Pluto's Programmatic Bid Shading, DAI improvements, and Speaking Gigs.

The Espresso Shot

• Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) tech is improving, thanks to leaders like AdsWizz resolving key issues. However, episodic ads still outperform full catalog ads by 30%.

• I’m speaking at Podcast Movement in D.C. on August 20th and PodSummit YYC in Calgary on September 20th, discussing how podcasters should pitch to brands and bridging the gap between podcasters and brands, respectively.

• Pluto TV’s high bid numbers vs. low viewership suggest manipulative practices. Bid duplicating sending multiple bids from one advertiser to an ad slot to artificially drive up costs. Something podcast ad buyers should watch out for.

Light Roast - I’ll admit. DAI tech is getting better.

Look, I’ve harped on Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) for a long time—for good reason. Late insertions, bad frequency, back catalog nightmares, phantom downloads… you name it.

If you’re a publisher/seller who touted the beauty of DAI from 2018 to 2024, please make a formal apology and tag Glenn Rubenstein and me (I'm half kidding). The tech was premature and forced onto the industry.

That said, things are getting better. Some large hosting providers, including AdsWizz, have seemingly resolved many insertion issues around faked-in campaigns. Late insertions are far less common than they were, and most major publishers are adopting frequency capping across campaign types (Acast, please catch up for host reads… I have money).

I’m most proud of some tech partners, buyers, and thought leaders for taking the time and energy to discover and resolve these issues. Brittany Clevenger, Bryan Barletta, Pete Birsinger, Glenn Rubenstein to name a few. Without them, we’d likely all still be force-fed the Kool-Aid of over-promised and underdelivered DAI.

One note: if you read this and use it as an excuse to pitch me on your DAI full catalog, I still see it as a lesser form of advertising than episodic. The data supports it—both ours and across advertisers

According to Podscribe’s data, impression-based buys (meaning full catalog) still convert 30% worse than episodic spots on a per-impression basis.

Episodic got better in Q1 ‘24 vs Q4 ‘23, likely due to less competition post-holiday season and fewer auto downloads in front of catalog via Apple’s updates, among other potential macro market trends in listenership. Happy for you to fill in the gaps if you know more than me here.

Medium Roast - I’m Speaking at Two Conferences!

Thanks to some wonderful last-minute connections, I’ll be joining the stage at two upcoming podcast events.

August 20th, I’ll be joining the stage at Podcast Movement in D.C. with Brayn Barletta and reps from Quill, Ad Results Media, and Direct Results to talk through how podcasters should pitch to brands.

I’m honestly quite excited for this. As a podcaster who has pitched to brands and now as someone who receives pitches daily from podcasters, I feel like there are some valuable insights to glean.

Likewise, I have to give a big shout-out to two of my colleagues, Angela Stiveson and Shane Estrada who are leading panels of their own for the first time at the Podacst movement. Give them a follow and cheer them on! They have so much value to share.

Secondly, in my hometown of Calgary, I’ll be heading up a mainstage talk at PodSummit YYC on Sept 20th covering my journey from podcaster, to in-house buyer, to now agency buyer in a session titled" “Crossing the Chasm."

So many podcasters misunderstand brands’ needs and vice versa. I hope to level the playfield between both while inspiring indie podcasters to start earning revenue while driving revenue for brands.

Dark Roast - Pluto TV’s Programmatic Foreshadowing?

Should concerns of Pluto TV programmatic exchange bid shading cause concerns for podcast ad buyers and the programmatic exchanges in our space? Probably.

Ad Week’s Catherine Perloff wrote about six ad firms discovering the potential manipulative behavior of Pluto TV’s programmatic marketplace artificially up-bidding ads. Read Article.

In essence, if I’m understanding it right, when a brand bids it sends multiple bids to the singular ad slot. According to Perloff, “Bid duplication tricks programmatic platforms into thinking a publisher has more scale than it really does.”

It’s because of bid shading that this happens.

For example, say you want to bid $10 for an ad spot. The next highest bid is $5. So your bid wins, and because of bid shading you only owe $5.01 to beat out the lower bid.

What Perloff is suggesting is that Pluto may be making the brand submit a second bid at a lower than their proposed bid but higher than the floor bid to raise the price.

I.e. They’re sending a second bid for $9, so their bid drops to $9.01 instead of the $5.01 it should have.

But Adam, you recently wrote a post about Hanlon’s razor which states “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” What if Pluto TV actually just has insane performance and high watch time and these brands aren’t being taken advantage of…. they don't.

Pluto TV has the highest bid numbers compared to the other streamers, yet the smallest viewership numbers by comparison. If you use your nose it should be smelling excreant.

Programmatic ad platforms are a bit of a walled garden. It’s hard to see exactly what’s going on from the buyer’s side. But, it’s apparent that something isn’t adding up—it’s not performance brands spending there… follow the people who measure not the brands with deep pockets and employees/agencies incentivized to spend relentlessly.

As I relate this to our industry, Spotify developing its self-serve platform without jurisdictions should be cause for concern due to the ease of manipulative tactics. I love Spotify. I’m a shareholder, a subscriber, and a regular listener. I’m currently finishing an Audiobook on Spotify. I’m a fan, but I see the opportunity they have to do harm if they choose—please Daniel, don’t.

We need to keep walled gardens in check. Who are their target advertisers? Are they naive buyers without measurement tools or savvy tech-forward and measuring buyers? If it’s the latter I have far more trust in their efforts. Otherwise, if it’s the former I presume it is predatory. It’s for the same reason I’m not a fan of many major publishers in podcasting as they’ve bent the knee to easy brand awareness dollars… it’s borderline predatory.

On an aside, podcasting loves Pluto TV. Pluto TV is a multi-million dollar per year advertiser on podcasts:

Frankly, I don’t buy programmatic so it doesn’t affect me. However, I am wary of its impact on podcasting at large and its dilutionary effect on our medium as a whole. I see it as a means to sell poor-quality inventory to unassuming buyers unwilling to put in the discovery effort to find the right shows—I’m not a fan, but you probably know that if you’re reading my content.

Trust is everything. It’s what sells products advertised on podcasts, but possibly more importantly it’s what keeps brands investing in this industry where data is sparse and hard to come by and interpret. We need to be extremely careful not to take advantage of negligence.

Ciao!