By Suzi Kuban, Chief Content Officer, and Marketing at Next Broadcast Media
In 2021, podcast advertising surpassed $1 billion, a growth of 74% revenue YOY. While there are many contributing factors to this spike, advances in programmatic audio advertising have been key.
Speaking for Next Broadcast Media, a podcast and digital audio advertising network, Lemya Soltani say, “The programmatic infrastructure has opened access to podcast advertising for businesses of all sizes - large, small, and start-up, due to its flexibility, price-efficiency, and trackability. We’ve certainly seen a significant increase in programmatic campaigns this year, compared to last”.
Ad Age reports, in 2021 70 cents of every digital ad dollar was allocated to programmatic channels and is expected to increase to 90 cents by 2025. The podcast and digital audio, have firmly become part of the programmatic media mix.
“There was a perception that sponsorship or live host reads are the only effective method when it comes to podcast ads. But that is just not true. Of course, having a host read your ad or sponsoring a show is incredibly powerful. But it is expensive for many brands and puts all your eggs in one basket.” says Lemya.
“Programmatic has proven to be a great fit for many of our clients because it is more affordable and has the benefit of scale and accuracy in reaching the right audience”.
Like the display, programmatic podcast advertising connects a supply-side platform (SSP) with a demand-side platform (DSP) to purchase and insert ads in an automated manner. A pre-recorded audio ad is laid into markers within the podcast content, at pre, post, or mid-roll points.
Also like display, the core benefits for the advertiser remain too. That being targeting, measurement, retargeting, and analytics. “Features like contextual targeting, frequency capping, dynamic targeting, and real-time optimization makes programmatic audio very effective at hitting KPIs. Our clients are seeing that their podcast campaigns are standing up to - and even outperforming in many cases - other media channels,” says Lemya.
The emergence of programmatic podcast advertising has come in a timely manner, as advertisers battle changing privacy laws. As podcasts are built on an RSS feed, they are therefore cookieless.
When listeners download a podcast through a player it passes on data such as date, time, IP address (which also reveals rough location), and device. These are basic data points that, when coupled with contextual targeting, are powerful for marketers. "Our programmatic campaigns target by using data based on general (non-precise) location, language, and interests without leveraging any third-party cookies or users’ personal data” adds Lemya.
Programmatic audio advertising is a massive gain for businesses. Now podcasts are accessible, targeted, cost-effective, and efficient. Programmatic is the ideal portal to engaged listeners that all advertisers can now take advantage of.
