With end-of-year festivities comes an end-of-year crunch for many brands. In Q4, the advertising landscape becomes increasingly competitive, and consumers’ attention is a highly sought-after commodity. Holiday spending is up—not just for busy holiday shoppers, who are anticipated to spend 9% more than last year, but also for brands trying to capture attention and dollars. As you craft your end-of-year strategies, audio advertising is a tool that delivers full-funnel results while augmenting the other channels in your media mix. 

This is a critical time for many companies, often delivering a significant portion of annual revenue. For some retailers, holiday sales account for up to 35% of annual income. This makes strategic planning all the more essential to close out the year on a high note. Here are five audio strategies to make your holiday season bright. 

#1: Run ads in podcasts–and within the larger audio ecosystem

Since two in three shoppers stream podcasts while doing holiday shopping, brands can certainly use podcasts to drive results—but the audio opportunities don’t stop there. “Particularly during the holiday season, audio is a big part of the experience,” says Gretchen Smith, Vice President of Media at ARM. “Streaming music is big at this time, and many people have video podcasts on in the background while decorating and baking, radio news playing during morning coffee. There are so many different touchpoints with audio. It's a huge part of most people’s consumption.”

“During the holiday season, with smart creative, you can craft a call-to-action that evokes a sense of warmth or last-minute urgency as shoppers get closer to crunch time,” Smith continues. “The speaker could deliver the message faster, for example. That’s where the power of audio can really shine during this time of year.”  With 84% of adults enjoying listening to holiday playlists, video podcast consumption growing, and radio proving as resilient as ever, brands should tap into audio holistically to do the most with their holiday budget. 

#2: Lean into audio’s full-funnel capabilities

“A misconception I hear a lot is that audio is best for branding, but we’ve built our agency on audio as performance,” says Smith. Audio is capable at every stage, driving awareness, consideration, and, ultimately, conversion. With targeting capabilities that are increasingly nuanced, the ability to re-target and re-message as necessary, and go with busy holiday shoppers to places other media simply cannot, audio is equipped to deliver. Since the average American spends almost 20% of their day with audio, ad tech tools that measure performance across the funnel have been developed in lockstep with listenership growth, quantifying results. 

“Audio sees really high conversion, and given the number of places that people connect with it, it often performs much better than the channels marketers tend to think of as performance channels,” Smith says. In fact, audio conversion rates typically top 30%, which is higher than other channels such as social and display. 

#3: Be consistent across channels to boost performance

“Through sonic branding, the power of sound effects, and thoughtful scripting, you can create a clear and consistent message across your channels,” Smith says. Audio integrates seamlessly with other media in your mix and can augment everything else in your advertising strategy. Indeed, combining audio, video, and display ads increases purchase intent by 2.2x compared to audio alone, with a 34% higher conversion rate than audio industry benchmarks. 

“When you’re doing a holistic, 360-degree media plan, you expect your consumer to engage at different touchpoints,” Smith adds. “You can make your messaging across channels work with one another. If someone watches a certain TV series, for example, you can build segments to re-target off that to create relevant sequential messaging. Consumers love a good story. Providing a clear narrative across channels is really powerful.”

Too often, the strategic part of ad buying focuses on one channel alone, but true omnichannel buying holds lots of promise for brands looking for big results. Audio works in conjunction with channels like CTV and retail to increase consumer reach and lift. In fact, CTV campaigns perform better with digital audio in the mix, according to a study by SiriusXM and Nielsen. When audio was integrated with CTV, there was a 13% increase in unaided recall and greater lift in brand familiarity and favorability. 

As retail media grows, it’s important for advertisers to note how this channel and audio complement one another. Together, they may offer pathways to support launch campaigns, influence consumers at pivotal moments, scale messaging across multiple brands and products, and align with seasonal events. Since audio outperforms visual ads, driving 50% more attention than the benchmark across video, TV, social, and display, audio can effectively multiply the impact of retail media strategies. 

#4: Set aside a bit of budget for last-minute activations

Some media planners may bristle when discussing budget at this time of year. As CPMs increase, marketers might want to avoid looking at the numbers. While it is true that prices climb during Q4, “more networks are willing to cut deals than many brands realize, and a strong agency can get you lower rates,” Smith says. 

With audio, it is easy to test different messages and get timely creative into the market, unleashing opportunities to maximize ROI without adding much budget. Capitalizing on opportune Q4 moments matters. “New media is being released and consumption shifts, so I suggest setting aside 5% or 10% of budget for last-minute opportunities that become relevant and grab a lot of eyeballs,” Smith says. “Brands are often able to get a lot more value if they can take advantage of new things launching during Q4—and a cultural moment at this time can do a lot for a brand.” 

#5 Make your wish list

Lastly, Smith suggests defining your dream results for post-holiday reporting. “On January 5th, when you look at that last report, how many people did you want to reach? What did you want your sales to be? If you can build your dream report, you’re setting your agency up for success.” And if you can’t, your agency can help you identify big but achievable goals and craft a plan to get you there. 

We love dreaming big at ARM. Let us help you strategize on how to make this season a successful one—and 2025 your best year yet.