A growing number of media agencies are embracing programmatic audio, according to the latest IAB Australia Audio State of the Nation Report.
The report, released today, found that 64% of media agencies intend to use programmatic for audio advertising over the next 12 months, driven by the desire to achieve operational efficiencies and take advantage of more flexible buying options.
The use of streaming digital audio and podcast advertising by media agencies has steadily and consistently been rising over the last six years.
The report found 73% of media agencies now have streaming digital audio advertising as a regular part of their activity, while 59% of media agencies now regularly consider podcast advertising, increasing from 36% last year.
The pandemic had a minimal impact on media agencies’ use of streaming digital audio and podcast advertising over the last year, with 84% of media agencies using streaming digital audio and 71% used podcast advertising in 2021.
“After a year when lockdowns kept changing consumer purchasing behaviour, it’s not surprising that marketers have expanded their use of streaming audio from brand building to supporting short term objectives to drive sales,” says IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy.
“It is also a great sign of a maturing market to see a reduction in the number of agencies citing lack of effectiveness proof as a barrier to investment in digital audio.”
While brand building was key, there was an increase in the use of audio advertising across most objectives as investment increases, including lower funnel objectives with nearly six in 10 agencies using streaming audio advertising to support specific promotions and more than one quarter to drive keyword search activity.
Though agencies expressed interest in opportunities for greater integration of streaming digital audio and podcasts with other audio channels and into cross digital campaign campaigns, just 40% of media agencies reported planning and buying all audio activities within the same team. The removal of planning and buying silos, along with standardising measurement and increasing the supply of omni-channel programmatic inventory were all identified as areas for growth in 2022.
The Audio Advertising State of the Nation Report is an industry project, supported by 15 different media and tech companies, as well as industry body Commercial Radio Australia. Fieldwork was conducted by independent research company Hoop Group across December 2021 and January 2022 with 198 decision making respondents.
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