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.

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• 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.

What is Dynamic Ad Insertion?

Have you ever noticed how the ads you get while streaming audio or listening to a podcast differ from what your friend hears? The reason: DAI lets brands deliver personalized ads to listeners based on data insights like their location, time of day, and even the weather.

DAI can swap out ads in real-time while listeners stream a podcast, one benefit being the same ads don’t deliver repeatedly. For downloaded podcasts, dynamic ad insertion can also be a great way to make ads more relevant to the listener and create data-rich targeted ads, causing a massive difference in how ads resonate with consumers. Podcasts enable advertisers to implement highly targeted and contextually relevant strategies, leveraging specific targeting parameters, such as location, weather, time of day, and more, to fine-tune their advertising efforts.

DAI also provides a wealth of analytics that offer valuable insights into ad performance and audience engagement allowing for informed decision-making and optimization of ad campaigns. In comparison, traditional download-based models need more real-time analytics and detailed performance data, making tracking ad effectiveness and optimizing targeting strategies harder.

Why DAI is a Game-Changer

Advertisers increasingly leverage DAI to deliver seamless and automated digital ads, which has helped podcasting become one of the fastest-growing digital media channels. This growth is due to the increased revenue generated by targeting via DAI. The figures are clear: podcast ad revenue in the US exceeded $1 billion for the first time in 2021, and DAI played a significant role in that growth. In fact, over the past two years, DAI has seen remarkable growth, now accounting for 84% of ad revenue, nearly doubling its market share. DAI’s widespread adoption substantially benefits advertisers, offering increased scale, flexibility, and targetability in their advertising campaigns. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) predicts that podcast ad revenue will continue to grow, reaching over $4 billion by 2024.

But DAI’s potential extends far beyond podcasts. Audio consumption is rapidly rising, with an impressive nine out of ten US radio listeners now streaming AM/FM radio content. That’s a whopping fifteen thousand radio stations now available on streaming platforms! And the revenue projections for the music streaming market are nothing to put on mute either, with a staggering $25.71 billion expected in 2023. DAI is poised to be a key player in the future of audio content consumption, too.

Unlocking the Benefits of DAI

With DAI, brands can deliver revenue-generating content across various streaming devices. Plus, DAI enables targeting ads to specific criteria, making them more relevant and memorable for listeners and improving the listening experience by eliminating those annoying gaps and buffering that can happen between the content and ads. DAI also provides data-focused targeting, which can lead to better consumer interactions with advertisers and brands. And let’s not forget about monetizing back-catalog podcast episodes—this is essential because new listeners tend to go back and binge a podcast’s older content. 

DAI is essential for scalable podcasting, revenue growth, and seamless listening. It enables smaller publishers to diversify monetization, access more advertisers, and generate revenue comparable to larger publishers. DAI works alongside the baked-in model, repurposing inventory for ad delivery. It offers real-time ad performance insights, empowering advertisers to optimize campaigns. A/B testing of ad formats, placements, and messaging enhances effectiveness. With various vendors offering solutions, DAI has matured as a technology, providing advertisers with a broad range of options.

The Case for DAI for Podcasts and Streaming

One of the most compelling attributes of DAI is that ads can change over time, so listeners will only hear timely and relevant ads. This means no more hearing about offers that have already expired, events that have already happened, or outdated information and techniques. 

DAI also gives creators and advertisers more control. Podcast creators have more oversight in the listening experience, even long after publishing an episode. As for advertisers, DAI offers them the benefits of running host-read ads but with much more flexibility around audience targeting, campaign timing, and impression delivery, making them perfect for time-based events, news updates, or anything else designed to drive tune-in.

What Makes DAI So Different from Standard Scheduling?

Ads served via an ad server can be customized based on variables such as demographics or historical listening, providing a more personalized experience than standard scheduling. This customization resembles a tailor-made suit, while traditional scheduling resembles a store-bought one. In a recent campaign with Mustard, a car insurance comparison tool, dynamic creative versioning was implemented to enhance brand awareness and favorability. The campaign targeted Mustard users in key UK locations, delivering tailored messaging based on age and location. The results showed significant improvements in awareness (+14ppt), relevance (+14ppt), and intent (+5ppt) among the targeted audience, with a substantial increase in favorability and purchase intent for all listeners, highlighting the effectiveness of dynamically targeted creative in connecting with specific audiences.

What You Should Take from DAI

DAI is a game-changing technology that has revolutionized advertising on podcasts and streaming platforms. Its ability to deliver personalized, targeted ads benefits marketers, podcast producers, and streaming publishers. It enhances audience engagement, increases revenue, and caters to the evolving needs of the digital advertising ecosystem. 

How could your brand leverage the power of DAI?

Visit the Contact Us page if you want to get in touch with us to learn more about our DAI solutions, and don’t forget to follow our blog for more platform updates.

by Adrian Hospodar, Product Owner at SXM Media and AdsWizz

The post The Power of Dynamic Ad Insertion appeared first on AdsWizz.