Getting Started With Pandora: The FAQs

Launching a digital audio campaign with Pandora is easy. Whether you’re trying to grow brand awareness or drive lower-funnel metrics, our dedicated team is here to understand your goals and make sure you nail your next campaign. To help you get started, here’s a cheat sheet for some of our most frequently asked questions. 

Oh, and there’s a playbook to help you get started with both Pandora and the SiriusXM Streaming Network.

Understanding the Basics 

Q: What’s the Biggest Difference Between Buying Digital Audio vs. Radio?

A: Streaming audio is structured on a per impression basis—a 1:1 relationship with the listener. Our listeners are logged in 100% of the time, so we know precisely who is being targeted and receiving ads.

To illustrate: Let’s say you want to reach women 18-34 who live in Palm Beach, Florida. Using digital audio, you can buy that exact audience and feel confident that no impressions (or $$) are being wasted. Using traditional radio, it’s more of a guessing game. You might need to buy multiple stations in the Miami DMA, MSA, or select radio formats that are geared for your target audience. Inevitably, you would end up paying for listeners outside of your target area and audience.

Another difference? Audience time with digital options (like streaming audio) is replacing time they used to spend with AM/FM radio. In the last 10 years, daily share of listening has decreased by 31% with AM/FM radio, while audiences spend 61% more time with digital audio.

Q: Can I Reach My Local Audience on Pandora?

A: Yes. The SiriusXM Streaming Network reaches 82M listeners across Pandora and SoundCloud, which means we can deliver local audiences at scale. In fact, we are #1 in 200+ US markets. We have precision targeting capabilities and can reach your most likely customers segmented by age, gender, geo, and much more, including mood and activity targeting.

Got questions about a specific market? No problem, we’ve got you covered. We can tell you how many people you’ll reach in your desired DMA, MSA, or county. For more targeting talk, peruse our targeting options or read through our media kit.

Plus, remember that you can combine Pandora and SoundCloud to get the best of both platforms: large scale, young, diverse audiences, and incremental reach. 

Q: How Brand Safe Is Music? 

Music has traditionally always been a brand-safe environment. For one, advertising on media that plays alongside music has been on the scene for far longer than channels like podcasts (which are also brand safe). And two, many advertisers are comfortable with music due to its creative nature and the fact that listeners actively choose what they listen to. 

How to Get Started 

Q: How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Pandora?

A: We can accommodate budgets of all sizes. And you can buy your way. We offer direct I/O and programmatic options. We also offer a convenient online ad management solution with AudioGO, where budgets are flexible.

Q: How Do I Know the Right Product/s for My Brand?

A: Whether your perfect product is Streaming Everywhere, Streaming Select, Sponsored Access, or custom solutions, our in-house experts will craft a custom proposal with recommendations based on your objectives and unique business needs. 

Our most popular product is our Streaming Everywhere product, a cross-platform solution in which your :10, :15, or :30 creative spot runs within music or podcast content—and all on Pandora. And you can amplify your campaigns with visual ad formats across mobile, web, Connected Home, and Connected Vehicle. 

The ability to reach customers across all devices allows you to connect with your audience in meaningful moments throughout the day: in-car, at home, with friends, and more. You can also visually engage your audiences with our display and video ad solutions. Download our media kit for the latest products and offerings.

Q: How Does Targeting Work? 

The right message only works when paired with the right audience. Tailor your ad to your ideal listener with our advanced targeting solutions, including audience, contextual, engagement, and predictive audiences. With audience targeting, find your perfect consumer based on demographics and geography, hundreds of audience segments, or database matching. To take targeting even further, leverage contextual targeting to narrow down your search based on language, music and non-music content, or activities, moods, and mindsets. Finally, to reach custom audiences, lean on engagement and predictive audience targeting for lookalike modeling and behavioral retargeting. 

Q: Do I Need to Have an Audio Spot to Advertise on Pandora?

A: No creative experts on hand? We’ve got you. Creative services are available for our advertising partners. Studio Resonate, our in-house audio creative agency, can develop an audio spot customized for your brand and tailor-made to meet your objectives.

Q: I Have a Radio Spot Already Produced, Should I Use That?

A: Repurposing ad creative is tempting because of the budget and time you can save. While you can definitely use pre-existing audio spots, remember, a digital audio environment can be a different environment than that of radio (think: 1:1 vs. one to many). Make sure your spot has the appropriate tone and volume for those settings. Check out these best practices for the digital audio environment.

Q: Are There Any Opportunities to Engage with Pandora Listeners Outside of the App?

A: Absolutely. Our Pandora brand goes way beyond what you see digitally. We have a slate of branded concerts and fan engagement events, with opportunities for sponsorships to engage our listeners in-person. Check out how our partners engaged with fans at recent Music Row Happy Hour, El Pulso, and HBCU Homecoming Pop Out events. Our attendees consistently leave with a more positive opinion of sponsors, while brands drive stronger lifts in consideration and purchase intent. 

Q: What Ad Formats Are Available? 

The available ad formats depend on the product you choose, including Streaming Select, Sponsored Access, and more. Pandora offers three key formats: audio, display, and video. Audio spots are our bread and butter, and like we mentioned above, you can enlist the help of Studio Resonate. With display ads, you can take advantage of 100% share of screen, and pick from display banners or web skins to showcase your message. Finally, with video ads, we offer 100% share of voice (SOV), ensuring a clutter-free environment for your ad. 

My Ad Is Out. Now What?

Q: Do I Get Any Post-Campaign Reporting?

A: Yes, you do. Unlike radio, we will provide you with a comprehensive reporting package that includes impressions, reach, and frequency at the end of the campaign so you know exactly how your campaign performed. 

Q: Are Pandora Campaigns Measurable?

Yes, Pandora campaigns are both effective and measurable. We work with multiple third-party partners to ensure you’re getting accurate and fair measurements of your campaign across all KPIs, including creative testing, brand lift studies, location analysis, conversions, sales lift, multi-touch attribution, and media mix modeling. 

Q: Is Incremental Reach Possible When Adding Other Channels to My Streaming Audio Campaign?

Definitely, when you create a multi-channel campaign, the potential is limitless. Here’s how you can combine the SiriusXM Streaming Network, SiriusXM, and the SiriusXM Podcast Network for incremental reach.

• +142% incremental reach by adding streaming audio and podcasts to your SiriusXM campaign 

• +100% incremental reach by adding SiriusXM and streaming audio to your podcast campaign 

• +89% incremental reach by adding SiriusXM and podcasts to your streaming audio campaign 

Ready to get started? Let's talk.

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