Amazon DSP, iHeartMedia See Broadcast Radio In Omnichannel Advertising.

Amazon DSP is working with the U.S. radio industry to bring broadcast radio into the same omnichannel advertising and measurement environment as streaming audio, podcasts, connected TV, display and mobile, with broader integration targeted for 2027.

Larry Linietsky, Global Head of Audio at Amazon DSP, said during a webinar Wednesday that the company is working with iHeartMedia initially to build the infrastructure needed to connect broadcast-radio exposure with downstream consumer activity. The effort comes as Amazon and other players in the audio industry seek to make the medium more interoperable with the rest of the digital advertising ecosystem.

“We’ve been working with the radio industry in the U.S. to start to build out pipes that allow for broadcast radio to be attached to the Amazon DSP,” Linietsky said during the webinar, which was hosted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “We are trying to remove the friction, and we will remove the friction in the system, so we can show that radio also adds to this mix, and it’s very powerful.”

Linietsky said Amazon has been working closely with iHeartMedia “to start” and views the second half of 2026 as an opportunity to begin the effort. The company expects U.S. commercial radio to be broadly involved in the initiative in 2027, allowing broadcast to be evaluated alongside other media in Amazon’s omnichannel platform.

“And then our belief is that in 2027 we’ll have the face of the U.S. commercial radio and Sirius involved in this and then be able to have radio along with streaming, audio, and podcast as well as streaming TV, display, and mobile part of your omnichannel mix,” he said.

The initiative represents a significant expansion of Amazon DSP’s existing audio strategy. The platform has integrated digital audio inventory from sources including AdsWizz, Triton Digital, Magnite and Spotify, enabling advertisers to connect audio exposure with actions such as purchases, add-to-cart activity and new-to-brand customers.

Linietsky said that level of interoperability would have been difficult to achieve even a year earlier.

“So, in the last 15 years that I’ve been in sort of the audio and radio space, a lot of people would say, ‘Well, it’s all about the last click,’” he said. “But now we can say, in the presence of this audio ad, which is delivered digitally, we can see the net effect of what happens to whether they’ve added it to their cart... or they’re new to the brand or audio plus video equals something better.”

Matt Shapo, Senior Director of the IAB’s Measurement Center, said the change is not simply that audio has become easier to measure, but that exposure data can increasingly be integrated with data from other media.

“I’d rather take that a step further and go beyond just the idea that audio is measurable and talk about how it is not only measurable but that it has become observable in ways that put it directly alongside the exposure data of many other channels,” Shapo said.

Amazon’s push into broadcast follows studies by the company showing that audio can add substantial reach to video campaigns. Linietsky said specific studies found that adding audio to a video campaign increased reach by roughly 50% to 60%, while consumers exposed to both audio and video produced double-digit increases in metrics including add-to-cart and new-to-brand activity.

In July, Amazon DSP added podcasts to its audio mix. Broadcast radio is the next step.

Linietsky said the broader goal is to establish audio as a full-funnel medium rather than one used primarily for awareness and consideration. He said advertisers are already responding by making audio creative more product-focused and specific.

“Advertisers are starting to lean more into using audio as a medium to drive performance, not just reach and awareness and consideration,” he said.

The shift also addresses a longstanding challenge for radio: attribution models based heavily on the last interaction before a purchase can understate the impact of an earlier audio exposure.

“We can observe if they have heard an ad for a product, and then eventually taken an action,” Linietsky said. “I’m not talking about last click. I’m talking about did the audio exposure lead to more of the activity the advertiser wanted, and we can observe that in a very granular level that we didn’t have before.”