Action

Metric that indicates how many times listeners completed an action after being exposed to an audio ad

Active sessions

Number of sessions that were active within a given time period

Ad break

The point in an episode where an ad is delivered. There are only so many spots per episode, and creatives are marked based on three different places:
Mid Roll – When an ad is inserted in the middle of a piece of content.
Post Roll – When an ad appears at the end of a piece of content.
Pre Roll – When an ad appears at the beginning of a piece of content.

Ad sequence

A series of ads that run in a particular order. Sequential ads are the storytellers of podcast advertising, as they allow advertisers to build narratives that are more likely to spark interest than standard ads.

Banner impression

Metric that indicates how many display companions were delivered along with the audio ad.

Bid request

An interaction between a real-time auction exchange and buyers, in which the bidders are informed for each inbound ad request about different inventory data points (site, content, listener, device, location, etc.), triggering their responses to determine who will win the auction.

Bid response

The bidder’s answer to the bid request, which will be evaluated by the real-time bidding exchange according to prevailing auction rules to determine who will win the auction.

Bid/Win rate

This shows how often a bidder makes a bid in response to an ad request. A low bid rate might indicate a configuration problem with your setup or bidder performance issues. You can use bid rates to spot underperforming demand partners. The overall bid rate directly impacts the competition inside your wrapper and the overall fill rate. Win rates show how a particular bidder competes with others in the header bidding auction. If their win rate is low, they’re probably not worth the added weight.

Branded episode

An opportunity to collaborate with the show to create a custom episode—with 100% share of voice. Content is created out together with a brand to find concepts that are natural extensions of the show and brand.

Call to Action

Call to action (CTA) refers to the next step you want your audience to take, for example to visit your website or use a promo code

Campaign

One or a series of ad spots that communicate a similar message to listeners. Often differentiated by separate advertisers and goals. Publishers and ad networks can set up various campaigns to sell their spots.

Campaign avails

The inventory that is still available for your campaigns and matches your targeting criteria, after taking into consideration the inventory that is already booked.

Campaign duration

The period of time a specific advertising campaign will run for.

Click-through

Metric that indicates how many times listeners followed the link associated with a banner ad.

Completion rate

The percentage of the show that listeners get through.

Conversion attribution

KPI measuring the effectiveness of an audio ad based on the ratio of Audio Impressions and Actions.

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

The cost for every customer you acquire.

CPM

Cost per mille (CPM) or ‘cost per thousand’ is the amount an advertiser pays per 1,000 impressions for its ads.

Creative assets

Each campaign can have one or more creative assets (video, audio, or display). It is the actual ad message that the advertiser wishes the user to hear or see.

Data costs

Incremental costs associated with using contextual targeting data. This usually follows a CPM pricing structure.

Demand side platform (DSP)

A programmatic advertising platform that allows advertisers and media buying agencies to bid automatically and in real-time on audio, display, video, mobile, etc., making the ad buying process significantly faster and more efficient.

Direct response marketing

To track specific actions, hosts often share a unique URL to listeners to measure the amount of traffic in response to that ad and evaluate its effectiveness.

Download

A downloaded audio file that shows a listener intends to listen to the podcast at a later date and time. Some platforms support full downloads to a personal library for listening offline, which makes downloaded podcasts a continued preference among listeners. In ad tech, a download may refer to both complete file downloads and partial downloads.

Dynamically inserted ads

The ability to insert ads, either client provided, announcer read, or host read, at the time of download. This ensures that all ads are relevant to the listeners themselves and to the time of year. So, you and another listener might hear different ads, even if you’re listening to the same episode.

Frequency

The average number of times an individual has an opportunity to hear an advertising message during a period of time.

Frequency Capping

The maximum number of times an ad can be delivered to a listener within a given timeframe.

Host-branded player

Players owned by the podcast producers.

Host-reads

Also known as ‘Sponsorships’. Ads read by the host or producer of the podcast and dynamically inserted into the content.

Impression

An impression is a metric used to quantify the number of digital views, listens or engagements of a piece of content, usually an advertisement, digital post, or web page. It is defined as being one user who, while using web or media content, was presented with an advertisement.

Intergrated Ads

These ads are part of the actual podcast recording. Historically, that meant they lived with that episode forever. With programmatic technologies, you can target listeners who download an older podcast episode with different ads.

Inventory

The number of opportunities for a publisher/podcaster to insert ads over a period. Podcast inventory depends on the existing opportunities per unit of time and audience. For example, a podcast with 2 mid rolls, one of 180 seconds and the other of 120 seconds, which is downloaded 10,000 times during a day, will yield a daily inventory of 100,000 opportunities.

Listen through rate (LTR)

The ratio between the number of fully exposed ads and the total number of ads (partially and completely exposed). LTR is calculated as a percentage of the impressions that registered 100% exposure by using the formula: [Impressions at 100% Exposure] divided by Impressions.

Listener

Data that represents a single user who downloads content (for immediate or delayed consumption). Listeners may be represented by a combination of IP address and User Agent, and they must be specified within a stated time frame (day, week, month, etc.).

Listening frequency

How frequently can one ad be served to the same listener. This metric is based on the total number of forecasted campaign avails, divided by the number of unique listeners.

Open auction

A buying mechanism in which ad impressions are purchased in real-time auctions without prior clearance or negotiation with publishers or marketers. Some publishers and SSPs will still require clearance before their inventory can be accessed in open auctions.

Pacing

Controls the speed at which impressions are delivered;

Podcasts

A closed auction that is only available after receiving clearance from the publisher. Private auctions can be accessed through private marketplaces and deals.

Private auction

A closed auction that is only available after receiving clearance from the publisher. Private auctions can be accessed through private marketplaces and deals.

Private marketplace

A customisable, invitation-only marketplace where premium publishers make their inventory and audience available to select buyers. This biddable inventory is transacted through private auctions.

Programmatic advertising

The use of software to automatically purchase and insert ads in a particular medium, rather than the traditional process involving human negotiations and manual insertion orders. In short, it’s an automated way to buy and insert ads

Publisher

Any creator who has a station/podcast or website and wants to insert and monetise audio, display, or video ads. Essentially, a publisher is the owner of the ad inventory where advertisers can place their ads.

Reach

Determines how many unique listeners you will be able to reach with your audio campaign

Real-time bidding (RTB)

Buying mechanism in which ad impressions are purchased in real-time auctions. The highest bidder wins the auction and receives the offered ad impressions, which are immediately delivered.

Share of voice

The percentage of total advertising weight per brand in a competitive set.

Sponsorship

A type of campaign that allows advertisers to sponsor one, multiple, or all ad positions from a podcast episode and block out other ads. When “roadblock” is enabled on a sponsorship campaign, the advertiser gains exclusivity, and the entire episode or a specific ad break is automatically reserved.

Supply-side platform (SSP)

A programmatic advertising platform that allows publishers and media owners to coordinate the supply, monetization, and distribution of their advertising inventory to and from advertisers. Supply-side platforms connect advertising networks and exchanges to demand-side platforms (DSP) on the advertiser side.

Targeting

A key ingredient to the campaign recipe that ensures the ad is reaching the right audience. This can be done in numerous ways, and innovations in data and ad technology enable you to reach consumers based on demographics, contexts, or even mindsets.
Contextual Targeting – target audiences based on their interests and behaviours. For example, an automobile campaign could target audiences interested in cars.
Ad break targeting – the ability to target pre-, mid-, or post-roll ad breaks at scale.
Behavioural targeting – the ability to target your audience based on a user’s online and offline behaviour. For example, parents shopping for baby goods, connected home users, car enthusiasts, etc.
Genre targeting – the ability to target by genre, for example, Arts, Business, Sports, True Crime, etc. AudioOne has over 40 genres you can target or anti-target if needed.
Point of interest (POI) – the ability to target audiences with predefined or custom POI segments. For example, a restaurant can advertise its new Friday menu to all listeners within 2 miles.

Third party tracking

External vendors which allow for pixel-based tracking of digital attribution, uplift, and conversion

Time spent listening (TSL)

The average amount of time spent listening by an individual user within the daypart/time period.

Unique listeners

The number of unduplicated users listening to a given online audio program, piece of content, or advertising message. Can also be called Reach.

Visit

Metric that indicates how many times listeners visited the marketer’s website after being exposed to an audio ad.