You are looking to advertise your business and think that radio may be a good medium. However, your business is not located in an area where there are strong local radio stations. Or, you live in a metro with big stations but they cover much more geography than your business and are cost prohibitive. Maybe, you have a very specific target and don’t want the broad reach of radio but do want an audio message. There are times that terrestrial radio doesn’t make sense, and that is when streaming radio comes in.

Streaming radio from providers like Pandora, Spotify and iHeart is radio delivered by the Internet. Delivery over the Internet provides some unique advantages to terrestrial radio. The first advantage is that it is subscription based, so the provider knows your age, gender and the zip code from which you subscribed. As an advertiser, you can deliver your message to people in the zip codes you serve, and to the exact demographic you value most. That means little to no waste. Streaming radio also has less advertising than terrestrial radio, so there is less chance of being lost in clutter.

One of the big recent advancements in streaming radio is its ability to integrate third party data and behavioral characteristics so they can provide additional layers of targeting. Let’s say you just want to target homeowners, or you have a household income threshold that needs to be met, streaming radio can very accurately target listeners who meet those profiles. As the need to target strategically becomes more important streaming radio is advancing to meet those needs.