audiences who are hard to find on busier visual platforms, and supporting campaigns running elsewhere. A message heard on a podcast can make the same brand more recognisable when it appears later in a feed or a search result.
Many advertisers start with a small set of podcasts that closely match their audience, test host-read and produced formats, and expand into programmatic audio once they understand what works.
Worth listening to
Audio offers something increasingly rare in digital media: attention during moments when screens are out of reach. For advertisers willing to write for the ear and measure with patience, it can add reach and trust that other channels struggle to provide.
