The boom in audio has been steadily gaining momentum for some time. According to Stitcher’s annual podcasting report, the number of podcasts has grown by 129,000% in the last decade – an impressive feat for any medium. The pandemic has only accelerated this growth, as many looked to audio for comfort and consolation. Numbers for audio soared in the year 2020 – in the US alone, over 144 million listen to podcasts with 54% of consumers saying they think about buying advertised products heard on a podcast. 

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While audio is growing and consumption rates continue to skyrocket advertisers are still playing catch up. A large part of this is down to an outdated understanding of what the medium can offer, but for those in the know, it provides an opportunity for advertisers to play in a relatively uncrowded market to a highly relevant and engaged audience. 

Another traditional barrier to audio adoption has been the lack of willingness to spend top dollar as compared to display and search on a channel that is hard to measure, from a performance and effectiveness perspective. But audio has gone digital and thanks to huge developments in technology, this is no longer a cause for concern. Tools such as audio attribution technology clearly show us the role audio plays in the consumer journey and offer valuable insight into campaign performance. 

What is audio attribution?

Audio attribution provides advertisers with the ability to track, view, and enhance campaign performance based on real-time results, by helping them to accurately attribute conversions to their audio campaigns where they may not have received credit before. 

AdsWizz recently launched a new audio attribution solution, allowing advertisers to accurately measure the impact of audio ads and maximize the effectiveness of each campaign – while it is still in progress. This solution combines cross-device audio ad tracking and attribution (or ad performance) reporting in the same platform, allowing advertisers to assess the impact of their ongoing campaigns at a granular level/big picture (since they can track listeners across devices).

The benefits of attribution solutions for advertisers

This new solution is timely for the audio industry, as the audio industry anticipates billions of dollars of growth from a new wave of digital listening on devices such as smart speakers and connected cars. And with growth comes the need for measurement and real-time optimization to track success and maximize campaign effectiveness. 

While higher streaming percentages means possible higher conversions for advertisers, conversions often take place at a later time and on a different device than where the ad was originally heard. While the audio ad may have created the initial awareness, it was hard to follow the full journey. With attribution technology, advertisers can track their ads across multiple devices, and see up to a 4.0% average conversion rate of ad impressions, and of the campaigns tracking purchase-related conversions. 

Audio is an ever-evolving space. We are making leaps and bounds in programmatic buying, platform development and measurement and tracking. This innovation creates the perfect storm immense for brands looking to add audio within their media strategy. Incorporating audio attribution technology into your wider media strategy offers both visibility and transparency for performance-related results, providing us with a future of better optimized audio campaigns.

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