Globally, programmatic now dominates display ads, capturing nearly 90% of all spend in 2025 and accounting for more than 96% of new growth in the category. It also represents nearly three-quarters of connected TV buys.

Now advertisers are beginning to look for the same simplicity in podcasts. Podcasting, however, isn’t structured quite like display or TV. It’s more open, diverse, and wide-ranging, which can make programmatic podcast advertising a little more complex to scale. As a result, publishers may miss out on opportunities.

The encouraging news is that publishers who tailor their shows for programmatic buyers with better workflows and smarter adtech can unlock new revenue while preserving the authenticity that listeners value most.

The Promise of Programmatic Buying for Podcasts

The opportunity is clear. Programmatic buying allows advertisers to target by demographics, geography, context, or behavior, and to adjust campaigns in real time. That flexibility is now making its way into podcasting.

Take a brand aiming to reach new parents. With programmatic, ads can be delivered on parenting shows during the day, then shift to broader lifestyle podcasts in the evening. That kind of agility is exactly what advertisers want.

Podcast advertising in the US brought in $2.4 billion in 2024, up 26% from the year before. And the momentum isn’t stopping—revenues are on track to top $2.6 billion by 2026. The question isn’t whether to adopt programmatic anymore; it’s how fast publishers can move to seize the opportunity.

How AdsWizz Helps Publishers Scale

One of the biggest shifts for publishers has been the rise of supply-side platforms built specifically for audio. AdsWizz’s AudioMax SSP is an ideal example. It was the first SSP designed for audio, built more than a decade ago, long before most of the industry recognized the potential of programmatic audio. Instead of trying to adapt tools made for other media, AudioMax SSP gives publishers what they actually need: efficiency, insight, and control.

Efficiency is at the heart of AudioMax SSP. It connects seamlessly to every type of demand, including programmatic, direct, resellers, and marketplaces. It optimizes yield across all channels so that no inventory goes to waste and every impression reaches its full value. Insights come from transparent reporting that shows which campaigns perform best and which partners drive meaningful revenue. Control means managing the listening experience with precision, setting frequency caps, maintaining brand safety, and ensuring every ad fits the tone of the show.

For publishers, these are not abstract features. They are the real levers that make it possible to grow audio revenue intelligently while preserving the authenticity that makes podcasting so powerful.

Host-Read Ads

Enhanced adtech sets the stage for growth, but true success requires balancing automation with authenticity. 

Host-read ads remain one of podcasting’s secret weapons. They build trust, and listeners often treat a host’s recommendation like advice from a friend. It is no surprise that, according to Grand View Research, host-read ads accounted for more than 62% of podcast advertising revenue in 2024. But scaling them across shows and formats is not easy. That is where AdsWizz’s automated host-read ads offer a solution, blending the warmth of a host with the precision and targeting of programmatic tools.

Brand Safety

Brand safety in audio has two sides, and both are essential. For publishers, it’s about protecting the listener experience: keeping ads relevant, blocking sensitive IAB categories, and maintaining the tone that keeps audiences engaged. No one wants a jarring message breaking the flow of a show.

For advertisers, brand safety means something else entirely. It’s the confidence that every campaign is running in the right environment, that budgets are being spent on quality inventory with real value. This is where AdsWizz technology makes a difference. Every show in the ecosystem is scanned, transcribed, and categorized into brand-safe segments, giving advertisers the clarity they need to invest wisely and at scale.

By balancing both sides, AdsWizz helps publishers grow authentically and gives advertisers confidence that their messages reach the right audiences. In the end, brand safety comes down to trust, the foundation of a healthy audio ecosystem.

Programmatic Deal Types

Safeguarding the listener experience is only half the equation. To succeed with programmatic, publishers also need a clear view of how deal structures work. The type of deal shapes how much control publishers hold, how steady the revenue is, and how broad their base of potential advertisers can be.

There are four main deal types publishers should understand:

1. Programmatic guaranteed: A direct deal executed programmatically. Advertisers get guaranteed inventory and pricing while publishers reduce manual work. It combines the predictability of traditional direct deals with the automation and reporting benefits of programmatic.
2. Preferred deals: A fixed-price agreement where publishers offer inventory to selected advertisers before it goes to auction. There’s no guarantee of volume, but advertisers get priority access and publishers maintain price control.
3. Private marketplaces (PMPs): Invite-only auctions where publishers offer premium inventory to select buyers. They combine exclusivity with automation.
4. Marketplace auction: The broadest marketplace, where many demand sources compete for impressions in real time. It delivers scale but offers less control.

Building the Foundation for Monetization

Deal structures define how programmatic transactions work. But to translate those transactions into sustainable growth, publishers need a broader framework that brings all the pieces together. That’s where building the foundations for monetization comes in.

• Smarter supply paths: Choose curated, transparent marketplaces that prioritize quality and make it easier for advertisers to buy inventory with confidence.
• Balanced revenue strategy: AudioMax SSP connects with all major DSPs and optimizes audio supply across ad slots, break length, and feed data so programmatic, direct, and host-read deals work together seamlessly.
• Brand safety by design: Integrate safeguards like category blocking and frequency caps from the start.
• Education and enablement: Train internal teams and help advertisers access your inventory confidently.

Scaling Smarter, Earning More

Podcasting has always thrived on trust and intimacy. Programmatic advertising adds the scale and flexibility that publishers need to grow, without taking away the authenticity that makes the medium special. The real opportunity lies in combining both. Publishers who embrace programmatic as part of a balanced strategy will open new revenue streams, strengthen relationships with advertisers, and keep listeners coming back.

Connect with us now to grow revenue while keeping the podcast listening experience authentic!

by Jerome Camerlynck, Director of Product Management at AdsWizz

The post Scaling Podcast Revenue With Smarter Programmatic Strategies appeared first on AdsWizz.

In 2022, a Mediaocean report surveyed over 600 leaders in media providers, advertising agencies, and tech companies. It revealed that 40% of respondents anticipated an increase in brand safety concerns for 2023. Only a small percentage expected these concerns to decrease, while slightly over half expected them to remain the same. Similarly, a recent report by IAB Europe revealed that 67% of advertisers stated brand safety was critical to their future success. 

AdsWizz understands these concerns and offers a wide set of Ad Quality Controls that meet the increasing demands of safeguarding brands and campaign requirements for both programmatic and direct sales, all while prioritizing the best listener experience.

These controls help publishers to uphold their brand promise, align with advertiser needs, and maintain listener trust. As programmatic audio expands, AdsWizz gives publishers the oversight required to keep their brands safe. But how? 

Block Unwanted Ads

Complete visibility into audio and display creatives is critical to our clients, so we offer a platform that enables publishers to maintain control over the quality of all programmatic and non-programmatic ads delivered to their listeners. Publishers can set granular blocking rules to avoid inappropriate advertisers or ad categories. Rules can be applied globally across your platform or targeted to specific shows. For example, block certain products, industries, or brand names from being served. Flexible blocking gives publishers oversight to protect their brand.

Ensure Access to Premium Inventory

Ad Quality Controls help publishers block specific advertisers and ad categories from particular supply sources. So, for instance, reserve a morning radio show for family-friendly advertisers only. Exclusive access rules ensure premium inventory matches the right ads and audience. They can also create exceptions and provide exclusive access to their targeted inventory, adding an extra layer of brand protection. Publishers can exercise greater scrutiny over IAB categories they might find questionable.

Accurate Inventory Forecasts

AdsWizz’s advanced Ad Quality rules also offer another crucial advantage, enabling accurate inventory forecasts based on Ad Quality rules. Blocked categories and advertisers are excluded from inventory predictions, helping publishers plan ad sales and provide transparency to buyers.

Frequency Capping

Improving the listener experience is a priority for AdsWizz. Frequency capping is a powerful tool for achieving this goal. Why? Because it limits ad repeats to enhance the listener’s experience. Capping reduces fatigue and balances ad demand across inventory.

Prioritize Your Brand’s Reputation by Integrating Ad Quality Controls

With AdsWizz’s Ad Quality Controls, audio publishers can align advertising with their brand promise. Advanced blocking, exclusive access, forecasting, pre-review, and capping provide the oversight needed to put their audience first in the growing audio advertising market.

• If you are an AdsWizz partner and want to learn more about Ad Quality Controls, please click here.
• If you are not an AdsWizz partner and would like to get in touch with us, please visit the Contact Us page.
  

by Jerome Camerlynck, Director of Product Management at AdsWizz

The post Enriching the Listener Experience with Ad Quality Controls appeared first on AdsWizz.

As a reseller, it is crucial to have access to tools that enable increased visibility and manage your contracts with publishers to obtain the insights you need.

What is the Market Operator Console, and How Does it Function? 

As an inventory reseller or Market Operator, you act on behalf of many small and medium publishers, representing them when providing access to the more prominent audio providers by leveraging contracts within your network, agreeing to different prices, and the amount of inventory to be delivered.

The Market Operator Console is a dashboard that manages reseller contracts, monitors performance, sets up different margins and commitments, and attains firmer insights. It enables tracking metrics such as total impressions, impressions share, inventory data, and revenue (gross and net), setting up different margins and commitments per publisher.

The margin feature sets the margin per publisher based on the demand (e.g., x% margin for a publisher for demand from AudioMatic, our DSP, and y% for that same publisher for demand from another DSP). AudioMax, our SSP, has a commitment solution that makes controlling which partners should get more demand more manageable, strengthening your business protection without overlooking inventory. From a functional perspective, commitments are a much more efficient way to manage and prioritize demand across multiple publishers from the marketplace.

Suppose we define an audio network as a large grouping of related entities aggregating content from multiple places (i.e., Pandora – NBC, NPR). The Market Operator function allows the network various controls across numerous entities: for example, controlling inventory and deals across multiple agencies by leveraging different suppliers.

To fully grasp the significance and power of the Marketplace Operator’s responsibility, let’s step back and deconstruct how the technology powering their decision-making works within the audio ecosystem.

What is the Relationship with an Audio SSP?

An audio native SSP like AudioMax allows publishers to exchange their advertising inventory programmatically across media through an automated auction. AudioMax also contains auction-based private marketplaces (PMP), which permit several buyers exclusive access to a publisher’s inventory. They are invitation-based and have a negotiated floor price but no guaranteed volume. Exclusive buyers are auctioned based on price through PMPs.

With AudioMax, Programmatic Guaranteed can be enabled with a robust end-to-end process that orchestrates premium reserved inventory monetization focusing on automation, scale, and performance. 

Specific deals can be managed and defined with buyers, and an agreement is in place to decide what inventory is enabled and at what price. In addition, advertisers can programmatically target publisher audiences through a combination of first and third-party data segments.

More Content on the Market Operator Console to Come!

• If you are an existing AdsWizz customer partner, check our knowledge base for more information about the Market Operator Console.
• Visit the Contact Us page if you are not an AdsWizz partner and want to get in touch with us.

by Jerome Camerlynck, Director of Product Management at AdsWizz

The post Market Operator Console – An Overview appeared first on AdsWizz.