More than 70% of adults in the United States listen to digital audio content at least once a month, according to a recent study. The channel is rapidly gaining momentum, driven by the ubiquity of music streaming, the growth of podcasts, and the rise of user-generated audio. In order to capitalize on this momentum, audio streaming services are investing in innovation and new technology, particularly when it comes to their advertising offerings, a critical component of their business. In fact, audio advertising spend is projected to reach $7.9B.
As the leading location technology platform, Foursquare measures the impact of audio advertising on real world behaviors. One sector in particular that is taking advantage of audio is the dining industry. Examining audio campaigns run by dining brands last year, Foursquare data revealed that these campaigns drove an average 6% visit lift, which is 1% point higher than Foursquare’s overall dining benchmark of 5%. This verifies that audio presents a compelling opportunity for dining brands to allocate more budget towards.
Here are some best practices for dining brands to make the most of their audio advertising:
Implement an Omnichannel Approach
With audio advertising spend expected to increase 41%, reaching $7.9B by 2025, it’s imperative for brands to understand who their customers are, when to reach them, and to measure the impact of their audio media. Dining brands can implement an omnichannel approach by extending location-driven audience segments across various audio platforms. Dining brands should then use omni channel measurement to better understand the role each channel plays in converting consumers and optimize towards top performing channels.
Increase Awareness & Prospect New Customers
Despite low impression levels, new and lapsed customers drove the highest median behavioral lift at 9% across dining audio campaigns measured last year, which is 4% points above Foursquare’s benchmark for dining of 5%. This means that dining brands should allocate more media towards engaging new and lapsed customers to increase awareness among untapped audience segments and drive lift in visitation. Another wise approach is to measure reach and behavioral lift across visitation cohorts (e.g. frequency visitors versus occasional visitors) and optimize towards high performing visitation frequencies.
Drive Visit Lift With Key Demographics
According to Foursquare data, consumers aged 35-44 drove the highest behavioral lift in dining audio campaigns last year at 13%, 8% points above Foursquare’s Dining benchmark of 5%. However, younger audiences are also an opportunity. In 2020, consumers aged 18-24 spent an average of 169 minutes streaming audio, which is 55% more times than those consumers aged 35-49. In this case, location-driven audiences can be used to accurately reach younger consumers listening to streaming audio, targeting based on their preferences and passion points. It is important to measure the effect of targeting behavioral audiences across audio partners on incremental visitation to restaurants.
A great example of how Foursquare drives behavioral lift is through our partnership with SXM Media. The media company has been a preferred Foursquare partner since 2015, and they used Foursquare’s Attribution to tally 111 million store visits directly traced back to an ad exposure via Pandora. SXM Media deploys two of Foursquare’s location tools on Pandora: Attribution tool – to help directly tie ad-spend to real-world visits – and Audience targeting – to identify and reach the right consumers based on where they go. By combining these two tools, SXM Media can see which users visited an advertisers’ location after viewing an ad, and help those brands reach and engage more new customers. With Foursquare’s location tools, Pandora’s campaigns are 58% more likely to drive behavioral lift in comparison to industry benchmark, and is 63% more cost efficient than the industry benchmark cost per Behavioral Lift Store Visit.
The Takeaway
With location technology, dining brands can implement accurate targeting across audio partners in order to effectively reach customers who would be most receptive to messaging. Brands can then leverage our omnichannel measurement solution to get a clear picture of how each of their campaigns have impacted their consumers’ path to conversion across media channels. With dynamic reporting, brands can compare different channels, including audio, to understand where conversions happened and how best to optimize.
Foursquare Attribution is trusted by 1000+ brands and 450+ publishers and platforms and is the industry’s leading multi-touch attribution solution. Powered by the #1 platform for location data with the largest persistent panel of devices, Foursquare Attribution connects campaign exposure to real-world visits, revealing the true incremental impact of your ads, your top drivers, and your opportunities to optimize.
