The Power of Audio: Retailers Make Some Noise to Attract Consumers

In 2022, shoppers are looking for meaningful retail experiences with a personal touch that truly resonate with them. Brands should therefore be turning to innovative new solutions to engage effectively with their audiences.

Data shows that over 190 million Americans listen to audio online each month. Furthermore, the U.S. digital audio ad market will rise to over $5 billion by the end of the year. With this rapid surge of audio comes a plethora of innovative opportunities for retailers.

All too often, however, audio ads can be repetitive and generic. Research conducted by A Million Ads and Attest last year showed 75 percent of U.S. respondents feel annoyed when seeing or hearing the same ad over and over. One way to rectify this is by creating dynamic audio ads.

Enter Dynamic Audio Ads

With dynamic audio ads, retailers are able to change an ad’s messaging in real time so it’s personalized to the person listening and served in the most relevant and appropriate context, based on a series of data cues. Furthermore, through sequence and rotation, ads can be made even more dynamic, ensuring the messaging stays fresh and thus helping to avoid ad fatigue.

These inputs include contextual, demographic and, if available, behavioral data from the audio publisher, to know whether a person is interested in that specific retailer’s product category. It’s then possible to add layers of context, such as location, device type, day of the week, time of day, and weather.

For instance, a retailer could use purchase history and inventory data to match specific products with proven buyers, or use the weather to inform which product categories to promote when it’s snowing or sunny.  Another example could be using location and date to program countdowns for local in-store events or promotions.

Just as importantly, however, a series of ads can be developed so a person doesn't hear the same messaging twice. Sonic branding can remain consistent, but a retailer can tell a story that develops across a series of ads to avoid people becoming fed up with the same message repeated over and over again.

Driving Efficiency

Retailers may sometimes wonder if dynamically creating ads is too expensive and time consuming, especially given how many variants they may need to create. But there’s no need to be alarmed. It normally only takes roughly a two-hour session with a voiceover artist to record the necessary lines, which are then fed into a platform.

To boost efficiency, retailers can record more than they need for one campaign and simply bank unused lines for future creatives. They may choose to record all of their store’s locations, for example, or perhaps add context through covering a range of celebrations, such as Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, or Super Bowl weekend.

The opportunities in digital audio are now endless. Moving forward, retailers need to ensure they're creating meaningful experiences to truly engage with their audiences, and becoming dynamic by default is the answer. In turn, this will result in better brand awareness, higher conversion rates, and increased purchase intent.

The brands that step up their game in the audio market will be the ones to have a real impact on the retail industry this year.

Paul Kelly is the chief revenue officer at A Million Ads, a company that uses data to create personalized advertising with more context and more relevance to better connect with people.