Why Targeted Digital Audio is Underutilized in Political Advertising
Political advertising is projected to top $11 billion in 2024. Digital ad spending across all industries is now over $200 billion for the first time, yet digital audio accounts for less than 3% of all ad spend. Within the political realm, that percentage is even lower. As programmatic spends continue to increase, that trend should boost digital audio more than other tactics.
Why digital audio is underutilized as a platform for political advertising? With a few exceptions, Pandora, Spotify and other digital audio publishers were slow to staff evangelize for their product in political ads. The audio giants had shifting political ad policies which lead to uncertainty in media planning. Sound familiar, OTT/CTV buyers of the 2018 cycle??
Second, political advertising on podcasts adds a wrinkle. An efficient political ad approval process for podcasts came late to the game.
Third, many campaigns are hesitant to invest in targeted digital audio because they are not sure how effective it will be. Research on the effectiveness of digital audio in the political realm is light, which is more of a reason why campaigns do not want to take on the risk of investing with a new medium.?
The research that does exist thus far suggests that digital audio can be effective for political campaigns. A recent Dentsu study revealed three key findings that should dictate how consultants build their media plans for the upcoming cycle. Per Dentsu:?
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The figures represented suggest that audio could be more cost-effective than display and video ads in certain situations. With recall rates significantly higher than TV, video and display ads, targeted digital audio ads will need to be utilized for the strongest media plans to help tap into underexposed audiences. Online listenership has continued to trend upward even post-COVID, with 75% of Americans ages 12 and older listening to online audio in the past month. But most importantly from our point of view, it’s about adding incremental reach to an existing buy.
Higher recall rates? Check. Cost effectiveness? Check. Incremental reach? Check. Targetability? Check. As campaigns become more familiar with digital audio, it is highly likely that digital audio will become more widely used in political campaigns.
Research from eMarketer shows that audio makes up 20% of digital media consumption but only 3% of media spend. As the digital audio ecosystem gets organized, tens of billions of digital ad spend will shift to audio. Wherever you send your digital audio ad buy, be sure they are experienced across all digital audio sources and have the experience to design a media plan that maximizes your ROI.