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The Limits of Attribution in Podcast Marketing

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Eight years ago, I wrote a blog called “Direct Marketing is Easy. Brand Marketing is Hard.”

You could argue that today, we have more tools than ever to prove what works. At The Podcast Show in London recently, I kept getting variations of the same question: “How do we prove the advertising worked?” That extends beyond ads, too: “How do I know if someone heard my trailer and then listened to my podcast?”

The pressure to measure everything has never been higher.

And yet, a quote I shared back then from Seth Godin feels just as relevant now:

“If you want to do brand marketing, you have to refuse to measure.”

Refuse to measure? It sounds absurd.

To be clear, I believe deeply in attribution. At Coleman Insights, we have Validate, which has helped bring much-needed accountability to radio—arguably one of the most brand-driven mediums in existence. When done right, attribution is powerful. It can unlock smarter decisions and demonstrate real value.

But it’s only part of the story.

If someone hears your podcast ad and doesn’t immediately visit your website, is that a failure? If they hear your ad multiple times, see your brand on a streaming service, pass a billboard, and then—three months later—click a paid search ad when they’re finally in-market… should Google get all the credit?

Of course not. But they often will.

Here’s the part that matters most:

YOU BUILD AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION WITH EVERY IMPRESSION.

Radio professionals have long understood this, largely because they had to. Without precise consumption data, they’ve relied on the cumulative power of reach and frequency to shape perception over time.

Podcasters, on the other hand, have grown up with detailed consumption metrics. So it’s completely natural to want to track everything and tie it neatly to outcomes.

But not everything that matters shows up in a dashboard.

That’s one of the reasons I partnered with Arielle Nissenblatt from Earbuds Podcast Collective to develop our podcast trailer study. We wanted to understand what listeners actually retain from trailers and what drives intent to listen.

Our overflow session debuting findings from our podcast trailer study at The Podcast Show in London

The findings are fascinating—and in some cases, surprising. There are clear creative and strategic takeaways, even if results vary by show and category. This kind of research doesn’t just tell you what happened; it helps you make your content more compelling going forward.

And importantly: if someone doesn’t listen today after hearing your trailer, that doesn’t mean it didn’t work.

YOU BUILD AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION WITH EVERY IMPRESSION.

Maybe they will see your show mentioned in an article. Or hear about it on another podcast. Or notice it in their feed. Or get a recommendation from a friend. And then—weeks or months later—they finally press play.

That journey is real. And you won’t capture every step of it.

You don’t have to measure everything.

And that’s okay.

Focus on making your content as appealing as possible to your target audience. Use research to understand and shape perception. Apply consistent, strategic marketing.

The results will come. Just not always on your preferred timeline.

So when you’re evaluating performance, remember:

YOU BUILD AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION WITH EVERY IMPRESSION.

If you want to go deeper on how to make trailers more effective, join us for “Podcast Trailers: A Playbook for Producing Successful Teasers” on Wednesday, June 3rd at 1PM ET. We’ll share real examples and practical guidance you can apply immediately.

 

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How NOT To Measure Radio Attribution

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Previous editions of Tuesdays with Coleman have discussed Validate, the audio attribution tool Coleman Insights introduced to the American market last year. This column, however, is not about Validate or why my colleagues and I believe it is the best way to demonstrate the impact of well-executed radio campaigns.

Instead, this column is about attribution tools that fundamentally misunderstand how radio works.

When I demonstrate Validate to potential clients, I often use an example involving a local advertiser that specializes in kitchen renovations—the kind of company you call when you want new countertops installed or your cabinets refaced. This advertiser has used radio successfully for years, running campaigns that last eight weeks or more, several times each year.

Now imagine I’m driving while listening to a local radio station and I hear this advertiser’s commercial. What are the chances that I will immediately pull over, grab my phone, and visit the advertiser’s website?

Pretty close to zero.

And even when I arrive at my destination, it’s still unlikely that I’ll immediately go online and look them up.

But fast forward six weeks. I’m sitting in my kitchen with my wife, and we start talking about remodeling. That’s when I’ll visit the advertiser’s website. Maybe I’ll type the address directly into my browser, or maybe I’ll Google “kitchen remodeling” and choose that advertiser because their name sounds familiar.

Radio listeners are unlikely to respond within minutes to an ad, particularly for a category like kitchen remodeling. (Photo credit: Shutterstock/Unai Huizi Photography

That familiarity exists for one reason: their radio campaign.

The problem is that many radio attribution solutions will never capture this. Some tools try to measure whether a listener visits an advertiser’s website within minutes of hearing a radio ad. Others attempt to match spikes in website traffic to the exact times radio commercials air.

These approaches may work for certain types of digital advertising, but they are poorly suited to measuring the way radio influences consumer behavior. It has been a long time since I personally sold radio advertising, but even back then, the core principle was clear: radio works by building brands.

As my friend Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Westwood One, often says, great advertising helps brands “become known before they’re needed.”

That idea perfectly captures what radio does best. Radio reaches consumers frequently with a consistent message so that when the moment of need finally arrives, the advertiser’s brand is already top of mind.

That process usually unfolds over weeks—or months—not minutes.

This is not to say radio can’t drive direct response for some advertisers. In certain situations, it absolutely can. But for most businesses, radio’s greatest strength lies in its ability to build familiarity, trust, and preference over time.

Unfortunately, many attribution tools now being marketed to radio broadcasters come directly from the digital advertising ecosystem. That world is built around impressions, clicks, and immediate actions. Naturally, its measurement tools are designed to capture those same outcomes.

But digital attribution tools aren’t built to measure brand building—because brand building isn’t what digital advertising typically does best.

Radio, on the other hand, excels at it.

If the radio industry wants to demonstrate its true value to advertisers, it needs attribution approaches that reflect how the medium works. Otherwise, we risk measuring radio with tools designed for a completely different form of advertising—and inevitably underestimating the impact radio delivers.

In other words, if you want to prove radio works, start by making sure you’re measuring the right things.