Local Radio vs. Digital Audio Advertising
The rise of audio streaming has caused a digital transformation regarding how consumers listen to music or spoken-word audio. Still, radio stations have spent a century as a viable advertising option. Community banks and credit unions tend to lean primarily towards their local radio station advertising, but the time has come to consider digital audio advertising as well! As the dominant listening choice in the U.S, 64% of audio listening now takes place on a digital platform instead of traditional AM/FM radio, still leaving a large audience that listens to the radio. Based on the ability to find your audience, generate leads, and determine success on these platforms, we’ve put the two up against each other to help determine an ideal combination of the two.
Digital Audio Advertising
Audio streaming services are most popular among younger generations, with 83% of those 16 to 24 years old regularly streaming. Streaming is also beginning to increase in older generations, with 53% of those 45 to 54 years old having streamed music on a digital platform. These stats indicate that these platforms are most suited for those looking to break through to younger generations and access the growing number of older consumers adopting this listening method.
Finding Your Audience
Advanced targeting options allow ads to reach either a broader or tighter audience than ever before with audio ads. These audiences can be targeted on popular streaming services like Spotify or Audiogo, a platform that allows advertisers to reach several digital audio publishers such as iHeart Radio, Pandora, and more all at once. These services create access to local and national target audiences by targeting zip codes, cities, states, and designated metro areas or the entire country. Specific demographics can be chosen among these locations, such as age ranges, gender, and language. In addition, other targeting features include interests based on podcast and playlist listening, the genre of music streamed, and even real-time activities (gaming, partying, etc.) based on current playlist listening.
Lead Generation
The method for generating leads on digital audio platforms can take many forms. These ads are typically presented as an audio recording with an image or video, allowing for a clickthrough URL link to be attached to a call-to-action button. Other tracking methods such as promo codes and trackable phone numbers can be put in place to ensure that those unable to click at the time of delivery can revisit an offer. Once the general campaign strategy is planned, an existing video can be uploaded, or an existing audio recording can be either uploaded or created directly through the digital advertising platform. When provided a script, a voice actor by age/gender preference, and tone of voice, a custom recording can be readily available within as little as a few hours for a very small fee or, in some cases, free of charge. The advertiser can tweak these custom-made recordings by volume levels, background music, and more.
Determining Success
Both during and following the delivery of the campaign, results will be available to provide the option to revise an ad based on current performance. Advanced reporting options built directly into these platforms can break down results to determine the number of listeners reached, their demographics, and how they interacted with the ad.
Local Radio Advertising
Terrestrial radio accounted for 87% of ad-supported in-car listening, with 40% of that during peak commuting times (Monday to Friday 6 AM-10 AM & 3 PM-7 PM), indicating a loyal audience at this time. Radio will likely sustain this high listening share among drivers due to further development of the “car as an entertainment platform.” However, in terms of reliability and commuter time slots with a predictable number of listeners can be among the highest-priced compared to those less predictable times.
Finding Your Audience
You can typically only advertise to those within the general demographic at a chosen radio station based on their station type. To determine this demographic, many stations have examined listener profiles to see which demographic groups listen to specific shows, personalities, and the time of day they listen. However, due to demographic limitations, those looking to reach a wide range of demographics may need to advertise with several local station types.
Lead Generation
Radio stations typically have the in-house resources to create an audio ad in-house, bringing years of experience to the table regarding the recording’s tone, background, music, etc. However, without direct access to tracking the traffic generated, other monitoring methods are required to obtain detailed results. Among the most effective are promo codes, custom URLs or landing pages shared only from the radio ad, or a trackable phone number also only transmitted through the ad. Other options include closely monitoring sales or asking new leads how they heard about the current offer if advertised through different channels. These additional tracking methods can incur extra costs to implement on top of the generally higher costs of advertising over the radio and should be narrowed down to one or two forms of tracking leads.
Determining Success
Determining the success of a radio ad is dependent on the chosen method of tracking results. Some stations may provide the number of listeners during a purchased time slot, but these numbers typically will not be received until after the campaign is wrapped up. Therefore, implementing additional methods such as promo codes, custom URLs or landing pages, or trackable phone numbers will provide the most effective measurements.
The Conclusion
Many community-based financial institutions have long-standing relationships with their local radio station and have served successful campaigns for years. Those who have determined effective methods of reaching the right demographics and tracking results should keep ahold of those relationships as success continues and remain active in the community. However, they should also take a step back and see where digital audio advertising can complement those results and further organizational reach among a broader scope of age groups with one easily tracked ad.
Those that may not have an existing successful radio strategy or relationship with their local station(s) should consider a shift into the digital audio advertising space. This will allow them to take hold of enhanced technology that provides an accurate demonstration of results and a wider demographic area so they can start reaching a broad demographic from the start with the ability to adapt to results in real-time.
Ready to kick off a digital audio or radio campaign? Strategis is a full-service marketing agency developing strategies proven to increase the (ROI) through a wide range of methods. Contact us today!
