A Guide to Audio Ads in Ad Experiences – Terminus Help Center

Note: CTV functionality currently requires use of our legacy display advertising product (tactics/campaigns launched pre-spring 2023). If you no longer have access to the legacy builder, please reach out to your Client Strategy Manager to have it enabled.

Audio Ads Overview

Audio advertising is the delivery of ads in audio format through online streaming platforms such as podcasts or music streaming apps. Audio is a great solution when you’re wanting to expand your advertising channels. There are currently over 200 million audio listeners in the US alone. Currently, 95% of Terminus’ audio inventory is non-skippable.

Here are a few benefits to incorporating Audio in your programmatic media campaigns that are worth exploring:

Easily diversify both your arsenal of creative assets and advertising channels
Drive search volume by generating interest across non-skippable content
Increase brand awareness with Audio ads as the perfect complement to traditional display campaigns

Prerequisites

This feature is available to all customers, across all pricing plans. Activation instructions are listed below. For any further questions on integrating premium channels into your ad strategy, contact your Digital Media Manager or your Client Strategy Manager for questions.

Creating an Audio Tactic

To launch a tactic using audio ads, please submit a request through the Terminus Customer Support form:

Create an Account-Based Display Tactic in AdEx (Be sure to include Audio in the tactic name)
Configure your audience and establish a budget as you would a standard account based display tactic (Typical budgets avg between $20-$50/day but should be directly proportional to your audience size
Submit your tactic with no creatives. Your tactic will not go live until we receive the necessary creative assets
Go to the Support Portal to upload creatives with the applicable landing page (landing pages are required for Audio ads that allow click throughs)
Your tactic will go live between 1-3 business days upon receiving the creatives

Measuring Performance of Audio Ads

Terminus customers running tactics with audio ads will be able to view clicks, impressions, and spend metrics in the “Creative Performance” section of the Tactic Details Page. At this time, there are no additional audio-specific metrics or account-level data supported in the Terminus platform for this campaign type, but custom audio reports are available upon request (see below for additional details).

Some additional details related to measuring audio ads:

Completion Rates measure the average time of a completed ad. Completion reports are available upon request from Customer Support, or by requesting directly from your Digital Media Manager or Customer Success Manager. These reports can also be automated and sent to you on a weekly or monthly basis.
Control Groups are also highly recommended to measure efficacy of Audio as a channel. Control groups account lists can be configured in Data Studio to compare performance against audiences who are receiving audio ads. Consult your CSM or DMM on how to configure control groups.
The average CPM of audio ads can be anywhere from $12-25. Please note that click-thru rates (CTRs) are not a viable metric to analyze performance, as audio ads rarely result in users clicking the actual ads.
Audio is known to increase Search Volume across SEM metrics as users generally search a brand and visit their site upon hearing an audio ad. Evaluate your initial search performance upon launching and compare it after 30-60 days to accurately measure lift in Search Volume.

Best Practices for Audio Ads

Pair audio campaigns alongside digital campaigns towards the same audience for best results. Audio is predominantly a Brand Awareness channel, and the addition of Display advertising and reporting insights can help draw a line from uninformed listeners to potential customers.

Placement of Audio Ads

Audio is available for both US and International audiences (Excluding EMEA). Top Ad Networks we run across:

ACast (BBC, The Economist, Financial Times, Vice, Yahoo, The Guardian)

Bell Media

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

DAX

iHeart Media (Audio and Podcasts)

Pandora

Audacy (Radio.com) (Audio and Podcasts)

Westwood One Streaming

Creative Specifications and Samples

Creative Specifications:

File types:

.MP3 (Most Common)
.M4A
.WAV

Bitrate:

160 kbps
Hosted .MP3 files should have a constant bitrate.

Spot length:

15 seconds or 30 seconds

Companion banner files are used for audio spots that also allow static images to accompany the audio placement. Companion banners are not required but if you choose to include one, we support the following creative types and recommend the size of 300x250:

.JPEG
.JPG
.PNG

For more information on audio ad specifications and requirements, please reference this article. You can also listen to an audio creative example here.

Limitations of Audio Ads

Terminus is unable to provide account-level data for Connected TV ad campaigns at this time. Consult your CSM, Strategist, or DMM to configure control groups for custom reporting.