Reasons Streaming Audio Ads Are Better than Radio Ads

Terrestrial radio ads have been a hallmark of the advertising business since, well, since the beginning of radio. While radio ads are still viable for some companies, streaming audio gives advertisers more ways to craft the right message and find the right audience. It also gives them better options for resonating with audiences because streaming audio is more personalized and convenient. And the time spent with this channel is rising. Digital audio listeners are spending 60% more time with audio than non-digital listeners, clocking in over four hours daily. Compare that to AM/FM, which has seen a decrease in time spent by 44%. 1

Long gone are the days when listeners have to wait for their favorite show or hope the radio plays the song they want next. And with those personalized choices come personalized advertising opportunities.

Here are the top advantages streaming audio ads offer compared to traditional radio.

1. Streaming audio is more personal

Streaming audio advertising has the potential to deliver targeted messages to listeners based on who they are, what they enjoy listening to, and how they're feeling in the moment. Unlike traditional radio—which broadcasts the same message to a broad, undifferentiated audience—streaming audio platforms use first-party listener data to serve ads that feel relevant and timely.

Brands can choose from audience targeting (demographics), contextual targeting (mood, activity), and engagement targeting (interactions, engagement) to customize messaging and capture listeners’ attention.

Podcast advertising is another option for creating personalized campaigns. Podcasts build deep trust between hosts and audiences—42% of podcast listeners say hosts provide a connection that traditional media personalities can’t match. 2That engagement carries over to advertising: 60% of podcast listeners 18 and up pay more attention to ads when they are voiced by the host. Plus, 40% of them agree they’re more likely to trust an ad when it’s read by the host. 3

Increased personalization leads to increased engagement

Many advertisers have been waiting for streaming audio to mature before investing their ad budgets. Well, the platform has long since come of age. Over six in 10 of Pandora’s listeners (66%) have been tuning into the platform for more than a decade, and the platform’s listeners have been logging in over 1B hours listened to monthly and 7.5M thumbs daily. 4

2. Your ads get more SOV than radio ads

Radio stations have longer ad breaks, which makes your message one voice in a loud crowd. Streaming audio, on the other hand, offers much shorter ad breaks. Compared to traditional AM/FM radio, SiriusXM Media's ad-supported platforms feature 50% fewer commercials per hour. 4 Plus, streaming audio offers incentive-based formats like rewarded ads and relevant targeting—so you can deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. 

AM/FM is losing listeners to digital audio

Digital audio is increasingly replacing time spent with AM/FM. In fact, listening time with digital audio has increased by +78% while it decreased by 44% with AM/FM. 1 While AM/FM content offers little to no personalization and broad messaging, streaming audio gives advertisers the opportunity to serve highly specific ads to listeners based on their mood, activity, genre, and other first-party data. Listeners appreciate hearing ads relevant to their lives and delivered in a way that acknowledges their preferences. It’s why digital audio ads have a 49% stronger impact on memory than AM/FM radio ads. 5

3. You can incorporate visual media

SiriusXM Media offers something most audio advertisers can’t: display and video. Because streaming audio usually comes from a phone, computer, or tablet, advertisers can serve visual content. Display and video ads are something terrestrial radio just can’t do. 

We know what you’re thinking, “What if they’re not looking at their phone? What if they’re multitasking?” Our platforms only serve visual media to users who are actively using their phones. For example, a video ad will only play when a user is interacting with the platform, like when a Pandora listener switches stations. 

App interaction while listening happens more than you might think. Listeners add 7.5M thumbs daily while adding 5.7M stations weekly on Pandora. Every tap or thumbs up is an opportunity to use SiriusXM Media’s suite of multimedia advertising tools. 4

And since streaming audio audiences are there for the sound, they are less likely to mute your video ads. On other platforms, listeners who watch ads on mobile are likely to mute the audio. Meanwhile, the SiriusXM Streaming Network has a mute rate of less than 1%.  And most of those videos are watched to the end, with an 87% completion rate on Pandora and an 89% completion rate on SoundCloud. 4That means most of the viewers are watching your ads, sound on, through to the end. Advertisers can even incentivize completion by offering ad-free listening or other rewards.

4. Streaming audio gives you more advertising options

Traditional AM/FM radio ads offer advertisers few options for ad placement, media type, and targeting specificity—all to a general, mass audience. This is where streaming audio pulls ahead of the pack.

Dynamic audio ads

Dynamic audio makes it possible to tailor ad creative based on data and contextual signals at the moment an impression is served. Instead of delivering the same message to every listener, advertisers can dynamically swap elements of an ad—such as the voiceover, music, offer, or CTA—to create more relevant variations for different audiences and moments.

For instance, create ads that differ in content depending on whether the listener is experiencing clear or cloudy skies. Serve different messages to all hip hop fans or top 40 radio fans. With one flexible creative framework, brands can deliver more personalized experiences at scale.

Sequential audio ads 

Streaming audio also gives advertisers more control over how a campaign story unfolds. With sequential audio, brands can serve a series of ads in a predetermined order based on a listener’s previous exposure.

Instead of repeating the same 15- or 30-second spot, each ad can build on the message that came before it. That gives brands more room to introduce a product, deepen the story, highlight different benefits, and guide listeners toward action over multiple touchpoints—all while helping keep the creative experience fresh.

Display ads

On Pandora and SoundCloud, audio ads come with companion banner ads to reinforce eye messages and CTAs. But that’s just for starters. We also offer interstitial video and display ads, interactive carousels, and ads that appear in place of album artwork. You can even reskin the streaming app to feature your brand colors and design elements.

Rewarded ads

Use sponsored listening to reward listeners—and build affinity—with one to four hours of ad-free listening when they interact with your display or video ad. Or leverage Video Plus ads, which upgrades listeners to premium features (like Pandora’s on-demand listening). Or sponsor Happy Hour—one of Pandora’s video and rewarded ad solutions that offers ad-free listening in exchange for ad interaction—during select times of day.

Streaming audio delivers more measurable results

Traditional radio can make it difficult to connect ad exposure to specific campaign outcomes, especially down the funnel. Meanwhile, streaming audio offers advertisers more granular measurement, helping you understand not only whether your ads were delivered, but how they influenced audiences across the funnel. With measurement solutions like brand lift studies, you can track exactly how your campaign influences ad recall, awareness, favorability, and consideration. And location analytics, attributions studies, and sales lift studies are available to measure mid- and lower-funnel goals.

You can also monitor frequency to fine-tune how often listeners hear your message, reducing fatigue while maximizing impact. Seeing is believing—Pandora delivered a 98% audio ad completion rate for The Coca-Cola Company. 4 Put simply, streaming audio gives advertisers greater visibility into campaign delivery, engagement, and impact—making it easier to prove performance and inform future campaigns.

The future of audio advertising is here

Audiences are shifting away from AM/FM radio more and more each year because streaming audio offers convenience and personalization. 

Ready to meet your consumers where they are with the messages they want to hear? Let’s talk.

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