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.”

Giles Martin (EVP of Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road)

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.

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This Week’s Influencer: ORBIT’s #1 Self-Improvement Host, Gina Ryan Talks Authenticity; Podtrac’s Performance Tool, AI Aims At News, and More

Imagine you’re the best at what you do… and you didn’t realize it until now.

This week’s edition of Media Roundtable: Special Edition is another creator spotlight, as Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes Gina Ryan (Host, The Anxiety Coaches Podcast) to the pod.

Gina’s podcast is a quiet ORBIT powerhouse, recently ranked #1 in our Self-Improvement list. But because brands don’t usually share results with creators, she had no idea she was a low-key marketing superstar.

Dan and Gina sat down to unpack her (formerly) secret success. They’re talking: Honest Ads, The Listening Family, and Hyper Organic Growth. Let’s dig in.

“I just talk about it as it’s still me. I don’t all of a sudden switch into: ‘And now a word from our sponsor,’ and become a radio advertisement.” – Gina Ryan (Host, The Anxiety Coaches Podcast)

Be Clear, Be You – Gina’s success isn’t accidental; it’s the result of her very detailed approach to sponsorships. She discloses and separates the ads, then performs the read in her own voice. She’s not in sales mode: she’s the same calm, genuine presence that listeners hear during the show. She doesn’t rush copy; instead, she speaks from her experience and connects to brands she cares about. Another great sign: she rejects misaligned brands. It’s fine for an ad to clearly be an ad, as long as the host is still being their genuine self.

The Listening Family – That’s how Gina refers to her audience. Not consumers, not followers, family. It helps that Gina built her podcast with the intent to help, not to grow and monetize a following. You want a protective host because they’re actively maintaining the hard-won trust they’ve built with the audience.

Hyper Organic Growth – Gina grew the podcast over many years without relying on a dedicated marketing or promotional push. She focused on creating a show people loved. Every member of her audience found her organically and stayed because they love what she’s doing. Other shows might have bigger reach, but the depth of connection is unmatched, and that is what drives ad performance.

For more tips from a genuine performance superstar, check out the full episode below.

The Podcast Princess Diaries: Inside Hala Taha’s Performance Playbook

Our Best Podcast Pick, PodFraud, and Is It The End of Ads?

Podcasts walked the red carpet, won the awards, and settled into your living room. So, where does the industry head next? Find out on a new Media Roundtable: Industry Edition.

Stew Redwine (Executive Creative Director, Oxford Road) breaks down the biggest stories with fellow audiophiles:

Bart Roselli (EVP Media, Oxford Road)
Courtney O’Connor (Director, Podcast Media, Oxford Road)
Giles Martin (EVP Strategy, Oxford Road)

The team is talking: The End of Ads, PodFraud, the Living Room Podcast, and more. Let’s dig in.

“ Is it the end of ads? No, but I do think that it’s potentially an end of an era.” – Courtney O’Connor (Director, Podcast Media, Oxford Road)

The End of Ads? – It sounds like a sensationalist take: could podcast ads see the same collapse as ‘90s banner ads? No, but at a minimum, guarding against increasing ad load is smart business (Podcasting was dragged for its ads during the Golden Globes). No one wants podcasts to become burdened with ads like radio. Marketers, check the ad load of your shows, and reward the networks who are keeping the percentage low.

PodFraud – We have two cases of advertising rule-breaking this week, but remember, fraud is an arrow. It points to value. Take the pay-to-play scandal in India, where people pay $15-30k to be a guest on a show: the value of the show has to be many times higher to justify the risk. On another note, if there’s a business for someone to strip out the ads and resell the shows, that’s a problem, but this points to the bigger issue of rising podloads. Again, the industry needs to manage ads or risk audiences opting out. In the meantime, marketers must work to make their ads compelling enough that no one would skip them. (Stumped? We can help.)

The Living Room Podcast – YouTube says couch podcast viewing hit 700M hours in October 2025. Giles’ rough math says that’s ~4% of CTV viewing, a staggering number. There’s one thing we don’t know: exactly how attentive is the watcher? Couch podcasts could be a source of active engagement, or background noise that might not even have someone in the room listening to it.. Our POV: if you can measure well, kick the tires on a campaign. Then you’ll know if the results justify the CPMs.

Want more insights from the forces shaping the industry? Tune in to the full episode by clicking the link below.