Unlocking Audio’s Full Potential: Why Standardized Measurement in MMM Is the Next Frontier

At Ad Results Media, we’ve long believed in the unique power of digital audio to deliver deeply engaged audiences and real marketing outcomes. That’s why we were proud to collaborate on the IAB’s recently published “Measuring Digital Audio’s Impact in Media Mix Models (MMM): A Beginner’s Guide” – a comprehensive look at how better data can close the gap between audio’s performance and its place in omnichannel media plans.

Despite accounting for 20% of adult digital media consumption, digital audio still receives less than 3% of digital ad revenue. This imbalance, the guide makes clear, stems in large part from how audio data is represented in MMMs – or more accurately, how it’s not represented.

As our own Ashley Fitzgerald, Director of Analytics, explains:

“In most Marketing Mix Models (MMMs), audio is represented by a single input: spend. But because audio budgets are typically just a small fraction of what other channels receive, the model often doesn’t detect enough signal to assign meaningful impact.”

This leads to a damaging cycle: low spend generates low signal, resulting in recommendations to further reduce audio budgets, regardless of actual performance. But this isn’t a problem of audio effectiveness. It’s a problem of data delivery.

Ashley goes on to note:

“We’re no longer guessing when audio works. Incorporating this data into MMMs is essential to moving beyond the limitations of traditional spend and impression-based proxies, allowing us to reveal audio’s true contribution and its role in driving performance across the full marketing mix.”

The lesson is simple: when audio data is delivered with granularity and structure, it performs.

The IAB guide lays out a roadmap for standardizing that delivery, outlining critical data slices like media type, geography, ad position, and creative type. These aren’t hypotheticals – they’re the building blocks of making audio a first-class citizen in modern MMMs.

At Ad Results Media, we’re building the bridge between performance and perception. The data is ready. The results are real. It’s time for audio to take its rightful place on the media plan.

Contact ARM today to learn more.