With Spotify launching their new proprietary podcast ad system, Streaming Ad Insertion, the streaming company may be on their way to making a major impact on podcast-advertising. According to Variety, the SAI system will share great details on ad performance and will allow advertisers the ability to purchase targeted spots in podcasts. Measuring audiences through podcasting has always involved simply tracking downloads, which has made audience and engagement measurements not as specific as targeted advertising. 

Spotify original and exclusive podcasts will receive the company’s planning, reporting and measurement capabilities with their SAI system. The suite of tools includes data that advertisers and podcast creators will have access to for the first time ever like actual ad impression, frequency (number of times a listener heard the ad), and reach and anonymized audience analysis (age, gender, device type) according to Variety. 

Spotify noted in a statement, “With this technology, we are offering the intimacy, quality and efficacy of traditional podcast ads with the precision and transparency of modern-day digital marketing.” Spotify continues, “In short, we’re keeping what podcast listeners, creators, and advertisers love about podcast ads and making the medium addressable for digital advertisers.”

Puma was one of the first advertisers to test SAI as they inserted host-read ads into the Spotify original podcast “Jemele Hill Is Unbothered.” Puma received an ad recall lift of 180% with their enhanced targeting. With podcast revenue expected to build from $479 million in 2018 to over $1 billion in 2021, according to a forecast from IAB and PwC, Spotify’s heavy investment into podcasting appears to be a smart and strategic move for the streaming company.

Feature Image via Tech Crunch