Advertising only fails when it's bad. For all other cases, it is sure to generate value for your podcast and increase your listenership.
In theory, we all know that good advertising should be creative, engaging, and convincing.
However, when it comes to sitting down and inventing advertising material for your show, you might get stuck.
If that has ever happened to you, then it's good that you landed on this article. Here, we discuss some working tips to help you utilize one of the most popular advertising mediums nowadays; podcasts.
How does Podcast Advertising Work and Is It Effective?
Podcasts are one of the top digital advertising alternatives that take hold of listeners at an unprecedented rate. In 2021, around 222 million people will be familiar with podcasts in the US, and about 80 million of them listen to podcasts regularly. According to Statista's projection, active podcast listeners can reach 100 million in the US by 2024.
Now, let's get to what makes this medium great for advertising; it is perceived completely differently in podcasts. Listeners do not view it as something purely promotional. Instead, podcast listeners see podcast ads as the host's endorsement of the product or service, and that's why 78% of podcast listeners claim they don't mind listening to ads in podcasts.
Putting your advertising in podcasts is effective, as here, you can target a highly-engaged audience who shares the same interests with podcast hosts.
Therefore, you should not miss the opportunity of showcasing your product in front of a well-targeted audience.
Here are a few tips for having successful podcast ads.
Tip #1. Choose what you want to advertise wisely
If you want to have a well-targeted ad, carefully decide on what you want to advertise first. Ask yourself which direction in your business needs promotion the most and focus on it.
If you don't chase the sole goal of increasing awareness for your brand and want to have more tangible results, it's better to work in a specific direction; for example, you can advertise a product with a big discount or work towards having more subscribers on your website.
After you are clear about what you want to advertise, you can decide when and how you should promote it.
Tip #2. Decide on the ad placement
When choosing where you will put your advertising, it's essential to consider both the podcast topic and the host's personal characteristics. Your advertised product should fit both if you want to have an organic placement with effective results.
After choosing the podcast where your advertising will fit in the most, you should consider placing it in the show. Depending on the part of the show where you decide to put your advertisement, the duration of the ad should be different:
- Pre-roll ads are placed at the beginning of the show and usually last for about 15 seconds.
- Mid-roll ads appear in the middle of the podcast and can have a duration of 1 minute.
Besides those two, there is also an option to put your advertising at the end of the podcast. In this case, usually, the advertising rate is more affordable. However, you should avoid this option, as the majority of the listeners do not listen to advertising at the end of the show.
Tip #3. Discuss the ad with the host
Of course, you know your product better than the host. However, when you advertise it on the host's platform, it's better to cooperate when deciding the ad's details, as the host knows their platform and audience way better.
The best podcast ads sound natural and go well with the host's personality and communication style. So, it's better not to give a prewritten text that the host should read, as this might sound artificial and not catchy for the listeners.
Explaining what goal you want to reach with your advertising and letting the host introduce it in their way might work times better.
Tip #4. Have a measurable Call to Action
Advertising something without a proper call to action can decrease your ad's effectiveness for two main reasons.
Firstly, you provide listeners with an incomplete user experience; they hear about your brand and do not know what to do after. A call to action will navigate your users to where they can, and you want them to act by buying a product, subscribing to your platform, etc.
Secondly, a specified call to action allows you to track the ad's impressions better. If you want to know how many people listened to your advertising or how many of them were interested, a measurable call to action at the end of your ad is exactly what you need.
For example, introduce a unique promo code that only listeners of the specific show can use. In this way, you will be able to track the ad impressions.
Tip #5. Choose a payment method appropriate for your ad
Our last tip aims to make every penny of your marketing budget count. For this, you should be aware of the podcast advertising rates and what type of payment method you should choose.
There are two main options you can choose from.
- CPM (Cost Per Mile) assumes you pay for every 1,000 people who listened to the podcast that contains advertising. It's one of the most popular payment methods in the advertising industry since you pay only when advertising reaches a certain number of listeners.
- CPA (Cost per Acquisition) means you pay for every customer directed to the business from the advertising. This is one of the advertisers' most beneficial payment methods since you will pay for the ad only when it works. However, not all hosts agree to these terms.
Besides the above payment methods, you can negotiate with each podcaster and discuss ad rates based on the podcast's popularity, advertised material length, placement, and many other factors.
Therefore, the critical thing for successful podcast advertising is deciding what you want to promote and finding a suitable platform for native placement. Once you complete this step, the rest of the technicalities won't be a hassle.
