Cumulus Media | Westwood One AudioActive Group Blog Post

Want To Grow Purchase Conversions? Aim For Fame! The Stronger Your Brand Awareness, The Greater The Sales

A series of new studies from NCSolutions, TikTok, and podcast attribution firm Podscribe sheds light on what drives sales effect. Surprisingly, some of the most frequently discussed media tactics options show little to no difference in cost of acquisition. The findings from these studies are outlined in this week’s Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® blog.

• Creative quality is the number one sales driver according to NCSolutions. This is a surprise to advertisers and media agencies who think media tactics (targeting, reach, etc.) drive the most sales.
• A major study from TikTok reveals the greater a brand’s awareness, the greater the purchase conversion. Brands with high aided awareness have 2.86X greater conversion rates compared to low awareness brands.
• Purchase conversion varies widely by advertising category, Podscribe reports. It’s good to understand the purchase conversion benchmarks for your product category
• Small/medium podcasts (<750,000 monthly audience) have purchase conversions that are 2X those of larger podcasts (>1,000,000 monthly audience).
• Three frequently discussed media options show little difference in cost per acquisition (single show placement vs. run of network, host-read ads versus producer creative, ad lengths from 30 seconds to 75 seconds): In most cases, differences in CPMs generate similar cost per acquisition.
• Pre-roll and mid-roll placements have similar sales effect. Post-roll placements have pricey cost per acquisition.
• Podcast genres have wide differences in purchase conversion and cost per acquisition.

To read the full blog post by Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group®, visit: https://www.westwoodone.com/blog/2025/08/04/want-to-grow-purchase-conversions-aim-for-fame-the-stronger-your-brand-awareness-the-greater-the-sales-effect/. To view a 15-minute video of the key findings, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pBLv1JMuRI.