7 Common Streaming Audio Advertising Mistakes to Avoid in Your Strategy

With 218 million Americans tuning in to digital audio content monthly, it’s difficult to deny the power of streaming audio advertising. Audio ads can help you build trust with your listeners, reach new audiences, and improve brand recall—all in a personalized, impactful, and cost-effective way.

That is, if you approach the medium (and your campaigns) correctly. Without proper insight and education, brands can struggle to unlock streaming audio’s full potential for various reasons. Our role as the best audio partner in the game means we want to see you succeed every time—so we’re breaking down the most common mistakes we see brands make when getting started. Avoid them, and rest assured your audio strategy will drive unmatched business results.

Mistake #1: Not Setting Up Clear Goals

With all the agencies, voice talents, workshopping, and wordsmithing involved, it’s hard to deny that working on audio ad creatives can be quite fun. However, some advertisers are so eager to jump right into it and breeze past the “dull” part of planning, they forget about one of the most important elements of a successful campaign: outlining clear goals. Hey, we get it—we love that part of the process, too—but we wholeheartedly encourage you to be thorough as you plan and set campaign goals.

Your campaign goals should ladder up to your larger marketing goals—those can (and should) dictate many aspects of the final result, from creative approach to frequency. For instance, if you’re aiming to introduce a new product, you’ll want to consider increasing ad frequency. That’s just one example of how goals are tightly interconnected with campaign decisions you’ll make shortly after.

Mistake #2: Not Knowing Your Audience

We can’t overstate the importance of understanding your ideal listener. Without a proper grasp of your intended audience’s interests, geographies, and daily routines, you risk creating a campaign that will fall on deaf ears or come upon your listeners at the wrong time.

So, when developing a strategy for your streaming audio advertising campaign, here are some questions to answer:

• Who is your target audience?

• When and how do they consume audio content? (Think of activities they are involved in, time of the day, etc.)

• What devices do they usually use?

This will give you a strong foundation to work with and help ensure your message doesn’t go unnoticed.

Mistake #3: Understanding Ad Quality Importance

Even if one of your advertisements reaches the right listener at the right time, poor quality can undermine all your previous efforts and harm the brand. It comes in different forms: inconsistent volume levels, awkward voiceovers, or problems with sound quality or ad delivery. You’ve come far in developing and executing your streaming audio campaign, so take some time and effort to ensure the consumer hears a professional, high-quality ad that reflects your brand well.

Mistake #4: Disregarding the Value of Targeting

Gone are the days when advertisers would send a message out into the void and hope something sticks (we’re looking at you, traditional AM/FM radio). We’re now well into an era of sophisticated targeting that goes far beyond basic demographics. Digital audio advertisers can target with as much precision as they desire—you can reach your perfect listener based on their activities, behavior, interests, or listening context.

Mistake #5: Undervaluing Performance Tracking

Streaming audio offers advertisers tons of advanced analytics and measurement capabilities, and it’s nearly a crime not to use them to your advantage. Without constant and proper tracking of your streaming advertising campaign performance, you’ll miss out on some critical benefits, such as:

• Maximizing ROI

• Real-time campaign optimization

• Better understanding of your audience's behavior

• Comparing ad creative effectiveness

Monitoring your campaign's performance can give you invaluable insight into how the audience engages with your ads. This information can then be used to finetune your ads, which can help lead to higher conversion rates and better ROAS. 

Mistake #6: Lagging Behind Industry Updates and Changes

The streaming audio advertising landscape changes at nearly the speed of sound (see what we did there?), constantly offering advertisers new formats, targeting capabilities, and interactive elements. For example, who would’ve thought a few years ago that listeners could interact with an ad through a home speaker? Now, many advertisers use connected devices in their campaigns to successfully grow incremental reach.

If you want to create winning campaigns, it’s crucial to stay current with streaming audio advertising changes and review your best practices from time to time. However, if you don’t have time or bandwidth to follow the latest news in the world of audio advertising, that’s okay. Instead, you can choose an experienced advertising partner (hi, that’s us) who has an ear to the ground and reap the benefits of their expertise.

Mistake #7: Stagnating Creatively

Are you adhering to the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage? While it may be true in some areas, it’s bad advice in streaming audio advertising. If you want to keep your audience interested and engaged, you need to mix up your creatives every now and then and test different approaches (for example, changing the ad length depending on where your goals fall in the marketing funnel).

Ad fatigue is real, and it can lead to a drop in click-through rate (CTR) and hurt your overall ROI. Just think about it—it may be fun to discover a creative, interesting new ad as a listener, but would it still be fun to hear the same ad after the 10th, 20th, or 30th time? Continue to spice things up for you and your audience to ensure you get their attention, not their ire. Incorporate what works, toss out what doesn’t, and continue to iterate with data as your guide.

Begin Your Streaming Audio Advertising Journey with SiriusXM Media

While a successful streaming audio advertising campaign is never guaranteed, knowing the mistakes to avoid goes a long way toward getting you there. If you’re still searching for the right advertising partner, you don’t have to look far.

With years of expertise at the intersection of the most popular audio and groundbreaking technology, as well as 160 million listeners in the US, we know how to create a campaign that will reach your audience, win their hearts, and deliver results for your business. Ready to discuss how streaming audio advertising can help boost your brand? We’re all ears.