Is radio advertising still effective?

Yes. RAJAR, the independent measurement body for UK radio, recorded 51.1 million weekly listeners in the second quarter of 2026 — 87% of adults aged 15 and over — listening an average of 20.3 hours each per week. Analysis by WPP Media and Radiocentre puts broadcast radio's two-year return on investment 22% above the all-media average, and its 13-week short-term return 23% above average.

Is radio advertising better than social media advertising?

They work best together rather than as alternatives. WPP Media and Radiocentre analysis found that moving 15% of a cross-platform media budget into broadcast radio and digital audio lifted the return on the whole campaign by 5%, not only the radio element.

Does advertising on radio make a small business look bigger?

It tends to. Listeners generally assume a business advertising on the radio is established and doing well enough to afford it, and that assumption transfers to the advertiser. Running radio alongside social media works better than either alone: social drives discovery, while radio lends credibility to a name people have already scrolled past.

How much does it cost to start advertising on radio in Belfast?

On Juice Radio in Belfast, packages start at £99 per month plus VAT on a rolling monthly basis, including a professionally produced 30-second commercial. Radio does not require a campaign-sized commitment to test.

For the unconvinced

Why radio?

A fair question if your last few campaigns were boosted posts. Here's the case, with the sources, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

The short version

People still listen. A lot.

Radio gets written off as an old medium, usually by people who haven't looked at the figures recently. RAJAR — the industry's independent audience measurement body — counted 51.1 million weekly listeners in the second quarter of 2026, across 1.04 billion hours.

51.1m

Adults tune in to radio every week — 87% of the UK

RAJAR · Q2 2026 · adults 15+

20.3

Hours of live radio per listener, per week

RAJAR · Q2 2026 · average

58%

Listen in a car, van or lorry each week

RAJAR · Q2 2026 · weekly reach

+22%

Broadcast radio's two-year ROI, against the all-media average

WPP Media & Radiocentre analysis

That second figure is the one worth sitting with. 20.3 hours a week is not a medium people glance at — it's most of a working day, every week, per listener. And 58% of adults are listening in a vehicle, where nobody scrolls past, installs an ad blocker or mutes the tab.

Radio and social

It isn't either / or

We're not going to tell you to stop advertising on social. Most businesses we work with do both, and the research points the same way: the WPP Media and Radiocentre analysis found that moving 15% of a cross-platform budget into broadcast radio and digital audio lifted return on the whole campaign by 5% — not just the radio part of it.

The difference is what you're buying. A social ad is skipped in a scroll, competing with everyone else who boosted a post that week. A radio ad arrives while someone is driving, working or getting ready to go out, in a medium they chose to have on.

Being on air also says something a feed can't. Anyone can boost a post — most people assume a business advertising on the radio is an established one, doing well enough to be there. That assumption transfers to you the moment your name is read out between records.

Which is why running both beats running either. Social gets you discovered; radio makes people take you seriously. A restaurant someone has seen on TikTok and heard on Juice isn't a new place they scrolled past — it's a place they've heard of.

Ours starts at £99 a month.
Your customers will assume it cost more.

There's also a difference between promised results and measured ones. Radio audiences are independently audited — RAJAR across the UK, RAMS for stations our size — so you can check what you actually bought, months later, against a figure nobody at the station calculated. An influencer quoting their own engagement rate is not the same instrument.

Likes aren't covers. Followers aren't footfall.

One is interruption. One is a promise. The other is company.

The local part

A national medium, bought locally

Those national figures are the backdrop. What you're actually buying from us is Greater Belfast: 67,060 people over four weeks, on a station they picked, from a company that spends what you pay it here.

No wastage

You're not paying for reach in Dublin or Derry/Londonderry that your business can't serve.

Made for you

Scripting, voicing and production are included. No agency, no separate production budget.

Start small

£99 a month plus VAT, rolling monthly. Radio doesn't have to be a campaign-sized commitment to be worth testing.

See our figures and packages

Sources

Weekly reach, hours per listener and listening location: RAJAR Data Release, Quarter 2 2026 (PDF). RAJAR is the official audience measurement body for UK radio, jointly owned by the BBC and Radiocentre.
Return on investment against the all-media average, and the cross-platform reallocation finding: WPP Media and Radiocentre analysis, published via Radiocentre.
Juice Radio audience figures: RAMS (Local Radio Support Ltd), July 2026. Full detail on our advertising page.

Radiocentre is the industry body for UK commercial radio. Their research is their own — we've summarised the headline findings and linked to the source rather than reproducing it, so you can read it in full and in context.