Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is back in vogue. But marketers don’t always have the data they need for apples-to-apples comparisons of different media channels.
Take digital audio. The lack of actionable data for MMMs might be the reason brand investment in digital audio doesn’t align with time spent listening to streaming music and podcasts, said Lizzie Collins, SVP of ad innovation and B2B marketing at SiriusXM Media.
Audio accounted for 25% of the time Americans spent engaging with media last year, but the channel only received 8% of US ad spend, according to marketing strategy consultancy WARC.
In order to give advertisers more granular data about their digital audio investments to aid MMM, SiriusXM announced today a new integration with ad tech platform and ad server provider Innovid. The integration will provide advertisers with the type of impression-level data that they get for other digital channels in order to facilitate more direct comparisons – with the goal of spurring more investment in digital audio.
Parity through incrementality
The integration will also attempt to prove that digital audio can help brands reach audiences that they couldn’t reach otherwise.
For example, SiriusXM claims that adding its inventory to social media buys can increase a campaign’s reach by up to 34%, and that it can boost the reach of CTV or OTT campaigns by as much as 50%, based on internal research.
But, if digital audio is going to grow its share of brand budgets, Collins said, then platforms need to pass advertisers data that can demonstrate the channel’s incremental reach and aid attribution for performance campaigns. But, she said, there’s very little standardization in terms of what audio ad impression data brands have access to.
“The scary thing is, until we go have a direct conversation [with the brand], we often have no idea what they’re passing into their model,” Collins said. “It’s different every time.”
Typically, she added, the only data from SiriusXM campaigns that advertisers have on hand to ingest into their MMM solutions are billing or planning reports that estimate how many digital audio impressions they’ve purchased. SiriusXM’s data is also often lumped in with broadcast radio, with all of these impressions included in “one big audio assessment,” she said.
However, through the new integration with Innovid, SiriusXM can send log file data that includes all of the impressions delivered on its platform, which includes mostly audio, but also some video and display inventory. SiriusXM can share the media cost for the impressions, reach and frequency, how many clicks per day the impressions yielded and which designated market areas they were served in. The data also includes information about product purchases and conversions, and these can be broken down by placement, ad creative and target audience.
SiriusXM can provide access to these log files because it operates its own ad servers, Collins said.
Plus, SiriusXM is now enabling third-party ad serving into its platform, added Grant Parker, president of Innovid. That means Innovid can grab this granular data directly when its ad servers are used to serve impressions in SiriusXM’s media.
And, even when Innovid’s servers aren’t being used, SiriusXM is still sending the data to Innovid via tracking pixels included in the ad creative, Collins said. Innovid can then convey that information to the advertiser’s MMM partner of choice.
Optimizing ROI
Although SiriusXM already has access to impression-level log data via its own ad servers, it still needed to partner with Innovid in order to bring its MMM-enabling strategy to fruition, Collins said. That’s because Innovid has strong existing partnerships with other platforms across different media types.
“I want growth for audio, so I have to map to the partners that matter to advertisers,” she said. “And Innovid is a very trusted partner for many advertisers in CTV, video and display.”
Meanwhile, Parker said, the arrangement – which is the first specifically MMM-focused partnership Innovid has struck – helps Innovid further establish itself as “an operating system for advertisers and agencies.”
“It’s about creating data that can be measured, but also optimized and fed back into better creative experiences, more essential planning and delivery of the media itself,” Parker said. “This puts us further ahead in terms of being able to help clients optimize for ROI.”
Giving advertisers access to this data for use in MMM also opens up new options for campaign optimization from SiriusXM’s perspective, Collins said. For example, they could optimize toward certain podcasts or toward particular geos, and determine which creatives yield the best results in different environments, she said.
All of that optimization should help prime the pump for increased spending on digital audio over time.
“We find customers don’t want to be underinvested in this space,” Collins said. “They just need help getting audience planning and campaign measurement right.”
