PRX uses Kevel to scale their homegrown podcast ad platform
Public radio's largest podcast marketplace uses Kevel to augment their internal ad server
4x
More ad revenue
<100ms
Average response time
9x
Faster launch vs from scratch
What PRX Wanted
Public Radio Exchange (PRX) operates public radio’s largest podcast distribution marketplace, and they already had a homegrown ad server that enabled podcasters to monetize by inserting audio ads into episodes.
As they scaled, however, their advertisers and podcasters starting asking for more features, and PRX didn't have the engineering resources needed to make these improvements.
So PRX turned to Kevel's ad serving APIs to augment their in-house ad product and quickly add new features and functionality.
Within a few weeks, PRX had upgraded their system - making their podcasters happy while also driving new revenue for themselves.
Audio ads are now inserted at time of download - not hardcoded at time of recording
Before, PRX ads were hardcoded to each episode, so PRX couldn't monetize old podcasts. Now, when a user downloads any episode, PRX pings Kevel with targeting data like the podcast name. Kevel then picks the right audio ads, stitches them into the podcast, and PRX hosts that file on their server.
Outcome:
- 4x more revenue since old podcasts could now be monetized
- Increased ad relevance thanks to contextual targeting
We've been able to leap ahead using Kevel's APIs for audio podcast advertising. It has all the features to accomplish everything we've needed to do.CTO, PRX
Full backend, server-side integration
All of the ad decisions are requested server-side — giving PRX the ability to host the compiled audio file on their own servers. This wouldn't be possible with a standard JavaScript ad serving solution.
Outcome:
- Ad response times as low as 50ms, even at scale
- PRX built this bespoke, complex platform in just weeks
curl -H 'Content-Type:application/json' \
-X POST \
-d '{"placements":[{
"divName":"div1",
"networkId":23,
"siteId":667480,
"adTypes":[5]}],
"user":{"key":"abc"}}' \
\
https://e-23.adzerk.net/api/v2{ "user": { "key": "abc" },
"decisions": {
"div1": {
"adID": 1234567,
"creativeID": 7654321,
"flightID": 9876543,
"campaignID": 3456789,
"clickURL": "https://e-123.kevel.co...",
"imageURL": "https://e-123.kevel.co...",
"height": 250,
"width": 300,
...
}
}
}We've quickly scaled our podcast ad platform using Kevel - allowing us to create a growing line of business.CTO, PRX
Automation made everyone happier
Having access to UI and Management APIs makes it easy for PRX to set-up campaigns and manage what promotions are live. This automation ensures that PRX doesn't promote old offers - without having to manually pause them.
If you are looking for API-level ad integration, I haven't found anything that holds a candle to them.CTO, PRX