On September 13th, Prebid announced the addition of Prebid Audio to the framework, opening new monetization opportunities for publishers and hoping to set the standards for the industry. Prebid, launched in 2015, is an open framework that makes header bidding easy for publishers by bringing conformity and simplicity to the header bidding process. After 8 years, Prebid now has a wide range of products: Prebid.js, Prebid Server, Prebid Mobile, SharedID, and Prebid Audio.
Leadership and Membership Opportunities
Leading the way for Prebid Audio are:
Jordan Bentley – Founder of Audiohook, a media & technology company that helps businesses reach their customers using digital audio & podcast advertising.
Bryan Barletta – Partner at Sounds Profitable, a collection of media properties that covers both strategic and tactical changes to the business of podcasting.
For those intrigued by the limitless potential of audio advertising and want to contribute, Prebid Audio’s taskforce is actively seeking new members. Don’t hesitate to drop us a note.
Why an Audio Taskforce?
Despite being the most popular ad format alongside CTV, audio is challenged by the lack of modern technology and therefore, faces constraints in the “pipes”. This affects not only Publishers but also Creators in revenue. This is what Prebid Audio wants to solve.
Podcasting will be one of the primary focuses as it is growing substantially yet faces a lot of constraints and unpredictabilities. For instance, unlike audio streaming, there is no signal before the audience downloads a podcast episode, this requires any ad activities to happen immediately and quickly. While it’s a complex topic, resolving these issues will create significant immediate impacts.
Moreover, with Prebid Server already catering to the audio format, a broader spectrum of audio platforms and applications will also benefit from reinforced support.
Goals of the Taskforce
As always, Prebid aims to create an agnostic and transparent method for Publishers to best grow revenues by generating more demand and increasing competition for their inventory.
Besides that, Prebid Audio hopes to help advertisers increase the reach and scale of their audio campaigns by having improved access to inventory.
For ad tech providers, Prebid Audio wants to encourage them to compete on a level footing by having equal access to the ”pipes”, creating a fair game for everyone.
Roadmap of the Audio Taskforce
Prebid Audio is at its early stage, so there are ongoing discussions about how it can be best incorporated into the Prebid framework. That said, it certainly will enhance the Prebid framework with improved audio support.
Since Prebid already offers some basic support for streaming audio, the taskforce will focus efforts on designing a specification on how to incorporate podcasts into the framework in a manner that best enables adoption.
Once designed, the task force will evolve into a PMC to oversee implementation. Additional improvements to audio will then be managed by the PMC every 2 – 4 weeks.
Want to stay updated on Prebid Audio’s next steps? Please feel free to reach out to Katie Morgart and Bryan Barletta.
Technicality
- Player: As Prebid typically runs on the server side, Publishers need to use Audio Player from ad tech providers. However, for Podcasts, there is no need for that as the podcast hosting platform handles the process.
- Template: VAST is currently the preferred option. However, the discussion is ongoing.
Catch a replay of the entire webinar here.
Prebid Audio will be discussed at the Prebid Summit this October in New York. Stay tuned!
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