Beyond Awareness: Streaming Audio Drives Auto Sales Lift

Buying a vehicle is a major decision, and the process takes time. Automotive advertisers need to reach prospective buyers as they research vehicles, compare options, and decide when to purchase.

Streaming audio provides an opportunity to connect with these consumers throughout the buying process. But can it do more than build awareness? Can advertisers measure its impact on actual vehicle sales?

This case study explores how a regional automotive advertiser used streaming audio to reach prospective buyers in a major market and how SiriusXM Media drove impact on both awareness and vehicle purchases.

The Challenge

For retail automotive advertisers, building awareness among prospective buyers is essential. But with dealership sales as the ultimate business goal, understanding how those awareness efforts influence purchase behavior can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of their media investments.

Going beyond awareness

That's where one major automotive brand saw an opportunity in a major new vehicle market. The advertiser wanted to build awareness and connect with prospective new-car buyers, including diverse audiences across the region.

While awareness was the campaign's primary objective, SiriusXM Media saw an opportunity to demonstrate even greater value: Could streaming audio's impact extend beyond reach and engagement to measurable business outcomes?

To find out, we tested a new sales attribution methodology that could connect streaming audio exposure to real-world automotive sales.

The Solution

Reaching prospective buyers across Houston

SiriusXM Media developed a geographically targeted streaming audio campaign to reach prospective vehicle buyers throughout the Houston market. Using streaming inventory on select audio platforms, the campaign reached consumers across devices and listening environments, including while they were at home, on the go, and in their vehicles.

The campaign used three targeting approaches:

• Auto intenders: Reach consumers demonstrating interest in purchasing a vehicle

• Multicultural audiences: Connect with Black and Hispanic listeners through dedicated audience targeting

• Geographic targeting: Concentrate campaign delivery within the Houston market to support regional marketing objectives

The advertiser also used multiple audio ads, including Spanish-language creative, to connect with Hispanic consumers.

Together, these strategies helped the brand reach prospective buyers with relevant messaging across a variety of listening environments.

Measuring the impact on vehicle purchases

To understand whether streaming audio exposure was associated with vehicle purchases, SiriusXM Media partnered with Mobility Global on a sales attribution pilot study.

The study compared households exposed to the campaign with new vehicle registration data to better understand purchase behavior.

This approach allowed us to:

• Measure vehicle purchases: Connect campaign exposure to verified new vehicle registrations

• Evaluate sales lift: Compare purchase performance among exposed households with the Houston market baseline

• Understand audience performance: Identify which audience segments and listening environments were associated with stronger sales results

• Improve future campaigns: Use the findings to inform audience targeting and media investment decisions

The Results

The study showed that households exposed to the streaming audio campaign were more likely to purchase a new vehicle than the broader Houston market baseline.

The results also provided valuable insights into which audiences and listening environments performed best.

Streaming audio drives measurable sales lift

The campaign delivered statistically significant buy-through lift, demonstrating a positive relationship between streaming audio exposure and new vehicle purchases.

Campaign highlights include: 1

• +20.8% buy-through lift compared to the Houston market baseline

• 13K+ new vehicle sales among campaign-exposed households

• 31.3% of all new brand vehicle sales in the Houston area occurred among exposed households

• +38.2% higher purchase propensity among the targeted audience versus the broader market baseline

These results prove the campaign reached valuable prospective buyers while demonstrating streaming audio's potential to contribute to lower-funnel outcomes.

Audience targeting delivers valuable connections

The study also examined how different audience groups performed, helping the advertiser understand where its campaign had the greatest reach and purchase activity.

• General-market targeting generated the largest share of attributed vehicle sales

• Dedicated multicultural targeting helped the advertiser connect with additional audiences

• The Black audience segment generated approximately twice as many vehicle sales as the Hispanic segment 1

• Hispanic-targeted messaging demonstrated a slightly higher conversion rate 1

In-car listening creates a valuable opportunity

The results also highlighted the importance of reaching consumers across listening environments.

In-car and automotive devices demonstrated particularly strong purchase performance, outperforming other listening environments on conversion efficiency. Mobile devices supported broader campaign reach, while home listening provided additional opportunities for exposure.

For automotive advertisers, these findings provide valuable insight into how different listening environments contribute to campaign performance—and where opportunities may exist to reach future vehicle buyers more effectively.

The takeaway: Streaming audio’s value goes beyond awareness

For this regional automotive advertiser, streaming audio offered more than a way to build awareness. Through a sales attribution pilot study, SiriusXM Media demonstrated its potential to influence vehicle purchases while providing valuable insights to inform future campaigns.

And that's an opportunity for other automotive advertisers, too. By combining audience targeting, geographic precision, and advanced measurement capabilities, brands can better understand how streaming audio contributes to results throughout the purchase journey.

Go beyond awareness with SiriusXM Media

This case study is proof that streaming audio advertising can move automotive consumers from awareness through to purchase. And we can help you reach and influence any audience. The SiriusXM Streaming Network reaches 94M listeners across Pandora, SoundCloud, YouTube Music, and SiriusXM Streaming, giving you access to an 87% ad-supported audience of consumers. 2

We did it for them. We can do it for you. Let's talk.

Check out more automotive case studies