How radio blocks ad blocking

Kristina: How does radio benefit from digital ad blocking?

Bret Kinsella, Chief Marketing Officer, XAPPmedia: Radio is less likely to be hurt by ad blocking than other media. Advertisers continually migrate to where they find audience reach and engagement. As ad blockers eliminate impressions, audio will continue to have guaranteed ad inventory. This is true for broadcast radio as well as streaming audio to mobile devices. Streaming audio services will have the added benefit of rapid audience expansion and formats such as interactive audio that drive engagement and conversion rates at 10-20 times higher than traditional mobile ads by enabling consumers to interact by voice. With click fraud, viewability and ad blocking trends combined, you have a perfect storm causing advertisers to move toward more ad performance measurement. That change will benefit audio disproportionately.

Kristina: What are the advantages of streaming audio in an ad-blocker world?

Bret: Streaming audio is far less impacted by ad blocking than other digital media. The audio ads are often delivered from the same servers as the core audio content and ad blockers are unable to distinguish between the core and ad content in those scenarios. Think of this as linear advertising. Similar to Facebook embedding ads directly in your newsfeed between posts from friends, streaming audio services embed audio ads between songs.

Kristina: Does audio have the viewability problem of display?

Bret: No. Audio ads are either heard or not. Most streaming services do not allow skips so the user must listen to the ad if they wish to hear more music. This means the ads aren’t blocked and consumers hear them. It is a great way to ensure that an impression is served as well as obtain accurate measurement of consumer engagement and conversion.