By Hannah Endres, Vice President of Sales
Audio has been the “new kid at school” for a few years now.
As CTV surged, audio followed right behind it — streaming audio, podcasts, smart speakers, and all the new ways brands can connect with audiences through sound instead of screens. Agencies and brands are genuinely excited about the opportunity the channel offers.
But in most media plans, audio still shows up late.
It’s rarely a foundational recommendation. More often, it’s an add-on, something layered-in once search, social, display, online video, and CTV are already locked. And that’s not because agencies doubt the value of audio.
It’s because audio is hard to defend.
The Problem Isn’t Belief. It’s Proof.
Most agencies I work with fully understand audio’s strengths.
They know audio has better ad recall than display. They know it reaches people in moments where visual media can’t: on walks, in the car, during workouts, while multitasking through daily life. They know it plays a real role in how decisions are formed.
The challenge comes after the campaign runs.
At the end of most audio campaigns today, agencies are left with:
- Confirmation of delivery
- Listen rate (usually 95%+ because most audio ads aren’t skippable)
There’s no click-through rate to speak of. There’s rarely a clean conversion signal. And when clients ask the most important question — “What did this actually drive?” — audio platforms don’t offer much help.
So agencies do what smart, nimble teams always do: They get creative.
The Manual Work Agencies Are Doing to Prove Audio Works
Because attribution doesn’t inherently exist in most audio platforms, agencies are putting serious effort behind the scenes to try to prove effectiveness.
They run incremental tests:
- Adding audio during a specific time and comparing performance before and after
- Exposing only a subset of a target audience to audio and measuring differences
- Using geographic splits or demographic subsets as proxy test groups
This work is thoughtful. It’s strategic. And it takes real time.
It also introduces gaps. Incrementality studies require assumptions. Test windows don’t always align perfectly. And explaining these models to clients can feel like asking for trust instead of showing proof.
On top of that, audio is uniquely fragmented.
Depending on where you run Spotify, iHeart, Pandora, TuneIn, or direct podcast buys, targeting and attribution options change. Agencies must often choose between:
- Premium inventory or advanced audience targeting
- Transparency or scale
That tradeoff doesn’t exist to the same degree in other channels. And it makes audio harder to package, harder to price, and harder to protect when budgets get scrutinized.
Why Attribution Makes Audio Look Worse Than It Is
If you rely on pixel-based attribution, audio almost always looks like the worst-performing channel.
But everyone in the room knows that’s misleading.
Audio isn’t clickable. It lives inside walled gardens. Promo codes are often the only deterministic option. So, audio ends up under-credited, even when it’s playing a meaningful role in driving action.
When it comes time to optimize or cut spend, audio is often the first thing to go. Not because it didn’t work, but because it couldn’t be proven confidently enough.
What Changes When Agencies Can See Household-Level Outcomes
This is where the tone of the conversation shifts.
When agencies can say to a client: “We ran this audio campaign to high-intent, in-market households for X days, and it drove X dollars in revenue. These are the specific households that converted.” — everything changes.
There’s confidence, but more than that, there’s relief.
No incremental testing frameworks to explain.
No proxy metrics to defend.
No hours spent stitching together studies with room for error.
Attribution does the heavy lifting.
Where fullthrottle.ai® Bridges the Gap
What excites me about fullthrottle’s audio offering is that it removes the tradeoffs agencies have had to accept for years.
Agencies can activate their highest-intent audiences across premium audio publishers, including iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Spotify, and more, without giving up transparency or control.
And with SafeMatch® attribution, agencies aren’t guessing at impact. They’re seeing real business outcomes tied back to audio exposure alongside CTV, display, online video, and even direct mail, all in one workflow.
Audio finally shows up the way agencies know it should:
- As part of a full conversion path
- As a contributor to real outcomes
- As a defensible recommendation, not a “nice-to-have”
The Shift I Want Agencies to Make
A structured approach to audio measurement starts with clean data inputs and ends with reporting audio shouldn’t require extra spreadsheets, experimental study design, or apology-filled conversations.
It shouldn’t be treated as an add-on that survives only when budgets allow.
It should be treated like what it is: a powerful channel that deserves the same level of attribution, insight, and confidence as every other part of the media mix.
If agencies can breathe easier when they talk about audio, if they can prove its value without doing all the extra work themselves, the channel doesn’t just perform better.
It sticks.
And that’s when audio becomes a strategy, not just another line item.