As technology progresses and attention spans grow smaller and smaller, companies find themselves constantly scrambling to stay in front of their audience. Consumers are cutting ties with expensive cable packages, accessing music in different formats while demanding the freedom to consume what they want, when they want, wherever they want.
Over the past few months, screen time has increased even more with the unprecedented lockdown our world has experienced. Instead of picking up a newspaper or tuning into the evening news for updates, the population has become more reliant on their devices. As a marketing agency, we’ve seen an increase in social media interaction and email marketing open and click-through rates. This has also led us to further research and embrace music and video streaming services as an additional digital advertising option.
Streaming services are an online provider of entertainment (music, movies, etc.) that delivers the content via an Internet connection to the subscriber’s computer, TV or mobile device. (via PCMag.com) There is a large abundance of services in the streaming space: Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, HBO GO, Amazon Video and Music, Google Play Music, Disney Plus, etc.
With more people looking to engage with media at their convenience, businesses have found themselves with the need to pivot how they are allocating advertising budgets. Not only can a budget often be stretched further with digital and streaming service advertising, but ads are being placed directly in front of a user’s face on his or her cellphone, tablet or laptop.
To help determine which streaming services may best fit your digital advertising strategy, we’ve identified the unique selling points of the most popular platforms:
Image source: Spotify
Spotify
Unlike Pandora’s random playlist generator, Spotify gives listeners the option to pick their own music. Users can also listen to commercial-free music for 30 minutes if they watch an ad.
Free to Listen:
In comparison to its top competitor, Apple Music, Spotify allows users to listen to their favorite music without ever having to pay for it. There are features that can be added through a Premium account–such as ad-free listening–but a paid subscription is not required.
Conclusion:
Spotify’s desktop program and mobile app allow advertisers to have strategically-placed ads while not intruding on the audio listening experience. Banner and audio formats are available, and there is a minimum campaign budget of $250 per month.
Image source: Pandora
Pandora
Pandora is one of the older streaming services on our list. It came into the music streaming scene well over a decade ago. The premise has been to allow users to like or dislike a song while the Pandora algorithm pulls similar songs you like into the feed, enabling users to customize their audio experience.
Data Collection:
Pandora has one of the largest logged-in user bases in the country. With users needing to access their playlists, Pandora has collected a plethora of demographic data to further target consumers with appropriate ads.
Conclusion:
Factoring in its CPM or cost per mille (the amount an advertiser pays a website per one thousand visitors who see/hear its advertisements), Pandora is, however, a higher-priced audio streaming platform.
Image source: YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is the most unique streaming service in the market. Users can listen to music on YouTube (YouTube Music) and watch videos as they have done since the infancy of the platform. The best thing about YouTube, besides the variety of ways to consume media, is the ad structuring. A company will only pay for an ad when it is watched longer than five seconds.
Advertising Convenience:
The Google Ads umbrella encompasses YouTube advertising. This includes a convenient database providing access to campaign insights and analytics to help you better understand how your YouTube ads are performing.
Conclusion:
YouTube is a versatile media service, offering users many ways to use the video-sharing platform. With 2 billion monthly logged-in users and the convenience of the integrated Google Ads manager, YouTube advertising can reach a large streaming audience while offering analytics from the Google Ads database.
Image source: Hulu
Hulu
Hulu’s customizable ad length allows businesses to display a variety of ads to viewers. Hulu allows 7-, 15-, 30-, 60- or 90-second ad lengths. The frequency of ads on the video streaming platform also tends to be higher than other media streaming services.
Customizable Components:
Hulu requires a minimum of two ads per campaign. Combining the minimum of two ads with the variety of ad length naturally forces companies to find the best type of ad for their target demographic. Audience targeting options include zip code, age, gender, interests, and more.
Conclusion:
Hulu is one of the main video streaming services replacing cable subscriptions, and its variety of ad lengths creates a customizable approach to having your ads in front of video streamers.
Streaming advertising is generally a more affordable way to advertise than traditional media. It doesn’t eliminate traditional media buying, but it can be integrated into a full marketing strategy with other tactics. Baer Performance Marketing can walk you through streaming advertising options and assess your budget and target audience to find the services that are the best fit for your company’s goals. To get your ads placed in front of the “cord cutters,” contact Baer Performance Marketing today.
