Our Process for Finding Your Digital Audio Audience—and Winning Them Over

You might imagine that uncovering your audience on digital audio can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. With hundreds of millions of users scattered across so many platforms, devices, and content, how do you find your consumers? After years of refining our process, we’ve mastered the art and science of it—to help brands find their most valuable and engaged audiences. Let’s go behind the scenes of how we uncover data-driven insights, make compelling creative, and insert your ads into the most relevant contexts.

We like to think of the process as equal parts collaboration and experimentation. Like any good partnership, our journey starts with old-fashioned communication. We first sit down with you (well, these days over Zoom) to learn who buys your product and who you want to buy your product. Tell us the ins and outs of your brand, past ad campaigns, what’s worked, and what’s flopped. Once we know your campaign goals, we’re better able to determine how to implement them. 

With that intel as our guide, we can start mapping the best ways to reach your intended audience. How do we do it? First, you should know: each day, we collect over 1 billion data points and translate them into hundreds of audience segments based on attitudes, interests, lifestyle, lifestage, and more (including custom segments). Then our “Audience Explorer” tool does some magic.

SXM Media’s All-Knowing Audience Tool

Our team uses this exclusive internal dashboard to analyze our first- and third-party data, which provides insights into 2,000+ audience segments. These insights do a few exciting things for you. They can compare two different segments and show how data relates to broader segments, inform your creative messaging, and help target your ads to build out your campaign. 

And our proprietary data really shines a light on our logged-in users. We can narrow in on tons of characteristics about them—from their favorite music genres to what holidays they celebrate—and apply that knowledge to ad campaigns for super personalized ads. 

Here’s just one example of the type of insights we’re able to get from the tool. When looking at one of our proprietary audience segments, we’re able to see the artists that over-index with those listeners.

Our Data Might Tell You Something About Your Audience That You Didn’t Already Know 

Our data often confirms a brand’s initial target audience—but we don’t just stop there. Our tool also provides extra insights to broaden your potential audience. For example, let’s say a wellness brand comes to us interested in reaching women, ages 21-34, who identify as “fitness enthusiasts.” It may be a great target audience, and SXM Media certainly has tons of streaming music and podcasts to reach those women. But, our first-party data might also show that women, 39-44, over-index in the Fitness Enthusiast demographic. So by expanding your demo by 5-10 years, we can increase your reach significantly, and connect with more potential consumers. 

Want another example? Our first-party data might also show that your initial audience over-indexes on our Connected Home platform, so we can bring that into our strategy and customize your message to reach that audience who’s listening in their homes. For instance: a custom workout station for at-home cardio workouts, curated with your audience’s favorite artists. 

Create Ads That Resonate, Simply and Easily

This probably all sounds very exciting to you—but maybe a bit out-of-reach. Thankfully, unlike some other media, you don’t need a big marketing budget or an advertising agency on retainer to try out digital audio. 

When it comes to creative, we have several services to help you out. From our self-service tool to our full-service in-house creative consultancy, Studio Resonate. Our team of creative experts can help at every step of the process, from campaign ideation and copywriting to voice casting and audio production.

With a plan in place and ad creative ready to go, your campaign will be up and running in no time. It’s recommended that ads run for about three months, which maximizes your reach and your budget. But we never just set it and forget it. After a period, we dig into the analytics and measure your campaign’s effectiveness. If you want to make adjustments, we do that too.  

Contextual Ads Add an Extra Special Touch

To reach your newly discovered audience and put your creative into action, we’re always tuned in to who’s listening and where. This is to make sure that your audience hears your ad at the most relevant moments. From showing up on a niche podcast episode to showing up on a kitchen smart speaker—your message reaches your target consumers during their day, and they receive ads that feel personalized. And our sales reps are filled with ideas on how to get your brand heard in the moments that matter most. 

When it comes to digital audio advertising, finding your most valuable audiences is top of mind. Your brand is the star, and we’re behind the scenes making everything run smoothly.