Time for a marketing refresh. Let’s start with audio (-first).

Time for a marketing refresh. Let’s start with audio (-first).

Remember the days when billboards were the place to be? If you had a typo in an ad–you were done for. If the content of the billboard was unengaging–you were done for. Fast-forward to today, when even tweets may become editable, the precision put into digital marketing ads has diminished almost entirely. It’s only when a mistake goes viral that we all cringe and take a hard look at the i’s we may have forgotten to dot and the t’s we may have forgotten to cross. 

The world has become incredibly fast-paced, budgeting has changed, and expectations to be absolutely everywhere (yet somehow not annoy anyone) are permanently at the forefront of every marketer’s mind. Marketers have risen to the challenge, largely through digital means like social media ads and heavy search presences. 

When it came to social posts during this transition, luckily marketers could afford to be a bit more lax, fixing small mistakes, adjusting audience-targeting, or tweaking unengaging content while campaigns were already live. But over the last couple of years, consumers have begun to sneak up on marketers with their new-found love for channels where this “try now, change it later” attitude doesn’t fly as easily: audio-first channels. 

Whether it be TikTok or podcasts (or even Instagram Reels) audio is taking over the content consumption landscape. At first it appeared nothing would change, with cheaper CPMs than television and more opportunities that mimicked the benefits of search and other social channels. The difference? The creative.

Ad Creative in Audio

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then each word you put in a 30-second podcast ad suddenly becomes very important. Just take a look at one of our engagement charts from a 30-second podcast ad below. Note the peaks and valleys within it and what they represent – a measure of your brand image in the eyes of your target audience, the money you are spending to reach them, or something else. In any case, those valleys don’t feel so good, nor are they fun to report on. That’s why we see pre-market creative testing as a critical tool for every marketer that is utilizing audio. 

Pre-market testing allows you to optimize creative components including voiceover, tone, background music, brand sounds and more, ensuring that every part of your audio creative is optimized for success. But remember: with audio (much like social), you are saving money on the production of the creative, so don’t skimp on the measurement!

Reach the Niche

Part of the appeal of social media and search is the ability to target a niche audience you never could have reached with the same time and budget on other marketing channels. As security and privacy become more important to consumers, these ways of targeting are becoming increasingly less precise. Audio is providing a 21st century answer to privacy that consumers and marketers can feel comfortable with. Without being told any information about the specific listener, do you think you can guess the age, parental status, and best products to market to the audience listening to the podcast episode titled, “Feeding Your Baby with Formula”? (Source: The Juna Women Podcast)

There is a podcast show for every marketer, just like there is a podcast show for every listener. You just have to be able to find them. That’s where comprehensive intelligence on the audio space becomes an invaluable resource in the optimization of your creative. Veritonic Research allows you to identify specific podcasts where your competitors are (or aren’t!) advertising, and then test against those specific audiences to ensure that your ad will resonate before it goes  live. And don’t make the mistake of thinking you know your audience. Our clients at Wise were testing their content for creative optimization, and learned from the process that they were mistakenly targeting the wrong audience, and that another audience would have led to considerably more conversions.

Full-Funnel Strategy

No campaign would be complete without significant in-market and post-campaign measurement. For this reason, we’ve expanded our measurement suite to include audio-first Brand Lift and Attribution. We are seeing an increasing number of brands and marketers plagued with insufficient data in the audio and podcasting space, and we are determined to remedy that. 

As noted in our Podcast Listener Insights Series, 60% of podcast listeners listen weekly or daily, so there is a huge amount of time and opportunity for you to reach them. Additionally, the report revealed that 70-80% of people who listen to podcasts also consume streaming music and AM/FM radio monthly.

That being said, the reach of audio is massive, so make sure your strategy, targeting, and creative is optimized to capitalize on it.

Interested in talking to a member of the Veritonic team about our research, testing, and measurement capabilities? Drop us a line at sales@veritonic.com and we’ll be in touch!