iHeartMedia outlines separate measurement frameworks for local vs. national audio ads

August 21, 2026 · iheartmedia.com

Local businesses running audio campaigns often lack the budget and campaign scale that measurement studies typically require, and iHeartMedia's latest guidance lays out how to work within those limits. The company recommends web lift, call lift, place visitation lift, and online leads or conversion lift measurement for local advertisers, tools built to connect ad exposure to store visits, calls, and website activity. National brands get a different set: brand lift studies tracking awareness, consideration, affinity and purchase intent, sales lift studies measuring buyer penetration and ROAS, and incremental reach validation showing how radio extends audience delivery beyond television and digital. iHeartMedia frames the difference plainly: local advertising is often judged on one question, "Did it bring customers through the door?"

Campaigns with tight budgets and short flight windows often fall short of the impression or reach thresholds that advanced measurement studies need to produce reliable results, so picking a single clear KPI, whether calls, leads, website visits or store traffic, matters more than chasing a broad scorecard. Larger accounts running television, digital, social, streaming and radio at once face a different problem: isolating audio's unique contribution takes brand lift and sales lift studies alongside incremental reach validation. iHeartMedia points to first-party audience data as the piece most likely to sharpen that attribution as media consumption keeps fragmenting across platforms and devices.