Three industry experts have revealed exactly what agencies need if digital audio is to fulfil its growth promise, and according to them, the sector could be in danger of holding itself back.
It comes after ARN’s Denis Donati, SCA’s Kim Loasby and Nova’s Steve Golding took to the stage at the IAB Australia Audio Summit in Sydney yesterday, where the 10th annual Digital Audio State of the Nation Report showed a channel in strong growth—despite some growing pains.
Digital audio revenue has climbed 8.5 per cent year-on-year to $338.7 million, according to the latest figures from IAB Australia. Investment intent is strong: 69 per cent of buyers plan to increase spend in original content podcasts and 56 per cent will boost streaming music budgets.
On the surface, that sounds successful, but there’s a more difficult truth to swallow: agencies are demanding sharper proof of performance, more seamless trading and clearer accountability.
If the industry can’t deliver, audio risks stalling its own momentum.
‘The short answer is yes’
When asked if audio can be measured with the same financial confidence as the rest of the media mix, Donati said “the short answer is yes”.
He believes that audio’s measurement suite has “matured significantly over the past five years”.
“What we’ve got at the moment is what consumers are hearing, what they’re thinking about, what they’re doing as a result of what they’re hearing and what they’re buying,” he said. “That’s a really compelling suite of tools.”
And yet, despite those tools, revenue growth is not keeping pace with audience growth.
According to Donati, that’s because agencies are shifting decisively toward performance.
The IAB’s numbers would seem to support his assessment, as the body found 37 per cent of buyers plan to increase performance-led spend, compared to just 27 per cent increasing brand activity. Market Mix Modelling is now also the leading tool for assessing sales impact and ROI, used by 44 per cent of buyers.
What’s missing?
Loasby highlighted a key weakness in the digital audio ecosystem: agencies and brands aren’t consistently receiving the outcome data they need from publishers to justify investment.
“We are sharing all this data that we possibly can,” she said. “We can see: did we drive closed-loop attribution? Did that person hear that ad, engage with that content, or go to that website?”
But exposure and engagement metrics alone aren’t enough. “There’s sentiment around creativity. Can we measure it? Do brands see a percentage sales lift? Those are the metrics agencies and brands need to plan and defend their spend,” Loasby explained.
“We’re not asking brands to disclose highly confidential sources. But for agencies and brands to understand effectiveness—and for us to share learnings across the industry—we need some of that data back.”
Donati reinforced the point as being an opportunity: “The brands that are leaning in are understanding the methodology behind that measurement and communicating it effectively. They’re going to reap the benefits as well.”
He highlighted the suite of tools available today: “From reach and frequency to brand lifts, footfall attribution, purchase data—we’ve got what consumers are hearing, thinking, doing as a result and what they’re buying. That’s a really compelling set of tools for agencies and brands to use.”
For Loasby and Donati, the message was clear: agencies and brands need actionable outcomes data, not just exposure metrics. Without it, audio becomes harder to justify and investment risks stalling.
The ‘short-term’ is costing growth
According to Golding, brands running four-week sponsorships are missing the point of podcasting altogether.
“I see far too many times so much work, so much planning, so much strategy goes into a podcast sponsorship or a creator partnership—and it runs for four weeks and stops,” he said. “And then they don’t talk to that audience again.”
For Golding, that stop-start approach “ignores one of audio’s most powerful commercial dynamics”.
“There’s so much research, so much proof, that if a brand partners with a content creator and runs it over a period of time, there’s that compounding ROI,” he said.
“There’s compounding brand affinity with that audience—and you start to see that in business metrics, not just media metrics.”
He highlighted that audio’s strength lies in loyalty and repetition, where listeners choose podcasts, build habits and trust hosts. But according to him, that trust—and the commercial return that follows—”builds over time.”
Using podcasts for short campaign bursts “misunderstands the medium,” according to Golding.
So what’s his overall warning? If the industry keeps overcomplicating the buy, withholding outcome data, and defaulting to short-term campaigns, “it risks slowing its own growth”.
According to him, “the audiences are there, and so is the demand”.
However, the question is whether audio can actually commit to the long game, or if it’s going to continue getting in its own way.
