Fragmented Audio Publishers Turn To Aggregation As Advertisers Demand Results.
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Digital audio advertising companies are working to convince marketers that fragmented audio inventory can deliver the scale and measurement capabilities increasingly required to secure larger advertising budgets, AdExchanger reports.
While major platforms such dominate much of the industry’s attention, a significant portion of the ad-supported audio market remains spread across hundreds of streaming audio services, podcast creators and niche publishers. Many of those companies lack the sales resources and audience measurement tools needed to consistently attract national advertising campaigns.
DAX, an audio-focused supply-side platform and sales company, has spent the past decade attempting to aggregate that inventory and connect it with advertisers seeking larger audience reach.
“We have 40 million monthly unique that are exclusive to DAX,” said Brian Conlan, President of DAX US. “We have access to over 100 million unique combined in our audio SSP, and we reach roughly 80% of the US audio landscape.”
The company’s strategy centers on combining audiences from numerous publishers to create scale that can compete for agency spending. However, Conlan said many advertisers remain unfamiliar with smaller audio publishers despite their sizable audiences.
“The holding company buyers probably don’t know what Deezer has in the U.S.,” Conlan said, referring to a streaming music publisher that works with DAX and has more than 10 million U.S. unique listeners. “They just know the big three or four in the space that they see sales teams from every day.”
For some publishers, outside sales organizations provide access to advertisers that would otherwise be difficult to reach. AccuRadio, which operates more than 1,000 human-curated music channels, relies on DAX and other partners rather than maintaining an internal advertising sales force.
“They’re in at all the agencies, and they have a lot of direct relationships,” said Jim Pavilack, head of strategic partnerships at AccuRadio.
As advertisers increasingly seek broad audience buys instead of publisher-specific deals, audio sales organizations face growing pressure to package inventory from multiple publishers into scalable audience segments.
Measurement has emerged as another major challenge for the sector. Advertisers increasingly want proof that audio campaigns generate business outcomes rather than simply delivering impressions.
Talkspace, an online therapy and telehealth provider that purchases digital audio advertising through DAX, said measuring audio advertising effectiveness can be more complicated than evaluating performance on channels such as social media.
“Digital audio is a little bit more fragmented when it gets into the measurement frameworks compared to some other direct-response channels,” said Melissa Velasco, Director of Growth marketing at Talkspace.
Velasco said the company relies on attribution tools, consumer surveys, brand-lift studies and incrementality testing to assess podcast advertising performance. Talkspace also works with DAX to gain additional insights into campaign results across multiple publishers.
Publishers are also seeking more detailed performance data as advertisers ask increasingly sophisticated questions about audience engagement and outcomes, Pavilack said.
Conlan said the industry’s growing emphasis on accountability creates opportunities for audio publishers that can demonstrate measurable results.
“I’m a big proponent of measurement on every campaign,” he said. “If you tag it and it performs, we deserve a seat at the table.”
June 26, 2026 at 12:11PM
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