Podcasts have been around for over a decade,
but it’s only within the last few years that the format has begun to capture
the attention of the general public. Shows like Serial and This American Life have
garnered over 50,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts. The industry’s surge in popularity
hasn’t escaped the attention of advertisers looking to capitalize on the format’s
momentum, either. Last year, domestic podcast ad revenue grew by 53% to an all-time
high of $479 Million and is expected to exceed $1 Billion in 2021. Earlier this
year, Spotify invested $400 Million to acquire smaller podcast networks and
tools to help bolster its position as a leading audio platform. With the rapid
influx of revenue and investment, brands are assessing the viability of podcast
advertising as a vehicle for their messaging. Here are some crucial factors and
pointers to get the most out of your podcast ad campaigns.
Benefits of Podcast Advertising – Podcasts reach 62 Million Americans
weekly making it a receptive channel for advertising campaigns. Host-read ads
have been the primary delivery vehicle for podcast ads, though increasingly,
programmatic options have become more widely available. For host-read ads, the
hosts play a pivotal role in the delivery and efficacy of your ads. Hosts can
turn your product pitch into native advertising, which may decrease the odds of
listeners skipping over it. Loyal listeners are also more likely to trust a
host’s endorsement because it’s coming from someone, they’re already familiar
with.
Host-read ads are baked directly into podcast
episodes, meaning that listeners who dive into a podcast’s archive may hear
your ad long after it originally aired. This may increase your brand’s exposure
without increasing your ad spend but this can also be a drawback.
Drawbacks of Podcast Advertising – You’ll want to keep offer
timeframes in mind when planning host-read ads. Listeners don’t want to find out
your offer already expired when they tune into older episodes. Presently, the
podcast advertising industry lacks some of the data, transparency, and tools
that digital advertisers are accustomed to. Audience information, such as
demographics, may not be readily available, although research firms such as Nielsen
are now offering such data sourced through listener surveys.
Without detailed, reliable audience information,
targeting capabilities may also be limited, which can result in inefficiencies
and make it more difficult to scale your podcast ad campaigns. This may change
over time as networks begin to introduce more advertising features. Spotify,
for example, enabled targeting by genre earlier this year. Prospective
advertisers should also be aware of the challenges to attribution and tracking conversions.
Direct response ads combined with a dedicated landing page and “how did you hear
about us” fields during the registration or checkout process are common
tactics, but they may not account for listeners who convert later or after
encountering your brand multiple times.
Types of Podcast Ads – Ads are usually placed at the beginning,
middle and end of a podcast. These slots are referred to as pre-roll, mid-roll
and post-roll, with pre-roll and post-roll ads, are typically ranging from 15-30
seconds and mid-roll ads running as long as a minute. For lengthier podcast
episodes, there may be more than one mid-roll ad slot. Regardless of the
position within the episode, podcast ads are either read by the host during
recording or pre-recorded and dynamically inserted when the episode is
downloaded. Last year, 51.2% of podcast ads were delivered by a host.
Host-read Ads – With careful planning and coordination, this the format has the potential to tap into the audience’s trust in the show’s host,
which may allow your ad to be conveyed more as a testimonial than marketing
collateral. In this way, it’s akin to Influencer marketing. Host-read ads
become part of the episode content, which means the ads will continue to serve
as long as the episodes are available.
Dynamically inserted Ads – In this, we have more targeting
capabilities which work great for advertisers that have time-sensitive requirements
or need to reach a certain GEO area. One potential, but considerable, the trade-off
for these targeting and scaling abilities is that your ads may be less engaging
to listeners due to the lack of host involvement and cohesion with the rest of
the episode’s content, which may hinder your objectives.
Cost structures – Ad spots are commonly priced according to one
of the following models:
· Cost per Mile (CPM) – This is the most common pricing
model and refers to the cost per one thousand downloads. Streams are also
included as downloads, but a thousand downloads may not equate to a thousand listens
as an episode may be requested but not played (as is the case with
automatically downloaded episodes that a listener may overlook or not be
interested in).
· Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – There may not be an upfront cost
associated with this model. Instead, the cost is determined by the number of
leads or conversions that a podcast sends to your business.
· Negotiation – This method can be a mix of the
other two or something different altogether. It’s up to the advertiser and the podcast
to come up with a deal they can both agree on.
The length of the ad and its position within
the episode will also have an impact on the overall cost. In addition, Audience
demographics, its history of engagement, the genre of the show, overall
advertiser demand for the inventory and a show or host’s popularity as factors
that can influence pricing.
Measuring success – The technology and platforms that
facilitate attribution and conversion tracking of podcast ad campaigns have yet
to reach the maturity of search and social advertising, but they are evolving
as companies like Spotify pour in investments and advertiser demand rises. Tracking
and measurement are challenging for several reasons. For one, listeners can
access podcasts across a number of competing apps and services. Conversions
happen off-podcast, which makes attribution a challenge — it’s why the ads so
often include custom URLs tailored to each podcast. Yet, despite the
challenges, gauging success is possible.
1. Direct Response - Many podcast ads use a direct
response mechanism to point listeners to their websites. Traffic to the landing
page is one way to gauge a campaign’s reach and trial sign-ups are one way to
measure ROI.
2. Social media engagement - For initiatives in which conversions
may not necessarily be the goal, such as brand awareness campaigns, social
mentions, shares and hashtag activity are ways to quantify your campaign’s
reach. A giveaway component can also be added to social or direct response
campaigns to further entice listeners to engage with your brand.
3. Website and social traffic - Monitoring your website traffic and
social media metrics can also give you a sense of how your podcast ads are
performing, so long as you’re accounting for other variables such as seasonal
trends or concurrent campaigns that you might be running.
4. “How did you hear about us?” - To help you attribute conversions
over the long term, consider adding a “how did you hear about us?” field or a drop-down menu to your registration or checkout process.
5. Studies and surveys - The tactics mentioned above assume
that a brand’s online presence is one of the main way’s consumers convert or interact
with it. If that doesn’t describe your business model, some podcast ad networks
offer off-site methods of estimating your campaign’s reach.
6. Third-party tools - Some measurement platforms and ad
networks offer pixel-based attribution that may provide more information on a
potential customer’s journey. With regards to podcast advertising, pixel-based an attribution usually involves correlating a pixel fired upon ad insertion with
pixels on an advertiser’s website in order to match listeners with on-site
activities such as conversions. Third-party tools may also enable you to view
reports on your audience and ad performance. Some providers also offer
retargeting capabilities that may help expand your ad campaign.
DIY or partner with an ad network? – It will cost less to run your own
podcast ad campaign, but there are a number of other factors that should influence
your design.
1. DIY – In addition to the cost savings, you’ll have
the freedom to choose which podcast you’d like to partner with and compare
prices. You may also be able to negotiate your terms, communicate directly with
the podcast’s host and build rapport with the people who are actually
delivering your messaging. If it’s your first time running a podcast ad
campaign, your in-house team will also get the opportunity to gain experience
that may save your brand money or increase the efficiency of future podcast ad
campaigns. There are, however, risks associated with doing it in-house:
Dedicating some of your own team members to a podcast ad campaign may leave you
short-staffed. Inexperienced advertisers may make mistakes that affect their
campaign results. And, individual podcasts may not offer as many options in the
way of audience data, targeting or measuring ROI.
2. Podcast ad networks - The expertise, resources, technology
and access to ad inventory that ad networks bring to the table may be worth the
additional cost, especially for brands that prioritize having more data,
targeting capabilities and scaling options. Having these capabilities at your
disposal may increase your campaign’s efficacy and transparency but work
with an ad network is likely to cost more and you may be limited to advertising
on the shows within the network.
Get most of your Podcast Ads – From selecting a podcast to partner
with to optimizing your campaign, there’s a lot a consider. Here are a few
pointers to guide your podcast ad initiatives.
1. Ask about Listener Data – Many podcasts survey their
listeners to get a feel for what kind of content and advertisements their
audiences may be interested. Some ad networks, such as NPR, even make their
audience demographics readily available for prospective advertising partners. Don’t
just assume that your audience is interested in particular podcast based on genre
or anecdotal evidence, inquire about audience surveys and data and compare it to
existing personas that your marketing team has already built out.
2. Make sure the podcast’s host and
listeners are part of your target audience - Successful podcasts are in tune with their listeners
and giving the host firsthand experience with your offerings and as much
information as possible can help them craft their pitch in a way that resonates
with their subscribers.
3. Get in line early - If you’re looking to get the widest
reach by advertising on top podcasts, you’ll want to get in touch and express
interest as early as possible. Many of them will have sold their entire ad
inventory before the season even begins.
4. Craft a clear message - Make sure your audio ad points out
the clear advantages of using your product or service and gives a clear
call-to-action that the audience will remember. Thirty to sixty seconds isn’t a lot of time and without the aid of visuals, making your ad informative while
keeping it concise and distinct can help you making a lasting impression on
listeners.
5. Give it time - Many podcast apps allow listeners to
subscribe and automatically download new episodes, which means that your ad may
not immediately get heard. Listeners may also need to hear your ad or the host
endorse your brand several times before they visit your site or make a
purchase. Running your ad on the same podcast a number of times and keeping an
eye on your KPIs for a few months after all the ads have aired may provide a
fuller picture of your campaign’s results.
6. Test your ads - After you’ve gathered enough data
from your first campaign, you can begin to experiment to improve your ads.
Tweaking just one variable at a time will yield better data for comparison. You
can test out different placements (such as pre-roll instead of mid-roll or vice
versa), different lengths, having a different host read your ad, changing the script, allowing the host to improvise without a script, advertising with the
same script but on a different podcast or switch between host-read ads and
dynamically inserted ones. Dynamically inserted ads also lend themselves to A/B
testing. You can play the same ad in the same position on different podcasts to
see which audience is more responsive.
7. Mix and match - Running a longer mid-roll ad at the outset of a campaign can be a great way to introduce your brand to the
podcast’s audience. After loyal listeners gain some familiarity, you may be
able to save money and get more from your investment by switching over to
shorter pre- or post-roll ads that are scripted to keep your brand relevant and
continue the momentum you’ve built earlier in the campaign.
Podcasts are still a relatively novel approach to
reaching an audience and technology and best practices and technology solutions
are still developing. Marketing teams that are able to keep the above guidance
in mind, tailor their messaging to the format and aren’t afraid to experiment
stand to extend their reach to audiences that are ready to listen.
