The Next Evolution of Programmatic Podcast Advertising Is Here

Podcast advertising is a powerhouse, offering unmatched audience loyalty, authentic storytelling, and an intimate environment. But when it comes to programmatic adoption, brand suitability concerns have deterred many advertisers.

That’s about to change. Pre-bid brand suitability solutions are redefining what’s possible in the programmatic space, allowing brands to scale campaigns with confidence.

In our most recent webinar, our experts got together with Tamara Zubatiy, CEO of Barometer, to explore how this podcast advertising evolution is making more effective, impactful programmatic media strategies possible. Tamara was joined by Rachel Margolin, Senior Manager, Sales Marketing, Programmatic, SiriusXM Media; Patrick Doherty, Senior Sales Executive, Programmatic Strategy, SiriusXM Media; and Stacey Hultgren, Director, Ad Quality Measurement, SiriusXM Media | AdsWizz.

Together, they discussed:

• The challenges that have slowed programmatic podcast adoption

• How pre-bid suitability targeting transforms the landscape

• How this tech seamlessly integrates with programmatic platforms

• And so much more

Ready to dive in? Watch the full, on-demand webinar recording now.

Need more of a highlight reel, instead? We’ve got that, too. Take a look at some of the key call-outs from our conversation below.

There's a Massive Opportunity in Front of Us

“Podcasts continue to be the newest and most rapidly growing opportunity—you see it every day, with new content and new celebrities and people coming on board. This space is expected to surpass $3B by 2027 and account for over a third of the digital services from audio spend. But in order for us to scale that, there has to be listenership. And the great news is, that is on the rise. Podcast adoption, from a monthly listener rate, is up—55% of the US population, or 158M people, are tuning into podcasts once a month. And this marks an 18% increase year-over-year, 50% in the past five, and triple in the last decade. And so this is a tremendous opportunity that lies in front of us right now.” - Patrick Doherty

We’re Perfectly Positioned to Continue to Innovate

“We've built this very thoughtful programmatic podcast foundation that's really committed to total transparency in the ecosystem. And this gives our advertisers the insights on everything from the brand safety piece, which we're talking about today, down to the ad effectiveness. And because of all of this, we are perfectly positioned to continue to innovate in this space—that’s why we've partnered with brands like Barometer.” - Patrick Doherty

Podcasting Is Brand Safe

“What we've found in the research that we've done is that, first and foremost, podcasting is truly brand safe. And listeners are a little bit more accepting of the ‘riskier’ content in podcasting that they might not be as accepting of in other environments. So to me, to answer the question about misconceptions, what I see most often is that buyers should really be thinking about reaching their consumers wherever they are within the podcasting ecosystem and maybe a little less concerned about the content itself. Because, you know, by and large, podcasting is truly a safe place to put your ads.” - Stacey Hultgren

The Audio Bid Stream Is Remarkably Transparent

“One of the key things that Pat mentioned is SiriusXM's commitment to transparency. So the audio bid stream is actually remarkably transparent, and from a third-party auditability perspective, it offers the ability to know exactly where your ad ran at an episode level with the majority of the bid stream being transparent when it's coming from premium publishers. This is in really stark contrast with the CTV bid stream, which does not provide that same content item-level transparency. And with our programmatic partners, including our DSP partners, you're able to get that reporting in that very granular way, which allows for vendors like [Barometer] to provide post-bid reporting, monitoring during the campaign, and other ways to verify.” - Tamara Zubatiy

Making the Right Decisions for Everyone Involved

“When we start thinking about integrations over here at SiriusXM Media, we're super intentional about making decisions that are not only just right for our business, but also right for content creators, our advertisers, and our listeners. It has to be a full ecosystem approach. And one of the things that's really interesting about the brand safety and suitability space is that those solutions are often scrutinized for being overly restrictive to the creative and monetization process for creators. So when we start thinking about partnerships and integrations, we go through a rigorous vetting process to not only confirm the validity of the solution being presented to us, but also thinking about our inventory, how we're monetizing the content for our creatives, and how easily usable this is for our advertisers.” - Stacey Hultgren

More Brands Should Opt Into Network Buys

“In terms of the future, what I'd like to see is more brands opting into network buying, as we've already been able to prove out the true safety of our network via our partnership with folks like Barometer. And we've shown that network buying not only enables brands to find their audience where they are, as I mentioned earlier. But it also helps to support the podcast ecosystem and creators more holistically than maybe just buying the top 10 or 50 or 100 shows. And what our targeting solution offers for brands is the opportunity to buy across our vast network while applying their brand suitability profile at the episodic level that Tamara was talking about earlier.” - Stacey Hultgren

It’s Our Job to Provide the Best Data Possible

“SiriusXM continues to lead the way in prioritizing the importance of allowing advertisers to enforce their brand suitability standards in a way that it makes sense to them. So, what I mean by that is this isn’t a ‘yes or no,’ yellow or green, smiley face or frowny face, type of a thing. We've even resisted the urge to have a single brand safety score number for each episode, despite the requests of some folks. It's not up to us to tell the brand how to interpret everything. It's our job to give the brand the most granular data that allows them to put it together for themselves and define what standards they have.” - Tamara Zubatiy

So now you know: Programmatic podcast advertising is safe, effective, and well worth the investment. If you’re ready to ride the waves of this evolution, let’s chat.

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