The Role of Contextual Advertising in Streaming Audio

Streaming audio is the advertising platform that’s truly always on. Anywhere a listener has a signal, they can listen—anytime. Since audio is always with your audience, you can meet them wherever they are, whether that’s physically, emotionally, or culturally. And thanks to the many advanced targeting solutions available today, you can narrow down your audience by more than just age and gender. Get personalized with contextual targeting, where you can target listeners by mood, activity, location, or even weather forecast. 

With over 20 years of observing listener habits and aggregating insights to produce personalized listening through Pandora’s Music Genome Project, we're in a unique position to offer contextualized targeting solutions. In fact, we have a 73%+ validation rate for our activity and mood targeting.  

Here’s why contextual targeting is a must-have in your streaming audio campaigns. 

How Does Contextual Advertising Fit into Streaming Audio Advertising Campaigns?

Listeners appreciate personalization—from personalized apps, to personalized browsing experiences, to personalized recommendations. Here’s the ROI on relevant ads: 76% of consumers were more likely to pay attention to ads that felt relevant to them, while 72% of consumers said they’d be less likely to pay to remove ads if they were targeted and interesting, according to eMarketer.

Think about it, if listeners choose an ad-supported streaming audio platform, would they rather hear ads that are tailored to their current mood, activity, or location—introducing new products or services they might enjoy? Or would they prefer something completely irrelevant to them? 

Thanks to opted-in first-party data, you’ll know exactly who you’re reaching, from demographics, to location, to listening habits. Contextual targeting takes this audience snapshot a step further by leveraging listeners’ specific moods, activities, and audio preferences to personalize their listening—and it can standalone. For instance, if you’re targeting celebratory listeners, bring up the energy with upbeat instrumentals. Or, a food delivery brand might advertise their service when a listener is commuting home after a long day. 

When you ditch the one-size-fits-all advertising approach, you can unlock even more ROI and positive brand associations.

Moods and Mindsets: Matching Ad Tone to the Listener

Mood targeting is one of the most powerful ways to reach listeners in their feels on streaming audio, all in real time. The solution is particularly powerful because it's a privacy-forward solution that’s born from song elements rather than personal identifiers. So, when we deliver an upbeat ad to listeners in a celebratory mood, we can create positive brand associations that linger well beyond the initial exposure.

Consider this: 77% of our listeners say music improves their mood. Consumers are actively seeking out music to influence (or change) how they feel throughout the day. They’re in the right place when they come to Pandora, where we house more than 50 wellness and mood-based stations, from Happy 80s, to Sad Girl, to Heartbreak. Here’s how mood targeting pays off: We’ve seen a +52% increase in ad recall for brands who align with listener moods.

Follow These Best Practices for Mood Targeting

Blend the Background Music

With our help, you already know the music genre your listener is playing. After pocketing these insights, update your ad creative’s background music to match the playlist your consumer is listening to.

Match the Energy

Think of this scenario: When people are already in a room, it’s not polite to walk in and start making loud noises, changing the music, or fiddling with the thermostat. Follow the same etiquette in your ads by doing a vibe check and matching the energy so your ad feels like a natural part of listeners’ day rather than an interruption. This could look like enlisting a voice actor with a relaxed, meditative narration to align with a listener’s chill playlist. Or, you might turn up the volume with cheerful music and messaging to match a user’s energetic workout playlist. 

Moments That Matter: Streaming Audio Fits Into Daily Routines

With audio, you can listen at home hands-free or while out and about running errands (preferably using headphones, don’t be that person in the checkout line listening on full blast). Pandora listeners might be on the go all day, which means they can’t always be reached through a screen. During life’s moments, 58% of our listeners say music helps them pass the time, and 60% say it's a companion to other daily activities. With 64% of our users 18 and up listening to audio while cleaning or doing chores and 54% listening while relaxing, this presents plenty of opportunities for brands to reach consumers during key moments when they're most receptive to relevant messaging.

Adopt These Best Practices for Activity Targeting

Use Activity Context Without Intruding 

Use listeners’ activity context to create conversational messaging that feels helpful rather than intrusive. Activity targeting is made possible with our music analysts, who curate stations that are aligned to activities that go well with music. Leverage the listening environment to match your tone to how your target audience will experience your ad. 

Customize Your Message to the Activity

The same listener could be shown different messages based on their changing activities throughout the day. Luckily, Pandora does the heavy lifting for you with these activity stations (among many more): 

• Hipster BBQ: Reach outdoor party hosts with this mix of indie music 

• Road Trippin’: Set the tone for listeners on the road for leisure drives or long, cross-country trips 

• Dinner Party: Reaching 5.5M listeners, this station features mellow, contemporary artists that are made to match any dinner party vibe 

• Cleaning: Target productive users at home with this station featuring Nickelback, the White Stripes, Gwen Stefani, and more

Music Breaks Language Barriers—Reach English- and Spanish-Language Speakers

Music creates emotional connections that transcend language differences, allowing your brand message to resonate on a deeper level. Advertising on the SiriusXM Streaming Network enables you to reach both English- and Spanish-language speakers through carefully curated playlists and stations. Thanks to language targeting on Pandora and SoundCloud, the doors are open to reaching diverse audiences who might be underserved (and underrepresented) by traditional advertising channels. Leverage Latin intensive targeting or Latin enthusiast targeting to reach listeners who spend 50%+ or 20-49% of their time with Spanish-intensive content respectively. 

Reaching Celebratory and Happy Listeners with Mood Targeting

Reaching your target audience when they’re in the right moods can make all the difference between a passive impression and an active conversion, and this rang true in a past success story. A QSR brand came to us to drive incremental and new visitations to QSR locations during the summer. The campaign used contextual moods that easily align with summertime, including celebratory, energetic, and happy to reach joyous listeners. 

The results paint a clear picture, with mood targeting reigning as the strongest performing tactic in the campaign.

• +16% average behavioral lift in store visits across contextual mood 

• +10% conversion rate

• +6% more likely to visit the QSR location for the first time by contextual mood audiences 

Get Started with SiriusXM Media

Our privacy-forward targeting solutions don't depend on declining mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) or third-party cookies. Instead, they're built on the rich, first-party data that listeners willingly share. Add in the magic of Pandora’s music analysts, from expertly curating stations to evaluating song elements, and you get the perfect soundtrack to pair with any mood or activity. 

Whether you're looking to reach celebratory listeners, on-the-go users, or multicultural audiences, our contextual targeting capabilities can help you find your perfect streaming audio listener at the perfect moment.

Ready to make your mark in streaming audio? Let's talk.

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