What is Audio Marketing and Why is it Important?

Audio marketing is much broader as it includes podcasts and smart home assistants such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Radio has been customers’ favorite since the Golden Age of commercial broadcasting. From the 1920s till today, a section of people still listen to the radio regularly switching from traditional radios to internet radio. Channels like Spotify help advance audio marketing.

Audio marketing helps brands extend campaign messaging beyond the screen. Audio marketing includes a broad spectrum of content, including jingles, scores, and branded content. It also includes audio ads. Audio advertising can be an important part of content marketing, and by integrating ads into audio experiences such as ad-supported music streaming or podcasts, advertisers can help customers discover products and services that are relevant to them.

Why is audio marketing important?

There’s a growing amount of options for advertising within audio marketing. In addition to more traditional audio done through radio, streaming audio has grown 64% since 2014, according to the Q1 2021 edition of Edison Research’s Share of Ear study. This allows for digital marketing to reach customers where they are, on social media, apps, audiobooks, audio versions of blog posts, or podcasts.

Benefits of digital audio advertising

There’s a variety of benefits to integrating audio advertising into a digital content strategy. With at least one smart speaker in 41% of US households, audio ads can help brands can meet audiences where they are when listening to ad-supported premium content throughout different points in their day. And by reaching audiences in different contexts, such as during screenless moments with tech or within interactive content, audio ads can help effectively engage audiences in new ways.

1. Audio advertising has a wide reach

The wonderful thing about audio ads is that they can run in a variety of ad-supported locations, including music and news streams. Amazon audio ads are programmatic, so your brand’s clip can be featured in a variety of places. This can help brands share their campaign messaging far and wide to connect with more customers.

2. Audio consumers are paying attention

In a recent study, 38% of Amazon Alexa users on connected devices said they paid the most attention to ads while consuming content on a smart device. Also, 29% of Amazon Connected Audio Consumers made a purchase on a daily basis, compared to 18% of the general population. Hearing relevant ads when listening to ad-supported music or news streams could help consumers find the products they need on a daily basis.

3. Screenless moments are increasing at home

Smart speaker ownership is growing rapidly, with a 50% year-over-year growth of smart speakers in 2021, according to a 2021 Edison Infinite Dial report. In fact, that same report found there are an average of 2.3 smart speakers in each home in the US. That’s a lot of smart speakers.

4. Audio advertising can be interactive

Additionally, customers could have the opportunity to interact directly with audio advertising. Smart speakers can allow customers to make hands-free purchases, for example, or podcasts can have clickable companion banner ads in apps. By reaching audiences in different contexts, audio ads can help to effectively engage audiences in new ways.

Read more: The Role of Storytelling in Effective Advertising Campaigns

Creating an audio advertising strategy

There are several factors to be aware of when creating audio for your content marketing strategy. Customers use a variety of channels, so brands should be aware of what would work best for their audio ad campaigns to share the messaging in the right places at the right time, to be the most relevant to those listeners. Finally, measuring the results of the audio campaigns will help determine success.

1. Decide on a channel

Need help narrowing down your focus? To start, consider that the leading interaction on smart speakers is music streaming.⁸ You could add a companion banner for an ad in a playlist, for example—there are lots of options for audio advertising within music alone.

2. Know your audiences

Think about the ideal audience for the ads in your content marketing strategy. Consider what customers are looking for and what topics may be most interesting to them. There’s a broad spectrum of audio content, including jingles, scores, and branded content, that could help brands determine the messaging and creative for their audio ads.

3. Consider the results

Audio is primarily a brand-building tool for advertisers. That said, there are certain performance analytics metrics that could be useful. Measurements of reach, frequency, and audio completion rate are a good place to start, as are brand reach and lift for considering how audio can improve brand presence.

Podcasts are increasingly consumed, and they take the audience off the radio. People prefer them when working out or doing other mechanics. To ace audio marketing, you must understand the habits of your target audience. Think about the activities they might do while listening to your audios. This way, you can make audio marketing a big sales opportunity for your brand.

Pros:

• Be it radio or podcasts, audio marketing offers a convenient medium for on-demand and on-the-go for a busy audience.
• It is easier and cheaper to produce audio content than video.

Cons:

• Multitasking listeners can get busy and might not take the next step.
• Marketing via smart home assistants is still in the experimental stage, and there is a steep learning curve.
• Lower chances of immediate return on investment.

The Next Steps

Begin by deciding your goals and preferences—creating a radio ad, starting a podcast or opting for smart home assistants. Think about your target audience and where they would spend their time. Select the best channel and focus on the same. You can figure out ways to utilize the content that you already have.