SMI’s Podcast Strategist Lisa Risk shared her expertise as a panelist at Podcast Movement, the world’s largest podcast conference, which took place in Denver, Colorado in August.
Risk participated alongside other podcast industry professionals in a panel titled “What do buyers want from the podcasting industry?” Panelists discussed current challenges faced by podcast advertisers. For instance, there is a lack of industry standards in terms of measurement and attribution, and in what is considered a download. According to Risk, “There are several third-party options for data, measurement, and attribution currently available. They are all very similar but each has unique aspects.” Risk said that with a shift from baked-in to dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for ad delivery, there has also been a shift from selling and buying by download to selling and buying by impression. But there is some discrepancy regarding what counts as an impression. If an ad is served twice in one listening experience or downloaded episode, for instance, does that count as two impressions? “In my opinion, it should count as one,” said Risk, “but many groups are counting those as two impressions.”
According to Risk, adding impression caps of delivery to schedules could prevent advertisers from hitting the same listener over and over again. “But there are no industry standards around that,” she said, “and only some groups are even able to do it.”
The panel also discussed why podcasting and audio perform poorly in mixed media modeling (MMM). On this topic, Risk said that audio does not have the same reach and lift that we see from video, and overall lift is how these studies are measured. But, Risk said, “When we look at structured tests with measurable KPI’s, we can see and measure the impact of audio.”
Despite certain challenges, Risk said there are new sources of new money coming into podcasting. Podcast budgets often come from digital and TV. “Brands are seeing success with digital and look to podcast to further growth,” she said.
“Transparency and industry standards are two important pieces that buyers want from industry partners and networks,” Risk said. But even as the industry moves toward these things, the podcast medium continues to be an exciting, profitable medium for advertisers looking to grow their brand.
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