Unpacking the potential for political advertising in audio

With the U.S. presidential election just five weeks away, political campaigns are tapping in to the power of digital channels to gain an edge. In a race where the difference between victory and loss could be razor thin, electioneering is an omnichannel game.

After Kamala Harris entered the presidential race in August, her campaign reserved $370 million for linear TV and digital advertising between Labor Day and Election Day, of which $200 million is allocated to digital, including streaming TV platforms.

TV doesn’t have to get all the glory, though; one channel ripe for exploration is audio. Eighty-four percent of the voting-age population in the U.S. listens to ad-supported audio on a daily basis, according to Edison Research; specifically, independent swing voters over-index with ad-supported streaming music.

The audio channel is attracting more political ads, according to experts The Current spoke with. But there’s room for more growth. Several factors may be holding it back from its full potential, but the benefits — from reaching engaged consumers to complementing other channels — are undeniable.

“In the past, digital political audio ads were more fragmented and difficult to scale due to the limitations of streaming audio platforms,” says Mark Jablonowski, president and CTO of DSPolitical, the Democrat voter-targeting arm of Optimal. “This year, we're seeing growth in scalability and targeting capabilities — essential building blocks for effective political ad campaigns.”

Political advertisers can also take a holistic approach to audio, beyond the obvious streaming music and podcasts. Michal Marcinik, CEO and co-founder of audio-focused programmatic ad tech company AdTonos, says that the company is only selling political audio ads right now through mobile games, a category that has doubled in growth since June.

The company mainly delivers ads through mobile puzzle games, and two or three ads can play within 15 minutes of programming. Marcinek notes that the vast majority of mobile players wear headphones while playing.

“Mobile gaming can provide a massive audience,” he says. “It’s not just teenagers; we see that players are in every age group.”

Audio and CTV can help each other

With digital political spend this year projected to jump 156% from 2020, according to Emarketer, connected TV (CTV) stands to play a key role. Where does audio fit in?

“Political investment has traditionally been very heavy in linear TV, but that’s starting to change dramatically in this cycle, mostly because of the data-enabled supply that’s out there,” says Steven Kritzman, SVP of sales at SiriusXM Media. “Whether you’re buying it direct or buying it programmatically, there’s just a lot more digital supply, both from a video and audio standpoint.”

Kritzman says those two channels, audio and video, could complement one another and don’t need to be mutually exclusive. According to a SiriusXM Media and Nielsen study last year, consumers that were exposed to both CTV and audio ads showed higher recall and message association than those exposed to an ad from just one of the channels. That research could equally apply to political advertising.

Audio can also help cut through the “clutter” of political advertising across the TV environment, particularly in swing states, Kritzman says. For instance, Pennsylvania was seeing twice the amount of spend compared to almost every other state as of Sept. 25, according to AdImpact.

“The vast majority of campaigns that we talk to are targeting the swing states; the vast majority of spending gets geotargeted into those states,” he says. “They’re looking for opportunities to cut through the clutter. Every ad in those states is a political ad. Audio has a much lower ad load and they look at us as a reach extension. As candidates try to build their brand in an upper-funnel way, the campaigns look to us to help with that.”

Overall, across both channels, advancements in programmatic capabilities have accelerated the potential for measurable impact. But audio has largely been embraced more slowly, especially by political advertisers. Jablonowski expects that to change.

“Limited access to deeply targetable audio platforms has been an impediment for years,” Jablonowski says. “Some networks have been hesitant to allow political ads, while others have wisely embraced it. As programmatic advertising expands, we expect more networks to open their inventory to political advertisers to tap in to the increased demand.”

Why audio can be ‘tricky’ for campaigns

Part of the slower acceptance, particularly in podcasting, according to people who spoke with The Current, is that hosts may not want to be associated with certain political messaging unless they are a politically partisan show, so they're cautious of programmatic political advertising. But when hosts with a large following do embrace political in their own way — by endorsing a candidate, for instance — ads could resonate with that message.

“It’s tricky sometimes with the hosts in podcasting because they often have strong opinions on what they want to support,” Kritzman says. “But an endorsement in the form of an ad read can be a big push.”

Campaigns can reach engaged and informed audiences effectively through audio, particularly political and news programs, according to Jablonowski. Research published last year by the Reuters Institute showed that podcast listeners tend to be more financially secure and younger, which could be attractive to political advertisers. Young listeners also tend to prefer news content, the report said.

However, smart campaigns shouldn’t put all their chips in news shows, Jablonowski says.

“We’re observing growth across several podcast platforms and networks — and that includes podcasts of all types and audience sizes,” he says. “That’s particularly true of programs that cover news, politics and current events, where listeners tend to be more engaged with political content.”

“That said, our testing in other mediums indicates voters visiting news websites are generally well informed and harder to persuade, so smart campaigns are not confining their ads to news and political programs alone.”