The Sound of Growth: How Audio Fuels Branded Search

The Media Roundtable is back! This week, we’re bringing you a deep dive into our new case study, “The Sound of Growth: How Audio Fuels Branded Search.” Giles Martin (EVP of Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road) hosts fellow audiophiles James Ingrassia (EVP, Head of Client Services, Oxford Road) and Tucker Peleuses (VP, Strategy, Veritone One) to break down takeaways of $400m in audio spend over 30 years.

Audio attribution is challenging, but looking at the impact of audio on branded search is an effective way to cut through the noise. We’re covering; Delayed Effects, Consistency, Diminishing Returns, and More. Let’s dive in.

“ Audio investment is driving almost 20 percent of clients’ branded search traffic.”

📈 Now & Later - Audio results aren’t instant, but they have staying power. The study showed increases in search volume within a week of increasing audio spend. Even better, the search volume also correlated with audio spend weeks after airing. Especially for the study’s B2B and longer-consideration cycle clients, search remained elevated longer. For audio success, it helps to know that initial impact is just the beginning.

🎯 Consistency Wins - And it’s not even a close race. Brands with a sustained history of audio spend showed stronger relationships between spend and search volume. When you go dark, you restart. The greatest correlation came with brands that had amassed 3 years of audio campaigns. Remember: your customers aren’t always in-market, so they need to have you top of mind whenever they shift to buyers.

💯 Optimize Spend - For one brand in the case study, diminishing returns really kicked in after 1m in monthly spend. Keep in mind, your brand’s curve will be different, and the curves might be different for each of your key metrics (search volume vs performance). TL;DR: it pays to work out your specific curve for diminishing returns (and we’re happy to help with the analysis).


For more actionable insights to optimize your strategy and maximize ROIs, check out the full case study HERE and tune into the full episode below.

Bianca Gorodinsky