A Global Look at Programmatic Ad Creative Trends

Programmatic ad buying is continuing to grow year over year, with a whopping 8% of total podcast ad spend last year being attributed to programmatic, according to the IAB. Alongside the brilliant team at Acast, we wanted to dive deeper into this percentile to identify the key commonalities in the creative of these ads across US, AUS/NZ, and EMEA markets. 

Looking at creative aspects inclusive of ad length, voiceover number and gender, sound effects, CTA placements, and more, we found that

• Ads running at a minimum of 30 seconds in length held the majority across markets
  • US: 80% 
  • AUS/NZ: 56% 
  • EMEA: 73% 

• Single voiceovers won the popular vote in all three regions
  • US: 86%
  • AUS/NZ: 68% 
  • EMEA: 66%

• Voice over gender detection presented some dissimilarities in trends across markets…
  • In the US, gender offered a near even split with 50% of ads featuring a female voiceover, 47% of ads featuring a male voiceover, and the remaining 3% featuring both male and female voice overs in a single ad placement.
  • In AUS/NZ, over 53% of ads featured a female voice over, with male-only voice overs at just 27%, and creative featuring both female and male voice overs at 20%.
  • In EMEA, 47% of ad creative utilized a female voice over, 27% of ads featured a single male voice over, and ad creative housing both female and male voice overs came in at 26%.

• The use of sound effects (inclusive of birds chirping, phones ringing, engines revving, etc.) seem to fall just slightly under the majority across the board…
  • US: 40%
  • AUS/NZ: 38%
  • EMEA: 33%

With highly differentiated audiences, verticals, and tones across all of the ads collected for the purposes of this study, the data is a powerful testament to what is working and resonating in audio advertising at large. 

If you’re interested in diving deeper into the regionally-specific details for each of these markets, download the infographics now:

• US Infographic
• AUS/NZ Infographic
• EMEA Infographic

For more information on making sound decisions in audio by leveraging the industry’s most comprehensive research and analytics solutions, contact us.