Did you miss us at Podcast Movement 2024? Connect with us now to learn more about our digital audio advertising solutions!

Stay tuned! Audio interviews from the AdsWizz-Simplecast booth coming soon.

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With all research pointing to an intimate connection between music and listener engagement, AdsWizz aimed to disrupt the norm with a new feature update: Mood targeting, the first of many contextual targeting capabilities to debut in 2024. This recently launched capability is set to shake things up for advertisers, agencies, and publishers alike, pumping up their mood to elevate campaigns.

So, What is Mood Targeting?

It’s all about creating memorable ad experiences that boost campaign results! This game-changing feature allows brands to better connect with audiences by reaching them while listening to music that matches the mood of the song they are listening to. Ads placed between songs can leverage the mood of the music to deliver more relevant messaging and, in turn, create a more emotionally resonant and contextually relevant advertising experience for listeners.

Cultivating emotional connections with listeners can also coexist with protecting online users’ privacy. The contemporary advertising landscape is undergoing a notable transformation, marked by growing governmental regulations and platform constraints to preserve online users’ privacy. Adapting perspectives on targeting and context represents a crucial approach for advertisers to stay relevant while upholding privacy standards in this evolving environment. Through Mood targeting, advertisers can connect with the most relevant audiences using privacy-conscious contextual signals.

The Benefits of Mood Targeting

• Increased Relevance – Tailor your message to fit the context and make your campaign more effective.
• Wide Reach – Access the AdsWizz library of over 60 million songs categorized into nine Mood segments to connect with the right audience.
• Accurate Reporting – Evaluate your campaign’s performance based on the Mood segments you target to make informed decisions.
• Future-Proof Targeting – Reach your ideal audience using privacy-friendly signals.

What’s the Secret Behind Mood Targeting? 

It all starts with a machine learning algorithm that meticulously evaluates various elements of each song, including its harmony, rhythm, sound, and more, to determine the presence or absence of specific moods. Next, a dedicated team of music analysts reviews and validates the initial automated categorizations, further refining the associations made by the algorithm. 

Only those songs that receive at least one mood assignment, whether through the automated or human-led process, are incorporated into the AdsWizz Mood targeting capabilities, enabling assigned songs to have the most accurate mood, creating a nuanced and compelling advertising experience for brands.

Depending on the nature of their integration with the AdsWizz platform, advertisers and publishers can explore the specific requirements for making their music inventory available for Mood targeting, tailoring their campaigns to connect with audiences based on their targeted mood segments.

A Variety of Moods Available

Having a diverse range of available Mood segments such as Angsty, Chill, Energetic, Focused, Happy, Soothing, Love, Celebratory, and Relaxed is crucial for advertisers because it allows them to fine-tune their messaging to align with the emotional states of their target listeners. Whether aiming to uplift spirits, induce relaxation, or evoke a sense of celebration, having this array of Mood segments leads to a stronger connection with the audience.

Advertisers can incorporate Mood segments into forecasts to improve campaign planning precision to help secure an adequate inventory volume tailored to specific segments to target. 

Engaging with Sensitivity

Advertisers can establish a more profound and positive rapport by acknowledging and harmonizing with the emotional states of their audience. However, it’s crucial to maintain a subtle equilibrium, engaging with consideration for their emotions without overstepping boundaries or capitalizing on their feelings. Honoring the emotional context of the consumer not only amplifies the ad’s pertinence but fosters trust and goodwill.

Transform Your Audio Advertising Strategy with Mood Targeting

• If you are an AdsWizz advertiser partner using AudioMatic and want to learn more about Mood Targeting, please click here.
• If you are an AdsWizz publisher partner using AudioServe and want to learn more about Mood Targeting, please click here.
• If you are not an AdsWizz partner and would like to get in touch with us, please visit the Contact Us page.

by Ericka Mendez, Product Manager, Ad Targeting, AdsWizz and SXM Media

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What is Predictive Pacing?

Predictive Pacing, powered by AudioServe, uses historical data to identify inventory variations, accurately forecast traffic, and optimize impression delivery to achieve the campaign objective. Explicitly designed for podcasts but also applicable to streaming platforms, Predictive Pacing aligns the speed with which impressions are delivered with the available inventory to avoid excessive or insufficient distribution. The best part? It is as simple as clicking a button. Publishers and resellers can easily harness the power of this innovative pacing tool to monetize all available inventory effectively. 

Supercharge Your Advertising Campaigns

The ability to read the unique rhythm of your inventory is Predictive Pacing’s superpower. Part historian, part future teller, Predictive pacing is also deeply anchored in the present, constantly checking if the prediction matches the reality. If the system detects variations, it quickly adapts the pacing algorithms to the real-time traffic pattern to recover missing impressions and optimize delivery. With such a secure pacing system in place, you can capitalize on your inventory to maximize revenue and fulfill the requirements of your demand partners.

How Does Predictive Pacing Work?

Understanding the dynamic nature of the available inventory in the audio marketplace is essential to ensuring effective campaign delivery. Factors such as in-car listening picking up, podcast episodes consumed right after release, and new audio content and formats being released constantly impact inventory volumes. For instance, podcasts generate more inventory when a new episode is released, but inventory decreases as time passes between new episodes. Supply variations are difficult to detect by standard pacing methods and can lead to under- or over-delivery. 

Predictive Pacing solves these challenges by continuously adjusting the campaign’s pace based on two data sources. First, inventory forecasts use historical data to predict future availability and fluctuations and ensure impressions get delivered at an appropriate pace. Second, real-time traffic data is constantly monitored to validate the predictions and make necessary adjustments for optimal delivery. The solution constantly checks delivery against targets to ensure campaigns stay on track and adjust as needed.

A Practical Example

Let’s take the example of the Audio Matters podcast to understand how Predictive Pacing can be applied. This podcast releases a new episode every Tuesday when it generates  500,000 ad opportunities. However, the traffic gradually decreases throughout the week, reaching 100,000 on Wednesday, 20,000 on Thursday, and 5,000 on Friday, following a consistent weekly pattern.

Imagine you have a campaign targeting the “Audio Matters” podcast to deliver 1,000,000 impressions over 14 days. With Predictive Pacing, the system analyzes the historical traffic trends of the podcast and adjusts the daily delivery accordingly. It then prioritizes the delivery of a significant portion of the impressions on the episode release day and gradually reduces the pace as traffic decreases throughout the week.

In this case, a standard evenly pacing, which delivers impressions evenly throughout the campaign flight, could have led to under-delivery, especially on low-traffic days. Conversely, trafficking this campaign as unpaced or fast as possible could have delivered all impressions before the intended end date.

The Playback

Predictive Pacing is an innovative solution that optimizes ad delivery in the audio marketplace. This dynamic system ensures optimal campaign delivery aligned with inventory fluctuations by utilizing historical data, accurate forecasts, and real-time monitoring. Activating Predictive Pacing is simple, enabling effective monetization of available inventory for publishers and resellers. It enhances revenue, improves efficiency, and helps you achieve campaign objectives, making it a powerful tool for successful ad campaign management. By leveraging this technology, publishers, and resellers can maximize their impact and reach their target audience with precision.

• Follow our tech blog for more news about our products and solutions.
• If you are an existing AdsWizz customer, check our knowledge base on Predictive Pacing for more information.

By Nicoleta Vieru, Senior Product Marketing Manager at AdsWizz

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We Showcased Podcast Creators and Listeners

We highlighted Simplecast’s Creator Connect, a solution offering podcasters tools to submit, manage, and grow their show across Stitcher, Pandora, and more. Attendees swung by our photo booth to snap a Polaroid for our Creator Connect photo collage, went on a “blind date” with a podcast to learn about all the fantastic content already hosted on the Simplecast platform, and just hung out between sessions to chat with the team. Beyond a packed schedule of daytime events, Evolution’s nightlife was filled with the best parties. Simplecast’s Creator Connect Afterparty was no exception, drawing over 300 attendees to the Peyote Restaurant on the old Las Vegas strip – an old-school hotel converted into a kitschy Latin-themed restaurant and bar. It was an experience to remember with great music from a live DJ, excellent conversations, and delicious food and drinks – a space for creators to truly connect!

Indie Podcasters Weren’t the Only Ones to Get In on the Fun

AdsWizz had an in-depth speaker session around podcast advertising tailored to Publishers interested in monetizing their content through programmatic opportunities entitled “Programmatic Progress Report: A Temperature Check for Publishers.” Featuring AdsWizz VP of Programmatic and Marketplace Partnerships, Robyn Meyers, and Senior Director of Business Development, Cyril Bornette, the session was a candid conversation around programmatic podcast advertising from the Publisher’s perspective – pros, cons, and unknowns. The session offered use cases from different size podcast creators leveraging programmatic advertising today and industry-related challenges that must be overcome to make programmatic advertising work seamlessly for podcasts.

Podcast Movement Evolutions has become a staple in our event catalog over the past few years. We look forward to continuing that tradition as the podcast industry evolves. 

Listen to the entire session on-demand:

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As an audio publisher selling your inventory directly, Forecasting is a critical tool offering valuable insights to help plan and execute campaigns more effectively.

For example, suppose you wish to run an audio advertising campaign in a specific location. In that case, you’re probably wondering how many people to reach in the next several months. And if you’re targeting a particular group (like mobile listeners in their 30s), it can seem even more daunting. 

The Inventory Forecast function in AudioServe can analyze past traffic data and assess your potential audience for the next 90 days. By considering details about the campaign, such as its nature, duration, and target audience, Inventory Forecast can predict the number of opportunities for serving your future ads. The best part is that it helps you set realistic targets for your audio ads, eliminating the need for manual calculations that could result in under or over-delivery.

How it Works

Forecasting for audio ads differs from the world of display ads. With display ads, the number of requests and impressions matches closely. However, when it comes to audio advertising on platforms like radio and podcasts, ad breaks occur, and listeners may disconnect, meaning that the number of requests is higher than the impressions delivered.

Furthermore, there’s an added layer of intricacy to audio advertising. For example, in a 90-second time slot, an advertiser can choose to play three 30-second ads or six 15-second ads, creating a new and essential metric for tracking inventory. In addition to impressions, Inventory Forecast needs to consider the size of the opportunity or the potential for success.

To meet these challenges, our Inventory Forecast feature leverages complex algorithms that evaluate audio-specific metrics like ad break duration, the maximum number of ads in an ad break, potential ad clashing, and whether a companion banner will complement the audio. Considering all these factors, Inventory Forecast ensures that your audio ads have the desired impact and reach the right audience.

When you operate AudioServe, you’ll notice that it defaults to a 30-second ad duration, but you can customize your metrics based on how you define ad durations. If you prefer a shorter 15-second ad duration, you can easily adjust it to suit your needs.

When utilizing our Inventory Forecast for the first time, it’s worth noting that it takes around five weeks to activate the data, a standard practice for any forecasting tool in the industry that relies on historical data to provide reliable predictions and meaningful results to help guide your ad strategy.

Forecasts are also available for buyers operating our DSP, AudioMatic, who can leverage the Media Planning tool to gain insights and plan future buys for maximum campaign delivery.

More Content on the Inventory Forecasting is Coming!

• In an upcoming piece, we will discuss some crucial Inventory Forecasting capabilities in more detail. Until then, follow our blog for more platform updates.
• If you are an existing AdsWizz customer, check our knowledge base for more information about Inventory Forecast.
• Visit the Contact Us page if you are not an AdsWizz partner and want to get in touch with us.

by Catalina Culmes, Senior Director of Software Engineering at AdsWizz

The post The Advantages of Accurate Audio Advertising Forecasting for Publishers appeared first on AdsWizz.

One of the most innovative ways for brands to engage audiences is through the widespread consumer adoption of voice assistants.

• 62% of Americans 18+ use a voice assistant on any device, including smart speakers, smartphones, in-car systems, and more.
• 57% of US voice command users use voice commands daily. 
• This year (2022), it’s estimated that 142 million people in the US (42.1%) will use a voice assistant. By 2026, more than half of internet users in the US will utilize a voice assistant.

Voice Ads can transform how brands interact with people. Carefully crafted to immerse qualified leads, Voice Ads lift ad engagement and attention by delivering brand content to the right audience with more immersive yet organic interactions.

So, What Are Voice Ads?

Voice Ads are an interactive ad format that facilitates engagement with your audience by starting a conversation they would use to interact with their digital assistant or smart speaker.

A Voice Ad includes a portion that prompts the listener to utter a particular reply to trigger a specific action (e.g., “Want to find out more about our offer? Say ‘Yes’ after the beep to visit our website”). If a listener says any predefined set of words/phrases during a time interval (the silence period) after the beep, one of four actions will are triggered visit a website, buy a coupon, call a phone number or play the second part of the Voice Ad.

Voice Ads make it possible to engage in a direct conversation with the listener and to target messages according to several criteria, such as time of day, weather, and geographical area. This format creates a memorable experience for listeners and conveys an effective way for advertisers to address multiple advertising objectives.

Voice Interaction is gaining more traction and incorporating into the programmatic audio space. When a digital dialogue starts, a genuine individual relationship with the listeners allows them to choose what transpires next, be it an audio message with more info or a redirect to an offer’s landing page.

What are the Benefits of Voice Ads for Publishers?

Improve eCPM and Revenue

Increase eCPM by attracting more advertisers and brands with innovative ad experiences that shorten the path to conversion.

Safeguard the Listener Experience

Create a positive, personalized user listening experience, improving engagement and attention factors.

Measure and Optimize on a Single Platform

Monetize, measure, and optimize innovative ads on a unified platform with real-time reporting and forecasting.

Check Out This Voice Ad Sample

What Are Some Best Practices for Me and Advertising Partners?

Build a Clear Opening Statement and Concrete Call-To-Action For Audio Creative

A compelling voice ad opens on a theme that grabs the listener’s attention, introduces the problem, presents the solution, and ends with an irresistible call-to-action.

Prepare Listeners to Interact With Their Phones or Watches

Create expectations and do not deliver the entire creative until the listener’s interest has been confirmed (once they say “yes”). The listener controls the delivery of the Voice Ad or whether the ad will come to a trimmed stop.

Craft Your Voice Ads Campaign With Mobile Audiences in Mind

Voice Ads enhance audio ad interactivity and target audiences who interact with their mobile and wearable devices. Making creatives and call-to-action mobile-specific is critical to using the right tools.

Keep In Mind the Extended Configurable Listening Response Time and Input Words or Phrases

Listeners can start replying within the configurable response time window upon hearing a “beep” sound. The creative can contain a “beep” sound and a silence period (Fixed listening window) or not.

Trigger Call-To-Actions on the Supported Mobile Devices

Voice Ad interactions with mobile devices depend on the actions the listener can take as a result of a voice reply. Multiple words or phrases can be configured, separated by commas, and any of them will trigger the action if uttered. 

Use the “Place a Call” Action Thoughtfully

If a campaign guides listeners toward placing a call, keep in mind the ring will not be automatically set. The phone/watch voice reply will lead to a prefill of the number, and listeners will have the option to call or cancel. 

In Conclusion 

Whether publishers want to reach listeners on their favorite players, Voice Ads deliver the right messages to the right audiences with persuasive and relevant conversations through advanced tools and tech that enrich the audio experience. Improve interaction rates, engagement, and attention factors now!

• Click here if you are an AdsWizz partner and want to learn more about voice ads.
  
• Visit the Contact Us page if you are not an AdsWizz partner and want to get in touch with us.
  

by Daniel Einhorn, Senior Manager, Content Marketing

The post Voice Ads, a Primer for Publishers appeared first on AdsWizz.