Innovid adds digital audio to ad mix

Advertising and analytics platform Innovid announced the addition of audio ad serving to its omnichannel delivery. With usage of digital audio rising since the pandemic lockdowns, and even earlier, advertisers are looking to leverage audio, and publishers are looking to monetize.

One key to attracting more advertisers to audio is to measure and prove its impact. By bringing audio into the omnichannel fold, Innovid aims at measuring audio alongside TV, video, display and social ads. Digital audio ad spend in the US is projected to climb to over $5 billion next year.

Nationwide is among the dozen clients locked in for digital audio at launch of Innovid’s new capabilities.

Why we care. The race to measure audio, and to attract more advertisers to buy and capitalize on it, is now a sprint, as streaming giants in the audio space are consolidating. If you’re a smaller publisher of indie podcasts, you have to prove your audience can impact the numbers. Otherwise, it would be easier for a large advertiser or its media agency to plan an audio campaign within a single larger conglomerate like iHeartMedia’s Private Marketplace. Programmatic buying in digital audio still has room to grow as the space evolves. According to the same study cited above, the programmatic slice of the audio pie is growing to only 21% in 2020, up from 16.5% last year.