Thought video killed the radio star? Think again!
The American public’s consumption of audio content has undergone a major revival in recent years, thanks in part to the emergence of mobile devices and social sharing platforms that have paved the way to more engaged and informed consumers.
Nearly 46 million Americans tune into at least one podcast per month, with avid listeners dedicating some 9.5 hours a week to their favorite serials. Furthermore, music streaming services now account for the industry’s fastest-growing monetization source, accounting for 19 percent of global industry revenues in 2015.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that ad budgets are rapidly shifting in favor of programmatic audio’s potential to maximize daily exposure and engagement across multiple channels.
Unlike display ads that are far more susceptible to bots, programmatic audio is better equipped to navigate around one of the industry’s biggest pain points in recent years: ad fraud. What’s more, audio doesn’t have to compete with listener attention – which comes in handy in today’s all-too-cluttered digital media environment.
Already, popular streaming platforms like Pandora have entered the market with subscription-based, on-demand products of their own; working alongside advertisers and agencies to use its listener data for more precise targeting.
The caveat? Tailoring and delivering the perfect message to listeners is far from an easy task, particularly when there isn’t a set standard for measuring the success of programmatic audio against specific campaigns.
While the future of programmatic audio is currently TBD, a push from the industry to reconcile existing measurement roadblocks may very well prove to be a fruitful and worthwhile endeavor.
