How Timezone Drove 1.12× Listen-Through Rate Across Urban Metros with Paytunes Audio Ads

 

 

Campaign Overview / Background

In October 2025, Timezone, a leading family entertainment and gaming destination brand, partnered with Paytunes to execute a focused digital audio campaign across premium streaming platforms.

The objective was to connect with urban audiences during high-attention listening moments and reinforce brand recall through immersive 30-second audio creatives supported by companion banners.

The collaboration aimed to evaluate performance using Paytunes’ core campaign metrics: Listen-Through Rate (LTR), Reach, and Click-Through Rate (CTR).

 

Objectives

• Deliver planned scale across targeted urban listeners.
• Maintain strong listen-through quality to ensure message retention.
• Generate measurable click activity through companion banners.
• Assess the balance between awareness impact and action-driven engagement.

 

Strategy & Execution

• Multi-platform deployment across premium audio inventory to maximize contextual listening opportunities.
• 30-second in-stream audio creatives paired with clickable companion banners for visual reinforcement.
• Controlled frequency to maintain brand recall without oversaturation.
• Real-time dashboard monitoring to track LTR, Reach, and CTR, allowing delivery stability throughout the campaign period.

 

Key Results & Outcomes

 

 

Performance was evaluated using Paytunes’ core metrics of LTR, Reach, and CTR.

LTR: 1.12× — Strong attention and completion quality were maintained, indicating effective creative resonance and audience alignment.

Reach: 1.00× — Delivery aligned fully with planned scale, ensuring consistent urban exposure without shortfall.

CTR: 0.30× — Click response was lower relative to benchmark, suggesting the campaign functioned primarily as an awareness and recall driver rather than an immediate conversion trigger.

Despite softer CTR, the strong LTR confirms that audiences remained engaged throughout the audio message, reinforcing brand memory.

 

Audience Demographics & Segmentation

Targeting focused on digitally active urban audiences likely to engage with entertainment and leisure experiences.

The campaign maintained broad demographic coverage while aligning with mobile-first consumption behavior across streaming platforms.

 

Daypart & Timing Insights

Delivery remained stable across campaign days, with no major fluctuations in listening quality.

While LTR remained consistently strong, future optimization could test higher-intent leisure windows such as evenings and weekends to potentially improve CTR without affecting retention.

 

Geographic & Regional Performance

 

Top Metros:

Bengaluru Metropolitan Area and Mumbai Metropolitan Area recorded strong effective reach and above-benchmark attention quality.
These metros combined meaningful delivery scale with elevated LTR performance, demonstrating stable listener engagement across high-volume inventory.

 

City-Wise Segmentation

 

 

Several major metropolitan regions demonstrated varying levels of Listen-Through Rate performance, reflecting differences in attention quality and creative alignment across urban streaming environments.

Bengaluru Metropolitan Area – 1.02×

Bengaluru recorded the highest LTR uplift among major metros, supported by its digitally mature audience and strong adoption of premium audio platforms.

Mumbai Metropolitan Area – 1.02×

Mumbai maintained strong and consistent completion behaviour, benefiting from heavy daily streaming frequency and stable listening habits.

Delhi NCR – 1.01×

Delhi NCR delivered steady attention performance, demonstrating reliable message resonance across a large and diverse urban listener base.

Chennai Metropolitan Area – 1.00×

Chennai sustained benchmark-level completion rates, reflecting consistent but moderate listening intensity.

Kolkata Metropolitan Area – 0.98×

Kolkata showed slightly softer completion density relative to the campaign average, suggesting room for optimisation in creative-context alignment.

Pune Metropolitan Area – 0.96×

Pune recorded the lowest relative LTR uplift among the metros, indicating opportunities for stronger frequency calibration or creative reinforcement.

 

Device Type Breakdown & Reach Strategy

• Mobile Android
  Dominated delivery with ~87.74% share of total impressions.
  Primary driver of LTR and CTR uplift across the campaign.
• Mobile iOS
  Accounted for ~10.92% share, representing the second-largest contributor.
  Played a key role in complementing Android reach, especially among premium users.
• Tablet (Android)
  Very minimal share (~0.6%)
  Likely contributed to incidental or passive listening sessions.
• Desktop (Other)
  Represented ~0.42% of impressions.
  Minimal engagement; not a core device for audio-based interaction.
• Smart Home Devices / Smart Watches
  Combined share 0.17%, highlighting negligible interaction on wearables or IoT devices.
• Tablet (iPad)
  Lowest delivery at ~0.14%, indicating limited usage among the campaign’s target demographic.

Insight: The campaign’s engagement metrics like LTR and CTR was primarily driven by mobile-first consumption, validating Paytunes’ strategy of focusing on audio delivery across smartphones, where user attention and interaction were most consistent.

 

 

Key Learnings & Takeaways

• Strong audio creative can sustain high LTR even when CTR moderates.
• Awareness-led campaigns may naturally produce lower click intensity while still delivering strong brand impact.
• Companion banner optimization and sharper CTA scripting may improve action propensity in future activations.
• Stable reach confirms effective pacing and frequency management.

 

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: Lower-than-benchmark CTR despite strong listening quality.

Solution: Delivery stability was maintained to protect LTR performance. Insights were gathered to inform stronger CTA messaging and banner testing in future campaigns.

 

Recommendations for Future Campaigns

• Introduce stronger closing CTAs within the final seconds of the audio creative.
• Test multiple companion banner variants to improve click engagement.
• Prioritize high-intent dayparts such as weekends or evening leisure hours.
• Explore retargeting strategies for users who complete the audio message.

 

Audio Attention in the Real Attention Economy

In today’s digital landscape, the battle for user attention is fiercer than ever. The average human attention span has fallen to about 8 seconds—shorter than ever before. Brands must not only grab attention but also sustain it long enough for their message to drive real impact.

 

The Problem: Fleeting Attention on Most Digital Platforms

• Banner and display ads on websites usually keep user focus for only 1.6–2.6 seconds before they are ignored or scrolled past.
• Short-form video ads and reels hold attention for about 7–9 seconds on average before users swipe away or skip.
• This fleeting engagement translates to lower brand recall and minimal action.

 

The Unique Edge of In-Stream Digital Audio

In the Timezone campaign, only 30-second in-stream digital audio ads (accompanied by clickable companion banners) were deployed—no other audio or video formats were part of the strategy. Here’s why it matters:

• The campaign saw average Listen-Through Rates (LTR) of 1.16x industry norms.
• This result means a substantial share of the audience listened all the way through—far higher than what visual formats deliver in the same time frame.

 

 

Attention Economy Benchmarks (per 100 exposures):

Platform/Format	Avg. Attention (seconds)	Completion Rate (per 100)	Audio Attention Uplift
Banner/Display Ads	2–3	12–18	4–8x lower than audio
Short Video (Reels)	5–9	18–25	3–4x lower
Full Video (In-Stream)	7–10	15–25	3–5x lower
Audio (30s spot)	≥25	70–95	1.12x higher

• Banner ads are rarely noticed long enough to reinforce a message, leading to weak recall.
• Short-form video and reels offer a slightly longer window but are quickly dismissed with a swipe.
• 30-second digital audio ads command undistracted, multitasking-friendly attention, leading to 3–8x more completion events per 100 impressions than most display or short video placements.

 

Conclusion

The Timezone × Paytunes collaboration illustrates how digital audio can deliver strong listening quality and consistent reach in a competitive entertainment category.

With stable scale, elevated LTR, and clear optimization pathways for CTR improvement, the campaign establishes audio as a powerful awareness and recall medium for urban brands.

For brands seeking high-attention environments with measurable performance metrics, Paytunes offers a structured, data-led approach to digital audio advertising.

Contact Paytunes to design an audio campaign that delivers both attention and impact.

 

Also Read –  Federal Bank × Paytunes: 1.16× LTR on Premium Music Platforms