If you’re not planning to run audio ads in 2025, you should start now 👇
Young Americans spend over half of their daily listening time with ad-supported digital audio, whether it's podcasts or music streaming. I guess similar picture in Europe.
Spotify reigns supreme.
With 32% of the global streaming market and rapidly growing monthly active users, it’s the king of audio.
In 2024, ad-supported users grew faster than premium ones, now making up 62% of its total user base (vs 56% in 2020).
Advertising revenue are up 7% year-on-year.
Until recently, Spotify relied heavily on direct ad sales. But now, they’re expanding their programmatic solutions in partnership with The Trade Desk.
And this is where the opportunity for brands arises!
Advertisers can now reach 425 million ad-supported users in a programmatic and efficient way.
And here’s the best part:
recording audio ads is cheaper than ever with tools like ElevenLabs and its AI-generated voices.
And if this wasn't enough,
there's a massive gap in the market 💡.
Audio consumption is growing, but it’s still under-monetised.
WARC estimates that while audio accounts for 24.5% of all ad-supported media consumption in the US, it represents only 8.4% of ad spend. 🤯
This means less competition, lower costs and more opportunities "to be heard".
Audio-only social media (like Clubhouse) tried and failed.
Spotify took it all. It now owns everything audio, user-generated music, podcasts, even audiobooks.
In this landscape, music becomes "content" and musicians become "creators", just like YouTubers and podcasters.
While this might not be good news for musicians, it is great news for advertisers!
It seems I'm a "very obscure person". Thanks Claude! 😐
Here is what I'm doing to optimise my personal brand in the age of Ai 👇
I try new chatbots and always ask the same question:
Who is Giacomo Iotti?
-> Claude has no clue.
I appear to be "a very obscure person".
-> DeepSeek admits I’m not widely known.
Fair enough. But it claims to be updated to October 2023? I expected better!
When I tried again with search enabled… it was “busy.” 😒
-> Grok gets closer, but mixes my profile with another Giacomo Iotti.
Turns out, I’m a “multifaceted” individual. True, but I’ve never been a TV director, yet!
-> ChatGPT finally recognises me!
It gives a solid summary and cites my personal website.
Interesting how it picks different articles each time. I’d love to know the logic behind that.
-> Perplexity is by far the best.
Pulls a detailed professional background with sources like my website, LinkedIn, corporate pages, and more.
Some takeaways:
1. Claude, please add a search function!
2. SEO in the Ai era is different.
Forget ranking, traffic and clicks, now it's all about Ai reputation.
Jes Scholz I think you would agree on this one :)
3. Your Ai reputation evolves.
Over the past year, I’ve seen Ai responses shift as I updated my website, LinkedIn, and articles. Makes me wonder: how does Ai chooses what content to show each time?
4. The importance of a personal brand.
It doesn't matter I have just few followers or little traffic to my website.
What matters is that Ai knows me!
And I’m proud of that, it means I’m on the right path.
Next step?
Adding "Who is Giacomo Iotti?" as a FAQ to my About Page.
Optimus will provide unlimited manpower through its humanoid robots. When humans are still required, the Neuralink implant will make sure no one refuses to help.
X isn't just another social network. It's where politicians, influential journalists, and CEOs are among the most active users. With this platform, alongside Grok, Elon can ensure both the elite and the general public are on his side. His endorsement for Donald Trump (likely winner in the US presidential elections) will do the rest.
Starlink will provide world-wide connectivity during war operations. This is already happening in Ukraine for example.
SpaceX will provide intercontinental transportation, as well as (militar?) rockets.
The Boring Company will build strategic underground infrastructure to move robots and people around.
Tesla autonomous “taxi” will move at Elon’s command.
Snailbrook will be Elon’s town and HQ, safely housing its people, robots and equipment.
All the above will require immense electrical power to operate. That’s why Elon is building Tesla’s Giga Factories to produce and store energy.
Am I forgetting something?
(Edit November 14th, 2024.)
Yes, I am.
He's just been appointed by Donald Trump as the Head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), whatever it is.
It doesn't matter what DOGE is or will be. What matters is that if the above list wasn't enough, the richest man in the world will occupy a formal position in the government of the richest and most powerful country on earth. Reason to be worried? Yes, I think so :(
What will the others do about it? Apple, Microsoft & co
The American DOJ will likely first target Google's practice of paying third parties to be the default search engine on their devices. If that happens, Google will save $20b and Apple will lose $20b, and then what?
Will Apple choose Microsoft Bing as the default? Unlikely.
Eddie Cue, from Apple stated:
“I don’t believe there’s a price in the world that Microsoft could offer us” [to make us switch].
In the end, Apple wants the best for their users and no other search engine does a better job than Google. In any case, $20b exceeds Microsoft's annual revenue from Bing, so even if Apple were open to negotiations, it would be mad for Microsoft to pay that amount.
Will other startups build a Google competitor? Also unlikely.
Indexing and analysing the entire web is an expensive business.
Apple estimated that creating a Google clone would cost them at least $6 billion a year. Even the most well-funded VC startup couldn't afford such an investment.
Another factor is that Google is obviously the default search engine on Chrome, which holds over 64% of the global browser market share.
This raises the question: why would Google even need to pay to be the default search engine on other browsers or devices?
The answer is in this screenshot.
On iPhones, users can perform searches outside of a browser, and currently, the first results are reserved for Google (via the default browser, Mozilla in my case). However, just below those results, there are direct links to publishers' websites.
I know what you’re thinking 😁 but no, they’re not ads! yet…
In essence, Google wants to prevent Apple or Samsung from experimenting with similar solutions, as these could potentially bypass it altogether.
My best bet is that if Apple stops receiving payments from Google, they would soon push direct links more prominently. And they could make money from them too.
However, ads isn't Apple's core business. Apple Search Ads is still an underdeveloped product, and their sales organisation is small. This could open a new market for other companies to manage ads for Apple or Samsung. In fact, this is already partially happening, with startups offering "expansion" features for Apple Search Ads. But, Apple would still be the “gatekeeper”.
To make things more complicated, Ai chatbots are entering the search game too.
It seems ChatGPT will be integrated natively into iPhones. So, will Apple need to offer a choice screen also here? Will Google, with Gemini on Android?
No matter how you approach the issue, a new monopolist will emerge.
By the way, Apple was also recently sued for monopolising the smartphone market.
It seems we're just shifting from one monopolist to another.
