Why Treating Audio as Just Another Digital Line Item Is Costing Brands Real Growth

In an era where everything from calendars to refrigerators are labeled “digital,” it’s no surprise that many brands have defaulted to treating streaming audio and podcasts the same way they treat display or social.

At big holding-company shops such as Omnicom, Dentsu, and beyond, digital teams are routinely tasked with buying podcasts, streaming audio, music, talk, and sports. And on the other side of the spectrum, some marketers mistakenly lump audio in with “offline” legacy channels, assuming it behaves like traditional radio.

Both assumptions are wrong. 

While streaming audio platforms like Spotify, Pandora, iHeartMedia and podcasts utilize digital pipes for delivery, their consumption patterns, emotional mechanics, and effective buying strategies remain deeply rooted in the “offline” principles of broadcast, storytelling, and human connection.

“Podcasting sits at a unique intersection of influencer marketing, prime-time TV, and digital media. You get the personal affinity of a trusted voice, the ability to reach scale, and efficiencies that feel almost digital, but the buying model doesn’t look like anything else on the market,” says Katie Long, Senior Media Manager at Liquid I.V. 

To put it simply, audio is barely digital. It borrows the pipes and targeting signals of digital platforms – but the medium, the mindset, the measurement, and the creative are fundamentally different. 

The Digital Team Dilemma

It’s not a knock on digital teams to say audio is outside their wheelhouse – it’s simply a reality of how the channels have evolved. Digital media has become a world of biddable marketplaces, automated optimization, and standardized creative formats. Audio (especially podcasting) operates with a completely different logic. The publisher landscape is more nuanced, pricing is contextual and often relationship-driven, and the interplay between content, audience, and creative is far more intricate than what most digital buyers have been trained to navigate.

“Digital teams are incredibly smart at what they do, but audio simply plays by different rules. When audio gets treated like display with sound, strategy becomes a checklist instead of a craft – and that’s where brands start losing value they never even knew they had and robbing themselves of what could be,” says Katie Eiler, Media Director at Ad Results Media (ARM). 

Relationships Still Matter

Another key distinction is the role relationships still play in audio. While digital teams are conditioned to operate in environments where everything is an auction, a CPM, or a transparent bid, the audio marketplace behaves much more like premium TV or sponsorship-driven environments.

When audio is bought by teams without deep expertise, brands unknowingly lose leverage. Valuable placements don’t surface, partners don’t lean in as much, and inventory that could have been customized or enhanced instead becomes generic and less effective. 

As Danny Wolman, Vice President, Head of Independent Agencies at Audacy Inc., puts it:

“From the publisher side, we can immediately tell when a team truly understands audio. When a buyer prioritizes quality over quantity and knows the difference between inventory that’s merely available versus inventory that’s actually valuable, the entire conversation shifts. We’re able to collaborate more strategically, unlock higher-impact placements, and build programs that deliver far more than what’s on a spreadsheet. That level of expertise directly impacts the value we can bring to the table.”

The Creative and Context Nuances

Creative execution in audio isn’t the same as in display, social, or traditional media. Most digital advertising lives in a transactional, highly produced world where assets follow a template, run in predictable environments, and are measured by clicks or impressions. But audio thrives on authenticity, context, and human connection. A host-read ad isn’t just another creative asset, it’s a performance that has to feel like part of the show.

A great example of this is Liquid I.V.’s partnership with the true-crime podcast Up and Vanished. Rather than just inserting a standard ad read, our team worked with the podcast’s host to weave the product into the narrative. The host shared how he used Liquid I.V. to stay hydrated while traveling to rugged, remote locations to research and record episodes for the show’s fourth season. That subtle but strategic storytelling – positioning hydration as part of the host’s real journey – elevated the brand mention into an immersive, believable moment. 

Because of this creative approach, the campaign translated into measurable business impact. Over a two-month period, almost half of all conversions came from audio alone and revenue exceeded targets by over 80%. 

What this shows is that audio creative needs to be treated as a distinct craft. It isn’t enough to re-use a digital script or assume that whatever works on display will work in audio. But when done right, audio becomes more than a “media buy” – it becomes an experience. One that resonates, lingers, and drives real results.

The Measurement Myth

Digital teams often default to KPIs like click-through rates, viewability, or impression-based attribution because that’s the world they’re built to operate within. But audio does not and cannot behave like display. 

Long adds, “Between host reads, integrated brand moments, and the expansion into video and other extensions, a single CPM rarely reflects the true scope or impact of the buy. When you try to force podcasting into standard measurement frameworks, it can make it harder to see the full picture. While still valuable for reporting, they don’t always capture the full scope of the impact.”

Audio drives attention, recall, mood shift, brand affinity, and incremental performance over time. Companion banner clicks are virtually meaningless as a signal of whether someone heard, understood, or responded to an audio message.

“Trying to judge audio through display metrics is one of the fastest ways to misunderstand its impact. Audio creates memory, mood, and intent – things you’ll never see from a click-through rate metric or a non-human graphic designed for a screen. When measured correctly, we consistently see that audio drives meaningful lifts in brand awareness, consideration, and purchase intent. If the measurement model doesn’t match the medium, the numbers will always undersell the true power of audio,” said Gretchen Dubois, VP of Media at Ad Results Media (ARM).

“The hardest part of measuring audio ads is also the most important: capturing the long-tail. Audio drives awareness and baseline lift over time, and without sufficiently accounting for that top-of-funnel impact, it’s easy to undervalue the channel,” adds Brynn Greenelsh, Marketing Manager at Auctane. 

When teams not trained in audio KPIs try to apply digital measurement frameworks onto audio reporting, the results might look like just that: underwhelming. This leads to budgets getting cut or reallocated, not because audio underperformed in reality, but because its success was never measured or communicated correctly. 

So What Is Audio, If Not Digital? And Why the Answer Matters for Brands.

Audio sits in its own category. It uses digital delivery the way streaming video uses fiber or WiFi, but the medium itself is its own craft. It is emotional, talent-driven, contextual, and rooted in human connection. It’s not offline. It’s not digital. It is simply a media channel with its own distinct ecosystem and its own structures and rules.

And in a world with more fragmentation than ever, that’s why specialization matters.

As audio grows across streaming, podcasts, CTV, and other emerging formats, the gap between “buying audio” and “buying audio well” is becoming more visible. Audio deserves to be treated as the distinct, complex, high-impact medium it is.

When brands recognize that and partner with teams who truly understand the space, audio stops being a checkbox and becomes a driver of meaningful results.