What Makes Streaming Audio Advertising so Worthwhile?
Feb 24, 2025With the current boom streaming audio is experiencing, there’s never been a better time to leverage this medium for your advertising needs. In today's digital landscape, there’s a variety of marketing channels to choose from, creating decision fatigue. However, streaming audio stands out from the rest as it drives impressive, measurable results for your brand—building stronger consumer connections and massive ROI and ROAS.
Here are seven compelling reasons why advertising on streaming audio won’t let you down.
1. Incredible Reach…
Here’s a significant finding: Americans consume audio more than any other media format in their daily lives. Americans spend over four hours daily with audio, which sets the soundtrack for life at home, in the car, and at work. For younger generations, this amount is more. Millennials spend 66% more time with streaming audio than streaming TV, and for Gen Z, it’s even more time. Think young adults couldn’t live without their social platforms? Think again. Young adults are increasingly turning to audio as an escape, with streaming audio being seen as 1.5X more trustworthy than social media.
Streaming audio has been a game-changer for advertising efforts. Its ability to reach audiences throughout their day-to-day activities when other media just can’t—think while commuting, working out, running errands, or cooking a meal—makes it even more accessible.
2. …That Goes Even Further
So, you’re not alone in streaming Today’s Hits or Today’s Country, but are you actually doing it by yourself? Meet the co-listening factor. Also known as shared listening, this is when two or more people are tuned in to the same device—think of a carpool commute or the local gym streaming a Pandora station for all to hear. In fact, almost eight in 10 Pandora listeners co-listen with others.
Co-listening emphasizes the social connection of listening to audio and maximizes the amount of ears your brand reaches. Additionally, it compounds the impact of your ad spend. In a previous study of ours with Carat and Edison Research, we found that:
Streaming audio is the soundtrack to everything from intimate dinners to big celebrations
Brands are significantly extending their reach through digital audio and co-listening
3. Precision Targeting
While billboards, radio spots, and print newspaper ads all still exist, they are the dinosaurs of mass marketing from a bygone era. Thankfully, you can leave that one-size-fits-all approach in the past, as streaming audio allows listeners to feel as if the message was recorded just for them, down to their exact location, activity, and mood. Our targeting capabilities enable advertisers to reach specific audiences based on their demographics, behavior, listening habits, and more.
Now, when you combine dynamic audio with targeting solutions, true magic happens. Many streaming audio platforms allow you to adapt your ad in real time based on factors like weather, location, time of day, or even a listener’s current activity. Imagine playing two different versions of an ad—one that suits a listener having their morning coffee at a cafe and another for a listener commuting home from work. This highly tailored approach allows you to build a deeper connection with your audience as they hear your message at the right time and place and think, “Wow, this brand really gets me.”
4. Ad Options Galore
We’ve talked about reaching the right audience at the right time, but what about the message itself? The possibilities of streaming audio ads give advertisers incredible creative freedom that many other media channels are lacking.
Work with our in-house agency Studio Resonate for elevated creative needs. Prioritizing hyper-personalization? Leverage dynamic audio by creating up to millions of custom versions of your ad. All about driving listeners further down the purchase funnel? Lean on sequential audio, which allows brands to develop a narrative over multiple touchpoints, creating deeper connections with audiences over a span of time. By diversifying your ads, your message remains memorable in a sea of noise.
5. Sustained Attention and Engagement
There’s something about streaming audio that just hits differently than other media formats. Audio is a happy place for a lot of people—78% of listeners 18 and up say music improves their mood. Digital audio creates an emotional and personal experience, whether one’s listening solo through their headphones or co-listening through speakers.
And while you might be hoping to reach listeners when they’re happy and relaxed, don’t discount other moods, like angsty or focused. Audio drives emotion, not just positive emotion, which is why listeners are so engaged in their favorite music content and the ads in between. Let this sink in—in a past study, we found that audio ads received 50% more audience attention than benchmarks across TV, social media, and video.
6. Cost-Effective Performance and Impressive ROAS
With all the possibilities to reach a wide pool of listeners and deliver ads that bring impressive results, one thing still needs to be discussed: The dollars. Advertising with streaming audio makes your dollars go further, thanks to its ability to strike the right cord in the hearts of listeners, driving them into action.
Remember the old days when you’d switch the radio station to another to avoid an ad break? Compared to other forms of advertising, digital audio offers shorter ad breaks, more variety, and more relevant messaging, which makes more people stick around. By implementing streaming audio ads, you’re not screaming into the void but delivering a valued message to the right people, which makes for a higher ROAS compared to other media formats. Couple that with the co-listening phenomenon we mentioned earlier, and it’s easy to see why streaming audio advertising belongs in your marketing mix.
7. Advanced Measurement
With modern streaming audio advertising, you can say goodbye to a guessing game of whether or not your campaign hits the right notes. Streaming platforms provide advertisers with sophisticated measuring capabilities that make good ol’ AM/FM advertising go green with envy. From basic metrics such as unique listeners and listen-through rates (LTR) to heavyweight brand lift and attribution studies, the ways of tracking your campaign’s performance are endless.
Having a trove of valuable insights benefits your brand in multiple ways, from filling in the blanks to guiding next steps for your campaigns. For example, you can easily adjust and optimize your campaigns based on real-time performance metrics. And after a recent campaign ends, you can pocket the data for the future.
Streaming Audio Advertising Belongs in Your Media Mix
With its incredible combination of reach, engagement, formats, and ROAS, streaming audio advertising should be a key player in your media mix. All you need to get started is the right partner, which is where we come in.
We pride ourselves on having the largest addressable audience in the business. And we can ensure you get all the help you need to create an unforgettable streaming audio campaign. If you’re ready to see how worthwhile streaming audio ads can be for your advertising efforts, let’s talk.
