Audio analytics and research platform Veritonic and independent podcaster Acast recently joined forces to uncover unique insights about programmatic podcast ads. The research aims to identify commonalities and deviations in creative practices for programmatic podcast advertising across the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The partnership saw a comprehensive analysis of podcast ads spanning various industry verticals. The teams reviewed aspects such as ad length, the number of voiceovers, gender of voiceover, sound effect usage, and call-to-action placements to discover regional creative patterns.
The study revealed most ads across all markets were at least 30 seconds long, with this trend most prominent in the US (80%) and EMEA (73%). Single voices dominated voiceover content, led by the US with 86% of ads adopting this approach. However, gender detection in voiceovers varied. For example, in the US, 50% of ads featured a female voiceover, compared to 53% in Australia and New Zealand.
The research also highlighted an emerging trend of using sound effects in almost half of the programmatic ads across the three regions. The full results of the US study can be found on Veritonic’s site.
Acast Global Head of Ad Innovation Elli Dimitroulakos stated, “As an industry there is still a lot of myth-busting to do around programmatic ad buying. At Acast, we firmly believe that programmatic advertising should not be a rigid experience for the media buyer, podcast host, and certainly not the listener. Podcast advertising is effective because it’s a seamless part of the listening experience and that shouldn’t change based on how a transaction occurs. Programmatic ads can – and should – have creative elements that enhance the listener experience and brand relationship.”
