How Podcast Ads Delivered Successful Retail Lift for Graza
Graza isn’t your average olive oil brand. With its bright green “Drizzle” and “Sizzle” bottles, the brand turned extra virgin olive oil into something fun, functional, and easy to use. By combining playful design with high-quality, single-origin oil from Spain, Graza has built a loyal following of home cooks and food lovers who care about both taste and creativity in the kitchen.
The Challenge
Graza’s playful “Drizzle” and “Sizzle” olive oil bottles were already a hit online. Their direct-to-consumer strategy was working; podcast ads had become one of the brand’s strongest growth drivers. In fact, 5.66% of all new Shopify customers in 2025 cited podcast ads as how they discovered Graza.
But with Graza hitting Target, Whole Foods, and Walmart shelves, the question became: Could podcast ads lift in-store sales, not just online conversions? At ADOPTER Media, we wanted to take that question a step further, not just to prove podcasts could drive retail movement but to measure how much.
Tracking that impact is tricky. While DTC performance can be directly attributed through pixels, clicks, codes, and checkout surveys, retail results are harder to measure. To solve this, Graza partnered with ADOPTER Media to conduct a rigorous podcast lift study and hired WorkMagic to handle the attribution analysis.
“This was about proving that podcasts don’t just move online carts,” said Elsie Kaplan, VP of Sales at ADOPTER Media. “They move product off shelves.”
Since this was Graza’s first time testing programmatic podcast advertising, ADOPTER Media kept the brand’s ongoing host-read campaigns active. This approach made it possible to measure the incremental lift of the new campaign layer while accounting for natural sales fluctuations and retail noise.
Campaign Setup & Approach
We designed a geo-targeted, 21-day podcast retail-lift study, followed by a 7-day cooldown period to capture delayed purchases. The campaign was planned around a $12 CPM, designed to reach at least 80% of the target population with a consistent daily spend threshold.
- Networks: Acast and SiriusXM
- Format: Dynamic Ad Insertion (30-second mid-rolls)
- Frequency Cap: 5x per listener within 30 days
- Markets: A curated selection of Nielsen DMAs identified as influenceable. Neither the lowest performing nor the most saturated for Graza. Ensuring a balanced retail presence across test regions.
- Exposure Goal: ≥80% of target listeners reached
- Analysis Partner: WorkMagic (Retail, Amazon, and DTC sales)
Regions were chosen with moderate baseline sales: high enough to demonstrate existing demand, yet still responsive to advertising influence.
Creative Approach
ADOPTER Media crafted an audio spot featuring a single, relaxed female voice that used rich, sensory language to capture attention. There were no discount codes or urgency tactics, just appetite appeal.
The subtle glug glug of olive oil and a soft sizzle nodded to Graza’s signature products, closing with a simple CTA: Find Graza at your local grocery store or grab all three online at Graza.co Retail, Shopify, and Amazon sales were then analyzed across exposed (test) and non-exposed (control) regions to isolate the incremental lift driven by podcast ad exposure.
“We deliberately kept the ad broad and sensory,” Kaplan explained. “The goal was recall and appetite appeal, not urgency or discounts.”
The Results
The podcast test delivered measurable, incremental sales impact:
- Incremental Sales: 3X
- Retail Lift: +15%
Even with conservative parameters and a short 21-day test window, podcasts delivered the strongest lift, suggesting meaningful upside with extended test durations or more granular targeting.
Podcast ads drove 3X more retail sales for each online purchase, underscoring the medium’s impact to move consumers from awareness to action.
It outperformed every other channel tested, delivering the highest incremental return and the lowest acquisition cost. While CTV and podcast delivered comparable incremental returns, podcast’s more efficient audience targeting and lower CPMs drove a far lower incremental cost per acquisition, underscoring the efficiency advantage of audio-first channels.
Insights & Takeaways
- Podcast is YTD 2025 Graza’s best-performing channel from an incrementality standpoint.
- With only a 7-day cooldown period, the test may have undercounted results. Podscribe’s Lag Path Reporting shows DTC activity up to 30 days after ad download.
- Since podcast downloads don’t guarantee instant listens, Graza may be seeing the olive oil effect on a slow drizzle—sales showing up days later as listeners press play.
- DAI registers impressions on download, not playback. Consider moving to streaming audio ads for more precise measurement.
- Continue baked-in host-read ads, which remained consistent during the test and were shown to impact DTC lift.
- Attribution alignment: The Lift Test’s 4% DTC impact matches the 5.66% attribution reported via Shopify’s PPS surveys.
“Retail lift studies are where data meets dinner-table decisions. When someone swaps butter for Graza after hearing an ad, that’s incrementality you can taste.” Kaplan
Optimization Tactics
This test used a broad CTA and national focus. But programmatic podcast ads offer customization based on DMA, household composition, and more. Future campaigns can:
- Call out specific retailers in regional ads
- Use regional voice actors for cultural resonance
- Align messaging with specific buying motivations
Regions with moderate baseline sales were prioritized—high enough to confirm demand but low enough to show measurable influence from advertising.
Creative Examples
- Atlanta: Southern-accented female VO encouraging Graza for fried green tomatoes
- Urban Young Men: “Impress a date” angle, targeting sports and comedy shows
- Seattle: Mention DeLaurenti Market for local pickup of European-quality olive oil
Attribution & Consistency
WorkMagic confirmed that the 4% DTC contribution measured in the Lift Test aligns with the 5.66% of Shopify customers citing podcast ads. During the campaign, baked-in, host-read campaigns were maintained at a consistent month-over-month spend to avoid data bias. ADOPTER recommends continuing both host-read and DAI strategies. To refine future attribution, tag campaigns to differentiate Retail vs. DTC based on creative, network, and ad format.
Future Recommendation: Introduce campaign-level performance tags to attribute podcast impressions specifically to Retail vs. DTC performance—an essential next step in evolving Graza’s cross-channel measurement precision.
The Impact
Graza’s retail-lift study proved podcast advertising moves products off shelves. It’s measurable, repeatable, and delivers cross-channel results.
“When listeners hear Graza on shows they already love, it’s not just an ad, it’s a recommendation that sticks with them when they walk down the grocery aisle.”
Ready to Measure Your Own Retail Lift?
ADOPTER Media helps brands connect podcast and YouTube sponsorships to real-world outcomes from DTC growth to shelf movement.