Digital audio is becoming more and more imbedded in our lives, from downloading the new Pink album as soon as it hits Spotify, to following MLB news on your home’s smart speaker as you prepare dinner, streaming your favorite music play list while working out at the gym to downloading a podcast before taking a road trip. Digital audio is becoming more significant to consumers, and it should be to advertisers.
It’s a channel that goes above and beyond traditional radio and offers advertisers a unique opportunity to harness the power of some of the most proven tools in AdTech—from
programmatic advertising, to advertising automation, to ad personalization and targeting—to connect with audiences when, where, and how they’re listening.
Media planners and buyers need to get to know what makes up digital audio.
- Digital Audio: Audio that is stored and/or transmitted through digital devices such as mobile phones, desktops/laptops, and tablets.
- Audio Streaming: Technology that allows platforms to deliver audio in real-time on internet-connected devices. (In other words, it’s what allows you to have 10,000 songs in your Spotify library without maxing out your phone’s storage!)
- Digital Audio Advertising: The process of placing ads in digital audio content—from podcasts, to streaming music, to digital radio—to connect with consumers in the moments they’re listening.
- Programmatic Audio Advertising: Technology that allows advertisers to place audio ads in an automated and data-driven manner, typically by using a demand side platform (DSP).
Audio advertising has so many advantages. Providing a break from video overload, non-skippable (unlike video), provides the opportunity to connect with consumers across different content types and interests, costs less to produce than video creative and more. Until now, digital audio’s power has been largely underutilized, but the tides are turning, and audio spend is growing.
