Accurate attribution is the marketing world’s Holy Grail. It’s now a must-do to measure the precise impact of specific ad campaigns, but doing sales attribution for certain industries like consumer packaged goods (CPG)? Very challenging. 

Until now. 

When a CPG company asked our Audacy team for help, we faced an exciting opportunity. The client, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of skincare products, wanted to understand the direct impact podcast and streaming Audio advertising can have on driving sales. Though it’s well known that podcasting is among the fastest-growing channels in digital media, with ad investment up 72% to $1.4 billion in the past year¹, this brand needed hard evidence it works.

Ready for the challenge, our sales team joined with two trusted partners to tackle the measurement: Claritas, a data-driven marketing company, and IRI, an industry leader in consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence.

In the first study of its kind for CPG, our teams cracked the code by tracking listeners who heard the skincare brand’s ads, and matched data about these consumers’ purchasing habits.

CPG marketers are often working with small margins in companies with large expectations. The brand managers need assurance that each media dollar is working hard to provide the maximum ROI. 

But since CPG products are sold alongside hundreds of other brands in large retail locations, measuring in-store purchases and assigning attribution can prove difficult. Showing sales effect requires scale—plus the right measurement system in place to capture the data.

Combining forces, Audacy, Claritas, and IRI devised a new, custom way to measure Audio exposures and purchases for the CPG category. Connecting exposure and sales datasets throughout the consumer journey, the publishing and measurement partners accurately measured the impact of this digital Audio and podcast campaign.

The skincare client’s brand, a competitor to Olay, launched a 24-week Audio campaign on podcasts and digital streaming with Audacy. The plan targeted audience segments between 18 and 65+ with household incomes of $25,000 to $200,000 or more. 

Claritas and IRI conducted a full pixel-based sales attribution and incremental lift analysis. The goal was to identify ad-exposed listeners, and gauge the podcast campaign’s effectiveness in driving an increase in sales for the brand’s skincare products. 

Podcast advertising works—to tremendous effect for CPG. The skincare company’s campaign analysis proved to be a huge success, uncovering tangible, traceable results.

The net net? For those CPG marketers hesitant to venture deeper into podcasts because of ROI concerns, the time has come to dive in. When it comes to attribution, podcasting has become a maturing advertising medium. And now, as this CPG case study clearly demonstrates, podcast advertising can deliver outstanding—and proven—results.