The home improvement category has long been a major player in audio advertising, yet TV continues to get the lion’s share of ad budgets. New research not only highlights this imbalance but shows how moving some chips over to AM/FM radio improves the reach of heavy spenders and therefore campaign success.
When breaking down the results of an April 2024 MARU/Matchbox survey of nearly 1,300 homeowners — focusing on home improvement shopping behavior among heavy AM/FM radio listeners, podcast listeners, and heavy TV viewers — Westwood One’s weekly blog points out that Americans’ average past-year home improvement spend, $3,302, is significantly higher than that of heavy TV viewers ($2,887) and lower than of heavy listeners of AM/FM ($3,963) or podcasts ($4,458).
“When you look at the home improvement category and audio, the biggest customers of home improvement are also the biggest customers of audio,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says. “The heavy radio listener is spending 40% more, [and] the heavy podcast listener 50% more, than the heavy TV viewer.”
Additionally, 62% of heavy AM/FM and 67% of heavy podcast listeners shopped online for home improvement or home décor in the past year vs. 55% for the entire sample and 51% of heavy TV viewers. The results are similar for intent to shop at home improvement retailers more often in the next year: 24% of heavy AM/FM and 28% of heavy podcast listeners, vs. 17% overall and just 13% of heavy TV viewers.
Average spending at home improvement retailers, average number of shopping trips and average spent per trip, and average number of retailers shopped at, all follow the same pattern: over-indexing among heavy AM/FM radio and podcast listeners, and under or same as overall for heavy TV viewers. One more plus for AM/FM radio: Heavy home improvement spenders are 32% more likely to listen to AM/FM radio streaming.
The blog also reports how a Nielsen Media Impact analysis of Home Depot’s March 2024 TV campaign shows an 86% incremental reach increase among persons 25-49 with the overlay of AM/FM radio, boosting the reach from just 31% for TV alone to 57.8% for TV plus AM/FM. Breaking that down by demographic, Nielsen found that the younger the demographic, the greater the reach increase due to AM/FM radio.
Further Nielsen research for a home improvement retailer, matching TV and AM/FM radio ad exposures to credit and debit card purchases from the same PPM homes, shows a 13.4% lift in sales from those only reached by AM/FM vs. 4.6% from those only reached by TV or 4.8% from those reached by both TV and AM/FM. Consumers reached only by AM/FM ads represented 20% of total campaign reach yet generated 42% of the incremental sales increase, while those reached by both the TV and AM/FM ads were responsible for 45% of the sales lift vs. just 17% exposed to only the TV ads — all this while AM/FM’s return on ad spend ($28.82 for every $1) was twice that of TV’s ($13.51).
MARU’s study also shows that heavy audio listeners are more likely than heavy TV viewers to take on home improvement projects, over-indexing on every project while the only thing heavy TV viewers overindex on are not doing any projects. Examined another way, heavy radio listeners are 39% more likely than average, heavy podcast listeners 81% more likely, and heavy TV viewers 15% less likely to undertake a home improvement project.
Vivvix’s ad spend report for 2023 reveals the lopsidedness of home improvement retailer spending vs. focusing on where the heavy spenders are, with 84% of spend having gone to TV and just 16% to audio. Adjusting that mix based on MARU’s findings results in an optimized plan with 45% of spend to AM/FM radio, 30% to linear TV, and 24% to podcasts.
A greater investment in AM/FM radio suggests spreading ads over a wide variety of formats to reach frequent shoppers and/or heavy spenders, with classic rock and classic hits topping the list. The same is true for podcasts, with news, comedy and entertainment genres the most effective.
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