The Radio Advertising Bureau is doubling the number of campaigns its quantitative research tool RadioGauge will analyse this summer.

The tool, which launched in January this year, provides national radio advertisers with access to free research to quantify the effectiveness of their campaigns. It is available to those advertisers who spend £350,000 or more.

From January onwards, RadioGauge was measuring three campaigns every two weeks, but it will now double that amount from now until September, giving an additional 36 campaigns the opportunity to have their effectiveness measured.

Mark Barber, director of planning at RadioCentre, is heading the project and noted that the aim of the project is to create a measurement system that can become "the gold standard" for measuring radio campaign effectiveness.

He said: "Before RadioGauge, there were many systems that measured TV's effectiveness for advertisers, but not for radio, as it was considered costly and not used that much by clients. We are now changing that and had excellent feedback from agencies and clients, which is why we are extending the project."

Barber added: "Historically, advertisers would use the medium once and then not return, largely because of two factors: accountability and creativity. And even when the advertisers used radio and the campaign failed to have the desired effect, they simply blamed the medium as opposed to analysing possible other problems."

Ford and Specsavers are among the brands that took part in the first wave of RadioGauge. The extension of the project will begin with immediate effect and slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.