As a full service local marketing firm, we know most folks are invested in digital marketing. After all, it’s trackable, it’s targetable, and you can make fancy graphics to go with it.

It’s true that in today’s digitally dominated marketing landscape – we’re quick to pour our marketing budgets into clicks, views, and digital impressions. But here’s the catch: online ads work best when consumers already know and trust your brand. New customers usually need 7-10 interactions with you before they make the purchase. This could be a friend’s review, an influencer video, or a radio ad.

This is where radio steps into the spotlight. It primes audiences to hear your name before they need you. Radio ads build awareness, and actually improves the outcome of your digital campaigns. Let’s explore how pairing radio with digital not only strengthens your campaign funnels, but also boosts your return on investment.

The Funnel Connection: Radio Attracts, Digital Converts

In the above diagram, you’ll see a sales funnel – the visual representation of the journey a new customer takes. It starts large at the top and grows smaller as a customer takes a journey with your business, ultimately ending in a conversion or a sale.

At the top is Branding/Awareness, and this is where radio shines. Think of radio as the prologue to any customer journey. It introduces your brand to a broad audience, warming them up before they engage with your digital content, whether it is through social ads or search queries. It gets conversations going through creative storytelling, and is the starting point for being “known before you’re needed”.

Studies consistently confirm that radio fuels awareness, a critical precursor to trust. And trust? It’s what drives people to click, search, and ultimately convert into to a new customer.

Proof that Radio Works: Measurable Digital Uplift

Many businesses are drawn to digital marketing, because dollars can be compared to statistics like views, clicks, and form completions. But did you know that radio is trackable much in the same way?

Here are the multiple ways that radio’s effectiveness can be tracked in a digital world:

• Search Activity: A Radio Advertising Bureau survey shows radio ads boost Google search activity by 29% on average AdweekAd Results Media+4blog.federatedmedia.com+4optimized-marketing.com+4.
• Branded Searches: Newer research from Marketron reports radio ads can lift branded search volume by as much as 40% marketron.com.
• Website Traffic: LeadsRx found that AM/FM radio campaigns generated an average +14% lift in site traffic across 17 campaigns—some verticals (like tax prep) achieved up to +48% lift Adweek+11Westwood One+11optimized-marketing.com+11.
• Daily Web Sessions: According to Radiocentre and Colourtext, radio lifts daily web sessions by 9%, accounting for 36% of total media-driven uplift—and does so twice as cost-efficiently as other demand-generation media rab.com.
• Sales Uplift from Integration: Federated Media highlights that combining radio with digital yields an average 23% sales uplift, outperforming combinations like TV + digital (9%), radio alone (17%), or digital alone (14%) Adweek+11blog.federatedmedia.com+11blog.federatedmedia.com+11.

The Manning Media’s Advantage of Reach & Efficiency

As local marketing leaders in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, we understand that your marketing investment is important. You need someone to trust, and to know that your marketing dollars are working hard. We dedicate ourselves to not only understanding our audience, but yours, too!

Our Key Demographics: Manning’s cluster of radio stations dominate highly coveted demographics—18–49, 25–54, and 35–64—making them ideal platforms for advertisers targeting consumers across age groups. The group of 106.9 The Eagle, Key 103, MAX Country, the new Fred FM, and WARK, as a group, have reach up to 70% more than other radio groups.

Broad, New Audiences: Manning stations tend to have low duplication with other radio groups, helping you capture fresh, incremental reach without oversaturating existing audiences.

Cost-Effective Local Marketing: Beyond reach, radio offers great value. For example, AM/FM radio’s 84% reach among adults 18+ outpaces social (78%), CTV (74%), and traditional TV (58%) researchdirectorinc.comAd Results Media.

Tactics to Rock Your Radio + Digital Strategy

Radio and digital marketing doesn’t work with a “set it and forget it” mindset – you need to be analyzing your message, your targeting, and your timing. Here are a few tactics we use for our advertisers to make sure their campaigns are as effective as possible:

• Frequency & Consistency: Radio works best with repetition over time. Frequent, shorter spots sustained over months embed your brand in listeners’ minds optimized-marketing.com.
• Smart Timing: While morning drive times generate attention, web sessions are more likely during evenings and weekends, when audiences have more free time and devices Westwood One.
• Compelling Creative: Ads that mention the brand early (within the first 5 seconds), offer incentives (e.g., rewards), and include clear CTAs, drive higher web responses World Radio History+15Westwood One+15optimized-marketing.com+15.
• Cross-Channel Synergy: Align messaging across radio, search, and social. This amplifies recall and nudges action throughout the funnel.
• Track Impact: Use metrics like branded search volume, website traffic lift, and performance dashboards to attribute and optimize campaign outcomes optimized-marketing.com+1.

In Short: Use Both Radio & Digital to Win!

You’re investing heavily in digital – but without the brand awareness that radio provides, your clicks may fall flat. By integrating radio as the base of your local marketing plan, you create buzz around your business, create a trustworthy household presence, and support your digital marketing at every touchpoint.

And with Manning’s strong demographic reach, low overlap, and cost-efficient platforms, you’ve got the ideal partner for scaling your impact. Get started today by speaking with a Local Marketing Expert >