Acast adds keyword targeting to podcast advertising, citing the supremacy of context

If users search for online content based on keywords, why shouldn’t advertisers purchase marketing campaigns the same way? In fact, they can do that within Google’s ad ecosystem. Now, podcast advertisers have an avenue for keyword-based targeting within the Acast marketplace, according to an Acast announcement.

Here  is the key statement from Acast:

“Acast can now give advertisers access to enhanced targeting capabilities for keywords and due to its proprietary technology, it is the first to offer enhanced targeting capabilities for IAB content categories, across the widest scale of podcast content available anywhere.”

This path to keyword-based ad buying is the result of Acast proprietary technology, currently being applied to the top 100 shows in the UK, top 100 in the U.S., and top 100 globally. Acast claims that its speech-to-text system has transcribed nearly half the company’s global inventory of shows. “This artificial intelligence-powered tech transcribes the audio from thousands of hours of podcast episodes and analyses it for keywords,” Acast states. “This generates a relevancy score which can then be mapped against categories from the IAB content taxonomy.”

In its statement received by RAIN News, Acast cites Google’s determination to rescind support for third-party cookies as part of Acast’s rationale for developing the keyword targeting. Acast believes in “a future where ads are no longer targeted on user data, but rather on context.” That is an interesting vision and strategic touch point.

Brad Hill