Why DSPs are leaving audio revenue on the table

Opinion

If DSPs are to deliver truly omnichannel performance, audio must sit alongside, not adjacent to, the rest of the stack, writes AudioStack’s Silke Zetzsche.

Audio is often described as an under-invested channel, particularly compared with faster-growing formats such as CTV, retail media, and social. But that framing misses something important.

Consumers are already there. Audio accounts for roughly a quarter of ad-supported media consumption, yet attracts less than 10% of ad spend. Listening is habitual, trusted and embedded into daily life. More importantly, it drives action: research shows that 77% of digital audio listeners report having purchased a brand, product or service after hearing an audio ad.

The issue is not effectiveness. The issue is enablement.

Audio has not been fully integrated into the DSP model

Historically, audio was often purchased directly from publishers, which limited its integration into programmatic workflows. As DSPs evolved, they became the engine of omnichannel activation, unifying display, video, CTV, DOOH, retail media, and first-party data into a single optimisation layer.

That unified view is now the DSP’s core strength. It eliminates silos, enables cross-channel measurement and allows advertisers to optimise holistically.

Yet audio has not always been fully embedded within that same operating model.

If DSPs are to deliver truly omnichannel performance, audio must sit alongside, not adjacent to, the rest of the stack.

The demonstration gap

In conversations with commercial and customer teams, a consistent pattern emerges: audio is available, but it is not always central to the pitch.

This is rarely about belief in the channel. More often, it is about starting points.

Many brands have no audio creative ready. Others have one or two static assets. Some are unsure what their brand should sound like or how to test audio without committing to a lengthy production process.

That creates a simple commercial reality: You can’t create demand if you can’t demonstrate it.

If there is nothing to play in the room, audio remains theoretical, and theoretical channels rarely unlock incremental revenue.

Dynamic buying, static creative

From a buying perspective, DSPs are highly sophisticated. They activate geo, contextual and first-party signals across channels. They optimise in real time. They leverage proprietary algorithms and supply relationships; the platform’s “secret sauce”.

But audio creative has often remained static, simply because producing and adapting it at scale has historically been slow and resource-intensive.

The result is a mismatch: dynamic targeting combined with static creative.

When the creative cannot respond to the same data signals as bidding and optimisation, performance potential is constrained. The platform may optimise impressions, but not the message itself.

This is not a sales capability issue. It would be easy to argue that sellers need to push audio harder. That misses the point.

DSP sellers are not creative technologists, nor should they be. They are experts in data, inventory, optimisation and platform differentiation. Their role is to grow revenue efficiently and strategically.

What they require is not a new skillset, but better tools.

If a seller can generate high-quality audio from an existing display or video asset, or directly from a campaign brief outlining audience, objectives and KPIs, audio becomes much easier to include in every omnichannel proposal.

Not as an add-on.
But as part of a coherent performance strategy.

When a brand can hear a tailored execution in the meeting, adapted by geography, message or campaign phase, the conversation shifts. Audio becomes tangible rather than optional.

Creative as a performance lever

The real opportunity, however, is not access. It is optimisation.

Audio creative can now adapt dynamically to the same signals DSPs already use across display, CTV, DOOH and social. Messaging can flex by region, store location, language, timing or audience segment. Thousands of variants can be activated programmatically through a single trafficking point, allowing creative to sit inside the optimisation loop rather than outside it.

For DSPs, this is strategically significant.

As buying capabilities converge across display, CTV and other competitive channels, differentiation increasingly depends on how well platforms connect data, performance and creative.

Audio, when integrated properly, strengthens that differentiation.

The omnichannel growth question

Consumers are spending significant time with audio. Investment has not kept pace. Meanwhile, growth in more mature channels, including display, social and increasingly CTV, is becoming more competitive and incremental.

True omnichannel planning should reflect how audiences actually behave. If platforms unify display, video, CTV and DOOH but leave audio under-activated, they are not fully aligning investment with attention.

Audio does not need rescuing. It needs to be integrated.

The opportunity already exists: strong consumption, proven effectiveness and scalable activation. The question is whether DSPs are structured to capture that omnichannel revenue, or whether they will continue leaving growth on the table simply because audio has been harder to demonstrate than other channels.

Silke Zetzsche is VP global commercial partnerships at AudioStack