Only 15% of buy-side marketers feel confident in their understanding of programmatic audio.
Digital audio: forecast to become €1bn market in Europe by 2022
Only 15% of buy-side marketers feel confident in their understanding of programmatic audio, new research from Xaxis and Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe has revealed. On the sell side, this figure rises to 30%.
Despite this, six in 10 of these marketers are looking to increase their programmatic audio spend over the next 18 months.
The figures are in line with a recent report by Global’s Dax that said 66% of brands see digital audio as a key part of their media strategy (compared with 86% for ad agency executives).
The top two reasons given by marketers for spending more on programmatic audio are targeting efficiencies (63%) and taking advantage of data insights (44%), according to the Xaxis/IAB EU Programmatic Audio Report 2019.
However, two strong barriers to exploring audio investment for marketers are having a clear understanding of the impact of programmatic audio (49%) and the availability of technology (44%).
Meanwhile, the top three drivers for investing in audio advertising more generally are complementing the media mix (63%); reaching specific audiences (59%); and raising brand awareness (58%).
Digital audio will become a €1bn market in Europe by 2022, the report adds, up from €350m last year, driven by podcasts, music streaming and digital radio.
The rise of programmatically traded media has helped to erode trust between marketers and the online ecosystem in recent years because of concerns about ad viewability and fraud. Trust between advertisers and their media agencies fell to a two-year low last year, according to ID Comms.
Alex McGibbon, vice-president of client solutions at Xaxis, said: "There is the potential for Europe to lead the way in cementing it [programmatic audio] as an essential component of today’s media mix. There is an obvious appetite to increase knowledge and understanding of programmatic capabilities and, if addressed, the opportunity to boost programmatic audio spend over the next 18 months."
The Xaxis/IAB report involved an online survey of 499 people from buyers and publishers (across 30 markets) between April and May.
