Programmatic advertising refers to the buying and selling of digital ad space using special software like DSPs or Ad Networks, built for specifically for digital marketing transactions. It avoids traditional human negotiation and is more efficient, because ad buying in the real world between buyers and sellers can be expensive and unreliable. Programmatic allows for automation in real time satisfying both buyers and sellers.
Today’s marketers need to be savvy in using every resource around them to effectively reach their target audience and as radio becomes mostly digital, it is one of the more important and cost effective media channels that media buyers are paying attention to.
Programmatic radio inventory is beginning to rival TV advertising in terms of reach. According to research by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) 3.7 million adults listen to podcasts, which is around 6.5% of the adult population. In the today’s world radio seems to be more and more obsolete when trying to reach consumers. However, according to Nielsen, in the U.S. radio surpasses all other platforms when it comes to weekly reach, connecting with 93% of the American population aged between 12 and 54.
Programmatic radio is more than just pure reach. Radio, or audio advertising have opportunities that come from streaming services such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Pandora. Spotify has over 100 million active users, with over 60% of users opting to use their free service which exposes them to ads. RAJAR Midas Audio Survey states that 51% of time spent with on-demand music services is also a service that features advertising.
“There is a more advanced way to think about advertising budgets. It’s about data and efficiency. As they get better at using data to be more efficient in their advertising spend, they are pushing every media type to be bought that way.”
– Mike Dougherty, Jelli CEO
An important thing to note is that programmatic audio ads are unique because you can only hear one ad at a time. In today’s digital atmosphere consumers are bombarded with constant ads almost everywhere they look and usually multiple ads on a page. Consumers have become self-trained to detecting ads and tend to immediately dismiss them. With audio, there is only one ad for the listener to consume and it is not competing with all the other ads the listener would see on a webpage. They can’t listen to anything else other than the ad playing, so engagement becomes a bigger factor when placing audio ads.
Programmatic radio performs best on mobile. In the US, 75.8% of U.S. digital audio listening occurs on mobile vs. 24.2%
on desktop. Mobile advertising continues to grow in popularity and effectiveness each day, with programmatic audio advertising you can get in on the action.
There’s no denying that radio – the original broadcast medium – hasn’t lost its appeal. And whether consumers are streaming music, listening to podcasts, or tuning in for the news, they are going to be all ears.
By adding programmatic audio advertising to your media buying plan you’ll be tapping into new target audiences as well are reaching users in new places.
Contact us to learn more about adding programmatic audio to your digital media buying plan.