Audio Advertising Formats That Cut Through The Clutter

As consumers spend more and more time with digital audio, the opportunities to advertise on the platforms continues to grow.  The trick for advertisers is to figure out the right way to use the channel to communicate with consumers in the ways they want to be reached. The last thing you want to do is end up annoying and thus alienating your consumers — leaving your efforts wasted with no impact. 

A recent study reported 66.7% of consumers are annoyed when a video advertisement automatically plays on a website and 47.4% are annoyed at autoplay ads on streaming services or podcasts. Only 10% of consumers say they aren’t annoyed at all with digital advertisements. 

So how can you effectively reach your audience without having them tune you out?

Incorporating more dynamically placed advertisements is a start. This tactic allows you to have a more personalized (and effective) campaign and gives you the opportunity to optimize attribution. While these types of ads are less prevalent on podcasts, they are rapidly becoming more popular. The Interactive Bureau reports that 48.8% of US podcast ad revenues in 2018 were dynamically inserted ads, which is up from 41.7% in 2017. But not every dynamically inserted ad is the same and inserting ill-timed or non-host read ads can negatively affect a consumer’s listening experience.

The most effective way advertisers have been able to cut through the clutter is through host read advertisements on podcasts. Through this method, hosts can pick when to talk about a certain product based on different topics throughout their episode. Flexibility also makes a huge difference in achieving your advertising goals. Podcasts aren’t set to a time limit, so the host can share their personal experience with your product for however long they want. This, in turn, gives consumers more to connect with, and can even promote a sense of trust with the host that will lead them to make the purchase. Footwear News notes another reason host read ads are successful is that the advertiser, or sponsor, is “often perceived as supporters of their favorite show rather than an intrusion to their experience.”

Consumers don’t mind listening to hosts advertise certain products. In fact, podcasts are typically consumed with a more engaged mindset, rather than the passive consumption of streaming music or traditional radio. Through this style, advertisements are less likely to be tuned out or skipped through to get back to the podcast’s original content. With all things considered, many predict this style of advertising is likely to influence advertising on other audio formats as well.

To read more on different advertising approaches to digital audio, click here.