How Streaming Audio Supports E-Commerce Marketing Strategies

Let’s be real: The digital landscape is crowded, and it’s only getting more competitive. Today, e-commerce brands are fighting harder than ever for even a few seconds of attention. So, savvy marketers are moving toward environments where they don’t have to fight as hard to be noticed. 

Streaming audio is a high-attention, uncluttered medium that allows your brand to shine. It follows listeners when they’re multi-tasking or when screens aren’t around, providing a clear path to connection and engagement. From building loyalty to driving immediate conversions, audio helps e-commerce brands get discovered, remembered, and acted on.

How streaming audio influences e-commerce behavior

Capturing attention in an uncluttered environment 

With 90% of adults listening to audio during their shopping journey, streaming audio offers a powerful setting to reach customers as they browse, compare, and buy. 1 This habit, combined with a less cluttered environment, is what really sets streaming audio apart. Unlike the chaos of visual channels, audio offers a focused space where your brand has 100% share of the screen. Whether listeners are exercising or multi-tasking, audio ads can influence them from discovery through purchase, making audio an effective channel for connecting with shoppers at key decision-making moments.

Creating emotional connections 

Listening to music is an emotional experience that stays with the listener long after the song ends. Everyone has a track that sparks a happy memory or instantly boosts their confidence. The data proves it, too: 78% of our listeners say music improves their mood. 2

For brands, this creates an opportunity to join consumers in moments that already carry emotional meaning. So, consider joining the conversation when your audience is in the headspace that best matches your product. By aligning messaging with moments of relaxation, celebration, or focus, your brand becomes a natural and memorable addition to their routine.

Reaching listeners during receptive moments 

Streaming audio is a powerful tool for keeping your brand top-of-mind when other media isn’t accessible. For instance, an audio ad is a great way for kitchenware brands to reach home cooks while they’re busy prepping meals. Or, a retailer may connect with shoppers while they're driving, running errands, or heading to a store. These moments are valuable opportunities to influence consideration and purchase decisions.

Reinforcing brand recall 

Consistently staying on your audience’s radar is a recipe for success, and streaming audio can help keep your brand top-of-mind along the path to purchase. That frequency builds the recall needed to move shoppers from “I’ve heard of this” to “I’m ready to buy” when it’s time for a purchase. To keep your campaign fresh, mix up your ad formats—from 15-second quick hits to longer spots built for storytelling—and complement them with display, video, or companion banners to reinforce brand recognition across touchpoints. 

How audio advertising fits into the online shopping journey

Awareness 

Putting your e-commerce brand in front of potential customers is the first step toward success. The SiriusXM Streaming Network provides a massive platform for this introduction, reaching 94M listeners across Pandora, SoundCloud, YouTube Music, and SiriusXM Streaming. Additionally, we have an 87% ad-supported reach. 3 This exposure leads to real results: 74% of digital audio listeners have discovered a new product or brand through an audio ad. 4

To make those introductions even more relevant, advertisers can leverage contextual targeting to align messaging with what listeners are doing or feeling in the moment. Whether someone is listening to a workout playlist or feeling relaxed at home with a lofi track, context can help make your brand feel more timely and meaningful.

Pro tip: Not every listener is your target customer. Use audience and contextual targeting to ensure every dollar of your budget is focused on the right ears. 

Consideration 

After the initial “hello,” it’s time to move beyond awareness and explain why consumers should choose your brand. Now is your opportunity to highlight specific product benefits and define what sets you apart from the rest of the market.

Audio is especially effective for storytelling, allowing brands to communicate more than just features and promotions. By creating a narrative that unfolds over time, thanks to sequential audio, advertisers can guide listeners through the consideration phase and deepen engagement with their brand.

Pro tip: Create a narrative rather than a series of isolated spots with sequential audio. By delivering new ads based on what the listener has already heard, you can tell a cohesive story that introduces your brand, highlights key benefits, and reinforces purchase intent over multiple touchpoints.

Conversion 

As shoppers move closer to checkout, audio can serve as the final nudge that turns consideration into action. In fact, 66% of digital audio listeners say that audio ads are key to influencing their purchase decisions, 5 and 77% of digital audio listeners have potentially purchased a specific brand, product, or service after hearing an audio ad. 6

Pro tip: Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) can be a valuable tool for e-commerce brands. Use it to update specific promotions or urgent messaging in real time. This ensures that listeners receive the most up-to-date information that reflects the current shopping opportunity.

Which targeting strategies work best for e-commerce audio campaigns?

Audience targeting 

When you’re scaling your reach, audience targeting is often the first move. We combine user-declared data and first-party data information with trusted third-party insights to find your specific audience. Best of all, we keep privacy at the center of every campaign.

Target your audience based on:

• Age

• Gender

• Life stage

• Household income

• Geographic location (down to ZIP code)

Audience targeting helps e-commerce brands focus their budgets on reaching the right consumers, whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into a new market, or driving awareness among high-value customer segments.

Contextual targeting 

Streaming audio offers unique opportunities to align advertising with what listeners are experiencing in the moment. Rather than relying solely on who someone is, contextual targeting focuses on the content listeners are consuming and the mindset they're in when they hear your message. One form is mood targeting, which allows you to match your message to a listener’s mindset, from aligning your tone or background music to a “chill” or “energetic” playlist. Activity targeting is another effective tool for e-commerce. A workout playlist may be a natural environment for introducing athletic apparel, while a dinner party mix can be a relevant backdrop for home goods, food, or lifestyle brands.

Retargeting 

While contextual targeting meets listeners in the moment, retargeting is all about their past actions. By re-engaging people who have visited your website, interacted with your brand, or taken other meaningful actions, advertisers can build on existing awareness and move shoppers closer to conversion. Retargeting can also extend beyond audio. For example, brands can use second-screen retargeting to reach listeners with display or digital ads after they've heard an audio message, creating a coordinated experience across channels and devices. This approach helps reinforce key messages and keep your brand top-of-mind throughout the shopping journey. 

Driving full-funnel lifts for an e-commerce home goods advertiser 

Strategic insights are great, but what about real-world results? We previously worked with an e-commerce home goods advertiser to move the needle across the entire funnel—from brand awareness, to brand favorability, to ad recall, to purchase intent. 

To get there, we leaned into precise targeting. Using a mix of first- and third-party targeting and solutions across streaming audio and podcasts, we connected with a specific, high-value audience: adults aged 25-54, households with an income over $100K, furniture shoppers, and parents with kids under 18.

The results leave no room for doubt about the results streaming audio delivers: 7

• +4.2-pts lift in brand favorability

• +3-pts lift in purchase intent

• +2.9-pts lift in aided brand awareness

• +1.2-pts lift in ad recall

Drive e-commerce growth with SiriusXM Media 

If you’re ready to put the power of streaming audio to work for your brand, we’re here to help. From identifying your ideal listeners to driving full-funnel results, we provide everything you need to succeed (and then some). Let’s chat.

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