How Ksheer Achieved Higher Listen-Through Rates with a High-Impact Digital Audio Campaign

 

 

Ksheer is a growing dairy brand known for its focus on quality, freshness, and everyday household trust. In May 2024, Ksheer partnered with Paytunes to execute a sharp, four-day digital audio campaign designed to build brand presence and encourage meaningful consumer action across key regional markets. By combining immersive audio placements with supporting display formats, the campaign aimed to tell Ksheer’s story clearly, quickly, and at moments when audiences were most receptive.

 

Campaign Objectives

• Build strong regional brand awareness for Ksheer in priority markets using high-impact digital audio placements. 
• Improve listen-through rate (LTR) versus internal benchmarks, ensuring the full brand message was heard. 
• Drive a measurable uplift in click-through rate (CTR) and incremental reach through precise targeting and efficient inventory use, without increasing overall costs. 

 

Strategy and Execution

• Adopted an audience-first planning approach using Paytunes’ programmatic audio capabilities and regional targeting. 
• Activated inventory across leading music streaming platforms, supported by companion banners to maintain continuity between what users heard and what they saw. 
• Focused on key demographic cohorts, prioritising males aged 25–54 and females aged 18–54, aligned with household purchase decision-makers. 
• Enabled age-based segmentation within these groups to allow performance analysis across 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, and 45+ audiences. 
• Executed the campaign within a compact four-day window in May to concentrate exposure and reinforce message recall. 
• Used CPM-based buying with controlled average frequency to ensure repeated exposure without over-saturation. 
• Deployed a concise, sub-30-second audio creative aligned with platform best practices to maximise completion potential. 
• Used companion banners to reinforce the audio message and guide users directly to Ksheer’s Instagram page for deeper brand engagement. 

 

Key Results and Outcomes

 

 

• Achieved a listen-through rate uplift of approximately 1.04×, indicating improved completion and sustained attention to the audio message. 
• Delivered a significant click-through rate increase of around 4.73×, highlighting strong audience response when audio was paired with supporting visuals. 
• Expanded overall campaign reach by roughly 1.02×, demonstrating incremental scale without unnecessary repetition or wastage. 
• Maintained performance within the planned investment, reinforcing the efficiency of Paytunes’ targeting and inventory strategy. 

 

Audience Demographics and Segmentation

• Identified the 25–44 age group across genders as the highest-value cohort, contributing strongly to both listens and clicks. 
• Observed that younger audiences aged 18–24 engaged well at the listening stage, supporting early brand consideration despite lower click activity. 
• Noted that audiences aged 45+ delivered solid exposure and recall, though with more passive engagement behaviour.

 

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 were primarily driven by mobile-first consumption, validating Paytunes’ strategy of focusing on audio delivery across smartphones, where user attention and interaction were most consistent.

 

Day-Level Timing Insights

• Noted a clear relationship between consistent daily audio delivery and stronger click volumes across the campaign period. 
• Observed patterns suggesting that certain days naturally performed better for engagement, reinforcing the importance of sustained presence even within a short duration. 
• Identified potential to further optimise performance by leaning into morning and early evening listening moments, which align well with dairy consumption occasions. 

 

Geographic and Regional Performance

• Focused the campaign on Jaipur, Ajmer, Kota, and Sikar to deepen impact in strategically important districts rather than spreading impressions thinly. 
• Used Jaipur as a central anchor market, receiving substantial exposure to support broader regional brand-building. 
• Strengthened presence in Ajmer and Kota to reinforce visibility across urban and semi-urban centres. 
• Leveraged Sikar and nearby towns to add incremental reach and household-level penetration, which is critical for a dairy brand. 

 

Cities by Listen-Through Rate (LTR) Uplift

 

 

This analysis of city-level performance shows that select markets delivered a higher-than-average uplift in listen-through rate, indicating stronger audience attention and message completion in these locations during the campaign.

• Jaipur (1.10× LTR uplift): As the anchor market, Jaipur demonstrated consistent listener engagement, delivering a solid improvement in listen-through performance. 
• Kota (1.15× LTR uplift): Kota emerged as a standout city, showing one of the highest LTR uplifts and reflecting strong resonance with the audio message. 
• Sikar (1.10× LTR uplift): Sikar delivered a stable uplift in listen-through rate, contributing incremental quality reach within smaller regional markets. 
• Ajmer (1.15× LTR uplift): Ajmer matched Kota at the top end of performance, indicating high message retention and effective audience targeting.

 

Key Learnings and Takeaways

• The combination of digital audio and companion banners proved effective in improving both attention and action simultaneously. 
• Paytunes enabled Ksheer to achieve a 1.04× uplift in LTR and a 4.73× uplift in CTR, validating the role of optimised placements and audience targeting. 
• Controlled frequency helped expand reach by 1.02× while avoiding listener fatigue. 
• Mid-age audiences (25–44) and regional hubs like Jaipur emerged as priority segments for future investment. 

 

Challenges and How They Were Addressed

• Managed data complexity arising from multiple platforms, markets, and audience segments through centralised reporting and clear KPI tagging. 
• Balanced the need for incremental reach with high-quality engagement by applying frequency caps and focused targeting. 
• Maintained efficiency by closely monitoring LTR and reach together, ensuring improvements did not come at the expense of attention quality or cost control. 

 

Recommendations for Future Campaigns

• Increase emphasis on high-performing 25–44 age groups while maintaining a lighter presence among younger audiences for long-term brand building. 
• Develop creative variations aligned with different life stages, such as young professionals, families, and health-conscious consumers. 
• Allocate a larger share of inventory to morning and early evening listening windows to better match category usage patterns. 
• Test slightly longer campaign durations with similar impression volumes to assess the impact of sustained presence on overall returns. 
• Standardise reporting templates and naming conventions to improve cross-campaign analysis and learning. 
• Experiment with multiple audio narratives highlighting Ksheer’s core strengths, such as purity, taste, and health benefits, including regionally relevant messaging where appropriate. 

 

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 Ksheer 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 achieved a Listen-Through Rate (LTR) of approximately 1.04x higher than 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	1.04x  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 70-95 more completion events per 100 impressions than most display or short video placements

 

Conclusion

The May 2024 digital audio campaign showcased how a focused, four-day activation with Paytunes can deliver meaningful improvements across key performance metrics for a regional dairy brand. With a 1.04× increase in listen-through rate, a 4.73× surge in click-through rate, and a 1.02× lift in reach, the campaign demonstrated that well-planned audio, supported by smart visuals and precise targeting, can strengthen both brand presence and measurable outcomes in a short time frame.

If you are looking to turn attention into action through impactful digital audio, Paytunes can help you make your brand heard. Connect with Paytunes to plan your next high-performance audio campaign.

 

Also Read – Bharatiya Mall Audio Campaign Case Study: Driving High LTR with Paytunes