Remember those days when an “ON AIR” sign almost guaranteed you a captive audience hanging on every word?
For local home service businesses, radio once felt like the magic marketing bullet.
You’d cut a catchy jingle, buy a slot on the local station, and wait for the phone to ring off the hook. And back in radio’s heyday, it often did. But my friend, times have changed – and if you’re still betting big on terrestrial radio ads, it’s time for a reality check.
Radio’s Heyday: Why It *Did* Work (Back Then)
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.
There was a time when radio ruled the roost. Morning commute, afternoon drive, even working in the garage – folks had the radio on all day long.
Local stations were a trusted source of news and entertainment, and your ad would reach a broad swath of the community. Fewer media options existed, so everybody tuned into the same handful of stations.
If you ran an HVAC or plumbing business 20 years ago, a well-placed radio spot could practically make your week. It felt like printing money because, in a way, it was – you had a captive audience with ears perked.
And let’s be honest: part of why radio advertising felt so good is pure nostalgia. You might remember your dad’s favorite oldies station or that catchy carpet cleaning jingle from 1995 (the one you still catch yourself humming). When something worked before, we naturally want to believe it’ll work again.
Many home service business owners have a success story or two from the past – “I remember running a radio ad in 2005 and getting a bunch of calls. It was great!” – and those memories die hard. Plus, radio sales reps are happy to fan those flames, armed with impressive-sounding stats about “reach” and “frequency.” They’ll tell you thousands of people hear your ad each week. It sounds convincing, right?
The Hidden Catch
Here’s what they don’t highlight: out of those thousands of listeners, maybe only a few hundred are actually in the market for a roofer or landscaper at any given moment. And you can’t control who hears your message. Your expensive jingle about “24/7 emergency AC repair” might be falling on the ears of a teenager who couldn’t care less, or a retiree who rents an apartment and never needs your service. Back in the day, we overlooked this waste because, well, there was no better alternative.
Radio was a one-size-fits-all megaphone – not perfect, but it was the best we had.
So yes, radio used to work in many cases. Fewer distractions, fewer channels competing for attention, and a habit of listening that was ingrained in daily life. But that was then. Let’s fast-forward to today and shine a light on why that old formula isn’t pulling the same weight.
The Harsh Reality: Radio Advertising’s Slow Fade-Out
Look at the chart above.
Americans’ listening habits have made a dramatic pivot in the last decade. A few years ago, terrestrial radio made up the majority of audio listening; by 2023, it’s now barely clinging to half the share, essentially tied by on-demand digital audio (streaming music, podcasts, etc.).
In plain English: people are tuning out traditional radio and turning to Spotify, Apple Music, podcasts – you name it. And with listeners vanishing, your radio ads are fighting an uphill battle for attention. It’s like throwing a party in a town where half the population moved away.
To drive the point home, here are some cold hard facts (don’t worry, I’ll explain why they matter):
- Shrinking Audience: Only 6% of Americans now say radio is their preferred way to get news [Pew Research Center, 2024]. Think about that – six percent! Most people have migrated to digital devices for their daily information and entertainment. If fewer people prefer radio, fewer people are consistently listening, period. That commute where everyone tuned in to FM? It’s now often a podcast or a customized playlist. Your potential customers have more options, and they’re overwhelmingly choosing options other than traditional radio.
- Limited Targeting: Terrestrial radio is a blunt instrument. You can pick a station or a time slot, but you can’t precisely target who hears your ad. There’s no way to ensure only homeowners in your service area with a 20-year-old furnace hear your furnace repair ad – you’re also paying to reach college kids, commuters from out of town, or anyone else tuned in. By contrast, digital platforms let you aim your message like a laser (by zip code, interest, search intent, etc.). In a recent survey, the majority of small-business owners agreed that digital advertising allows them to target customers far more efficiently than traditional ads [Statista, 2023].
- No Easy Attribution: Here’s a classic scenario: “How did you hear about us?” If you’re relying on customers to remember and report that they caught your ad on 101.5 FM, good luck. Radio offers zero in-the-moment feedback. There’s no click, no tracking pixel, no immediate way to tie a specific call or sale back to that ad. This makes it hard to measure ROI. You might feel like the radio ad works when business is up, but can you prove it? On the flip side, digital campaigns come with robust analytics – you know exactly how many people saw your ad, clicked it, and called or emailed from it [LeadsRx, 2020].
- Shrinking ROI (and Budget Drain): Advertising is about return on investment. Unfortunately for radio, the returns are getting tougher. Even Nielsen’s own 2022 research hinted at this: Digital and TV ads hit above-average success metrics about 60% of the time, whereas radio only manages roughly 50% of the time [Nielsen, 2022].
- Industry Contraction: Still not convinced? Consider this: The radio industry itself knows it’s in trouble. A 2024 Axios report noted that audio companies (even big ones) are cutting staff and costs because digital revenue isn’t filling the hole left by rapidly shrinking radio ad sales [Axios, 2024]. One of the largest radio station owners in the country filed for bankruptcy in recent times, and others are consolidating or slashing jobs. It’s an industry-wide contraction. Now, if the radio business can’t make money off radio ads, what are the chances *you* will? This isn’t to kick radio when it’s down – it’s to illustrate that the landscape has fundamentally shifted.
Where the Smart Money’s Going (Hint: It’s Digital)
If radio is the aging rock star playing to a half-empty theater, digital marketing is the hot new act selling out stadiums.
The smart money – and smart marketers – are going where they can get measurable results and bang for their buck. It’s not just big companies, either. Your fellow local businesses are shifting their budgets.
According to recent data, eight in ten small businesses agree that digital advertising is crucial to their success [LeadsRx, 2020]. They’re voting with their wallets. In one 2022 survey, a whopping 78% of small-business advertisers said that their digital ads contributed more to their revenue than traditional ads did [Statista, 2023].
Why are they so confident moving money away from traditional radio into online campaigns? Because digital platforms let you target the right people, at the right time, with the right message – and then show you the results.
You can serve a Google ad to someone right when they search “plumber near me, water heater leaking.”
You can show a Facebook ad to homeowners in a 10-mile radius of your shop who recently looked up “AC repair.”
This isn’t spray-and-pray; it’s sniper-level precision. And once that ad runs, you get instant feedback. You’ll know how many people clicked, called, filled out a form – and you’ll see the cost per lead or per sale. With that data, you can tweak and improve your campaigns in real-time. Try doing that with a radio spot! By the time you realize a radio ad isn’t working, you’ve already burned through the buy and your money is gone.
Another reason digital is eating radio’s lunch: attribution and ROI proof.
As mentioned, radio offers you mainly gut feelings and anecdotal evidence. Digital gives you spreadsheets and dashboards full of proof. When budgets are tight (and whose aren’t?), you need to justify every dollar. It’s no wonder that advertisers are demanding more accountability. Digital delivers that; radio, not so much.
Now, don’t get me wrong – this isn’t about dunking on radio for nostalgia’s sake. It’s about what works for growing your business today. Marketing isn’t charity; you invest in what brings a return. And right now, all the real-world evidence – from industry studies to the moves your peers are making – says that return is coming from targeted digital campaigns, not the old-school terrestrial airwaves.
Time to Change the Station
So what’s the takeaway?
Simple: don’t hitch your wagon to a fading star. Radio advertising had a great run, and it might still have a place for certain niches or older demographics. But for a local home services business that needs the phone ringing now, it’s no longer the reliable workhorse it once was. The audience has scattered, the costs are hard to justify, and the feedback loop is non-existent. Meanwhile, new and more effective channels are right in front of you, ripe for the taking. The biggest risk today isn’t abandoning radio; it’s clinging to it and missing out on the channels your customers actually pay attention to.
Ready to swap static for success? Book a free consult with Optimized Marketing and let’s tune your business into channels that grow your bottom line – including radio.
References
- Pew Research Center. (2024). News Platform Fact Sheet. Retrieved from Pew Research.
- LeadsRx. (2020). Radio Advertising and Cross-Channel Impact: Attribution Study. Retrieved from LeadsRx.
- Statista. (2023). U.S. Digital Advertising Market Forecast. Retrieved from Statista.
- Axios. (2024). Audio Industry Contraction: Traditional Radio Ad Revenue Declines. Retrieved from Axios.
- Nielsen. (2022). ROI and Media Mix Modeling for Small Businesses. Retrieved from Nielsen.
