Pandora Ad Experiences Reward Both Listeners and Advertisers

Pandora boasts 41M monthly listeners who log a combined total of 263M listening hours per week. 1That’s a lot of people spending a lot of their time listening to their favorite music playlists, pressing thumbs up, and discovering their new favorite station. From its music curation, to ad-supported audio, to multisensory ad experiences, it’s a platform that advertisers can’t ignore to reach consumers throughout their daily routines. 

Free love fest with ad-supported audio

Free listening options on Pandora are popular. In fact, 87% of Pandora’s users listen to their favorite music with ads. 1 Our listeners get access to a vast array of music and podcasts without financial barriers—all because advertisers are supporting the content they crave. With ad-supported audio, brands can be right there with listeners as they turn up their favorites and engage with the platform to discover new ones.

The opportunity for advertisers to reach a passionate population of music and podcast lovers really comes down to the size of a platform’s addressable audience. So, don’t be fooled by the big numbers some audio companies put up. The total audience (the number of users on their platform) may be important to them, but brands can only reach the number of users who listen with ads, and that’s the addressable audience.

Pandora ads offer more than meets the ear

Many brands focus on visuals first when planning campaigns, but audio is just as (if not more) powerful. In fact, a past study found that audio ads received 50% more audience attention than benchmarks across video, TV, social, and display. 2 Plus, most of audio consumption (79%) takes place when visual media formats are not available. 3

Audio puts the audience at the center of the ad experience. It invites listeners to use their imagination and place themselves in the story. Through sound effects, music beds, and voiceovers, audio ads create immersive worlds in a personal listening environment. With theater of the mind techniques, brands can draw audiences into the action in a way that feels immediate and memorable.

Multisensory ad experiences on Pandora

With Pandora, advertisers can take full advantage of the power of digital audio and incorporate visual branding and advertising components when our listeners are most engaged with the platform. 

• Audio: Engage listeners in creative and dynamic ways as they enjoy their favorite content, including 3D audio.

• Video: Run your video ad as listeners actively engage with our platforms (e.g., logging in or skipping a song), with higher video completion rates (87%) than industry standards. 1

• Display: Capture listeners’ attention with eye-catching creative. There are a variety of display options to choose from, like banner ads, native ads, and more.

• Rewarded: Reward listeners for interacting with your ads. Win over Pandora listeners by offering uninterrupted listening time in exchange for ad engagement. 

Reward listeners and make a positive impression

Rewarded ads let brands play the hero, giving audiences more access to the audio they love for a limited time. And the rewarded ad options on Pandora can include interactive and video elements to make the experience truly memorable for listeners.

Score with rewarded ads

• Sponsored listening: Give music lovers one to four hours of uninterrupted listening by interacting with your video or display ad.

• Video Plus: Deliver premium features and on-demand listening to audiences who watch your video ad for a select amount of time.

• Happy Hour: Reward all listeners who sign in to the Pandora app during a selected time (Thursdays between 6-9PM) with uninterrupted listening after engaging with your ad.

Advanced targeting that hits the right note

With millions of listeners streaming their favorite tracks every day, Pandora offers massive scale and unparalleled precision. And thanks to rich, first-party data and the personalization power of the Music Genome Project, advertisers can connect with consumers when they are most receptive to brand messaging. 

Tap into moods and activities

Listeners turn to music to enhance their daily routines and outlook, whether they're focusing on work, commuting, or relaxing at home. And thanks to our contextual targeting solutions, you can build on opted-in, first-party data, including demographics, location, and listening habits. Use these signals to match your messaging to listeners’ real-time moods and activities. By creating curated ad experiences, you can ensure your message perfectly complements the listener's current vibe rather than disrupting it.

With mood targeting, you can reach audiences when they’re happy, celebratory, and much more. For instance, your campaigns can match listeners’ relaxed moods with slow-paced background beats. Or you can catch the attention of rock-loving consumers by using sound to align with the vibe. 

Meanwhile, with activity targeting, you can tailor messaging to listeners no matter their current activity. For example, a laundry detergent brand can get in the ears of an exercising listener with messaging about hard-to-remove stains. Or a food delivery brand can target a hungry evening commuter with a timely promotion.

Drive on-the-go results with in-car dominance

Pandora listeners are frequently on-the-go, but the one place you can predict where they are is the car. During commutes, leisure drives, and everything in between, visual media falls short. Pandora continues to dominate the in-car experience with its connected vehicle offering. As the era of traditional AM/FM radio fades, the auto industry increasingly embraces a digital future.

Boasting 12M+ monthly listeners, Pandora’s connected vehicle allows users to change stations or log thumbs—all without touching their smartphone. 4 Whether you’re targeting morning commuters or weekend road trippers, advertising on Pandora connected vehicle means your brand rides shotgun, delivering high-impact messaging—all without screen fatigue. Plus, with 88% of connected vehicle owners listening with others, your message naturally expands its reach to a wider, co-listening audience, from families, to friends, to couples. 5

Pandora drives lifts for a household cleaning product advertiser

It’s one thing to talk about the power of effective ad experiences, but it’s another to see them in action. In a past campaign, we partnered with a major household cleaning product advertiser to drive incremental sales and increase household penetration among female audio streamers aged 25 to 49.

To achieve this, we developed a targeted solution leveraging Pandora's unique ad capabilities:

• High-impact messaging: The campaign used comedic messaging to highlight the product's benefits and differentiate it from competitors. 

• Strategic product mix: We utilized a combination of Streaming Select Mobile Audio and Streaming Select Mobile Display ads across Pandora to capture both visual and auditory attention. 

The campaign saw massive growth among their target demographic: 6

• $6.4M in total incremental sales

• +3.79% lift in incremental trips

• +3.44% lift in incremental units

• +2.69% lift in incremental sales

These results prove that combining strategic audio and display placements with precision targeting can deliver massive, measurable impact for your brand. 

Count on Pandora’s addressable audience

Here’s a philosophical question for you: If your ad plays on a platform where less than half the audience listens with ads (cough, Spotify), did your brand message get the time, attention, or reach it needs to make an impact? 

Now, let’s switch over to math, because 87% of our Pandora audience is addressable, 1 meaning your ads are more likely to be heard with us. And with our science and technology, we offer superior listening experiences for audiences and better advertising options for brands.

Let’s talk.

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