May 7, 2026

Radio Outperforms Digital Channels for Home Improvement Retailers

By Ray Borelli, SVP Research & Insights, Audacy

Spring isn’t just a change in weather — it’s the start of home improvement season. Homeowners shift to outdoor upgrades, interior refreshes, and long-planned projects finally moving into action.

For marketers, this category demands timing, consideration, and trust. These aren’t impulse buys — kitchen remodels take months of planning, and even smaller projects involve research, comparison, and the right moment to move forward.

The brands that win in this category don’t just show up at the point of purchase. They reach the right consumers at the right time, in the right moments. That’s where radio stands apart — not just in building awareness, but in actually reaching engaged consumers, holding their attention, and connecting with them when they’re out in the world and closest to taking action.

Radio’s Edge: Reaching High-Value Home Improvement Intenders

It’s no wonder that both Home Depot and Lowes ranked as top five national radio advertisers during last year’s home improvement season.¹ Radio listeners have a high propensity to be homeowners, and the heaviest listeners are 14% more likely to be home improvement intenders and 17% more likely to be among the biggest spenders in the category.²

The Channel Digital Can’t Outperform

Even as new digital channels have emerged, home improvement brands continue to embrace radio — and for good reason. A Nielsen Commspoint analysis of the home improvement category shows that radio consistently outperforms every major digital channel across the metrics that matter most. Radio drives stronger awareness, deeper consideration, and higher conversion than digital competitors, with a double digit advantage compared to CTV, search, and social media.

Radio Can Amplify Digital Performance In Home Improvement Campaigns

For brands with digital strategies, we suggest adding radio to the media mix. According to Nielsen, home improvement brands can supercharge the performance of their digital channels by up to 29% when radio is included in the campaign.

^{Source: Nielsen Commspoint, US 2025, Campaign: Retail – Home Improvement. All adults. Planning insights: Channel ranking, Reach & Costs included: All Campaign Categories.}

We know from countless studies that…

Radio drives search activity: Consumers are much more likely to search for brands they are aware of – and radio is a top driver of awareness.
Radio improves the performance of social media: When consumers hear a brand message on audio first, they’re more likely to notice and trust it when it shows up in their social feed.
Radio improves TV recall: When consumers hear an audio ad for a brand previously seen on TV, it will bring the brand visuals back to the forefront of their mind.

The Radio ROI Reality

Radio is a top performer at driving results. Period.

A 2025 analysis of database norms across thousands of campaigns in Nielen’s Marketing Mix Model revealed that radio ranks near the top at delivering ROI, ahead of video, display, TV, print, out-of-home, search and CTV. In fact, the return on investment for radio is almost 2X that of CTV.³

Why does radio deliver higher ROI?

Your ad is more likely to actually reach consumers:

Research shows that 30% of CTV ads play in an empty room, and another 22% play while people are in the room but not looking at the screen.⁴ And less than 2% of the ads on social media receive a click — the other 98%+ just scroll past. It’s different in radio.⁵ Advertising waste due to ‘leaving the room’ or scrolling past an ad isn’t possible when you are driving in your car or when you are listening with buds in your ear — which is perhaps the most intimate and personal connection an advertiser can have with a consumer.

After you reach them, they are less likely to tune you out:

Not only are radio ads more likely to reach consumers, but they are also more likely to stay immersed with them. Neuro research has shown that radio listeners stay engaged with ad messaging longer, for up to 13 exposures.⁶ So brands can optimize frequency in radio without the typical worries around wear out.

When you reach them, they are closest to the point of purchase:

More than 80% of radio listening takes place between 6am – 7pm: the hours when consumers are most likely outside of the house, and when and where most purchases are made.⁷ By comparison, the bulk of television viewing — both on linear and streaming — is in the evening when people are at home watching on the big screen and winding down at the end of their day.

For home improvement marketers, radio stands out as a critical driver of performance. It reaches high-value homeowners, outperforms digital channels across awareness, consideration, and conversion, and delivers a measurable advantage in ROI.

As the season kicks off, make sure your brand is part of what consumers hear — not just what they see.