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

The post How to Maximize Audio Campaign Efficiency with Predictive Pacing appeared first on AdsWizz.

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:

The post Event Recap: Podcast Movement Evolutions 2023 appeared first on AdsWizz.

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.