Spotify vs. Pandora vs. Radio, from the advertiser's perspective
If you’ve already decided to utilize Voice Creative’s services: clicking on learn more will tell you exactly what we do when you use our Zipvertising service to take care of your music streaming and podcast advertising. Place an order takes you to a form. It will ask you some question about your business so we can get started on writing your advertising copy. Schedule an appointment will take you to our online scheduling tool where you can schedule a convenient time to talk to us on Zoom or on the phone.
It is generally believed that Spotify has more listeners than Pandora. It doesn’t matter. ‘Cause with ads on either, the goal is to find your prospects. Sure, more listeners may mean more prospects, but you can’t reach them all with one campaign. Radio still has more listeners than either Spotify or Pandora, but with broadcast, there is no way to target just your prospects. Metaphorically, radio is like scattering your ad dollars to the wind while ads on streaming audio are planting your ad dollars in fertile soil.
Know we love radio, still a better value than TV. Costs way less, and isn’t encumbered with pictures. Try this, see a girl on a swing. If you saw her on TV, you’d see the same image everyone saw. But you saw her in your head, and added details that made her image unique to you. Which makes it more emotional, vivid, and memorable. Why does that matter? ‘Cause every buying decision is emotional. That’s a key in how Zipvertising (Voice Creative’s ads via audio streaming) brags on your business, using effective, relatable, emotional copy and voice over to communicate your benefits and move listeners to action.
So cost. At this recording both Pandora and Spotify start at $250, while radio varies by location. All three of these options rely on Unique Impressions (also called Reach, each person that hears your message) and Total Impressions (also called Frequency, how many times they hear the ad). For an effective campaign, the frequency is expected to be at least 2-3 times the reach. That is important because it takes hearing a message a few times to sink in. Streaming audio messages are heard all the way through more than 98% of the time.
Other than price, the difference between radio, Spotify, and Pandora comes down to targeting and geo-fencing. Aside from some minor age and gender demographics, there is no specific targeting with broadcast radio. With both Spotify and Pandora you can target by gender and age. Then with Spotify you can further narrow the demographics by around 60 distinctions. Pandora offers around 265 demographic distinctions to focus on your prospects.
On to geo-fencing, or choosing where your ad is heard. Radio’s geo-fencing is their entire signal area, roughly 11,000 square miles. With both Spotify and Pandora, the geo-fencing can be a single zip code, a village, city, county, or state. That means you can spend less for better results. Pandora and Spotify are not limited to the US, and similar geo-fencing distinctions apply in other countries, too.
What all this means is that with Zipvertising on streaming audio, your message only plays in your area to an individual listener; the people that want to do business with you. It is not uncommon that neighbors, listening to the same podcast at the same time, do not hear the same commercials.
Ready to place your ads and grow your business, we’ll help. Clicking on place an order will take you to a form. Answer a few question about your business and we’ll get started on writing your advertising copy. Clicking on schedule an appointment will take you to our online scheduling tool. Pick a time that’s convenient for you to talk to someone from Voice Creative on Zoom or on the phone. Still not convinced advertising on music streaming or podcasts are effective? Click case study to learn how Motel 6 proved it.