If you have been looking for ways to grow your podcast, then this episode is for you. In this episode, we will talk about using paid podcast ads and podcast ad swaps to grow your audience.
A couple of weeks back there was this legal issue in which: The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint made against a brand named Huel and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett.
The complaint was that a host-read podcast ad was not identified as an ad and that it was “in a similar style and tone to the editorial material and therefore not differing significantly between the two”.
That’s sent some alarm bells ringing in the podcast-o-sphere.
Before we start today’s show, let us look at a couple of things that you should keep in mind when you are running podcast ads on your show.
- Whenever you run podcast ads on your podcast, ensure that you are clearly mentioning that it is an ad. How you mention that is entirely up to you. But be as clear as possible. Don’t use shady techniques to pass it off as a part of your content, just because the advertiser didn’t want you to say that it is sponsored and he was ready to pay more for that.
- Always and always vet your ad. Don’t fall into the trap of promoting something that you fundamentally don’t agree with. You might earn a few bucks in the short term but in the long term, it will only harm you. Your audience might not be the kind who would like to listen to such ads and hence this could even impact your listenership.
- If you are running an ad on any other show, then ensure that you are asking the podcaster to mention that it is a sponsored ad.
We spoke a lot about podcast ads and advertising in the last 2 episodes. If you haven’t yet listened to it, then I would recommend that you do it right away.
Podcast Promotions using Podcast Ads
The past few months have seen Podcast adverts growing like anything. Companies and networks are bringing in more and more product types.
Take for example Buzzsprout which launched Buzzsprout ads. Creators are earning a lot of money from these ads.
Last week we heard an announcement from Blubrry about programmatic ads.
If you are wondering what programmatic ads are then you might want to listen to the last 2 episodes.
Programmatic ads are automatic ads that your podcast host can run on your shows and pay you for running them on your shows.
A lot of this is automatic like what ads to place, how frequently to place etc. Hence the name, “programmatic ads”.
Blubrry says that you can earn between $5-$15 CPM and has opened up the show to all podcasts irrespective of the downloads.
That makes Blubrry, one of the few podcast hosts who offer programmatic ads to their customers.
Anyways, back to the topic of Podcast promo swaps and podcast ads to promote your show.
A couple of weeks back, I signed up for Buzzsprout ads and ran an ad with them for podcast promotions. I wanted to check how effective it was.
I will talk about some of the findings in a little while but, the ad was effective in that I found there was a spike in my downloads.
Though it wasn’t great and I wasn’t expecting it to be great considering I signed up only for about 5000 downloads.
But the impact of the downloads, meaning the audience who probably tuned in to listen to the podcast has stayed for about 2 weeks now.
How do I know that?
The spike that I saw in the download numbers has since stayed for 2 weeks now.
So what exactly is it that I did?
I ran an ad on a podcast for my podcast promotion. I created a short 30-45 seconds promo and ran the ad on other podcasts.
Though I didn’t have a lot of control over what podcasts it could play, still Buzzsprout gave me some targeting options like age, sex, etc., though I am really not sure how they are using that.
I have been running podcast ads for some time now but I am not in favor of spending a lot of money on ads. So I too don’t do it.
I had to do this experiment with Buzzsprout so I spent $100.
Are podcast ads for podcast promotions effective?
Yes and No!
You might see some impact from the ads and the download numbers, subscriptions, etc could go up. But not considerably. So don’t expect your show to go off the roof with these ads.
Also, there is absolutely no way you will be able to track where the audience is coming from. So tracking and conversion metrics aren’t going to help.
Things to keep in mind when running Podcast ads
Here are a few things you might want to keep in mind when doing such ads for podcast promotions –
- Personalize the ad for the audience- Create a promo that looks like you are talking to them. Don’t make it look like an intrusion or, obstruction. Make it look like a natural recommendation.
- Target a related niche – Don’t pay for advertisements that run on random shows. Pick related niches where the audience is already interested in a similar topic and can listen to your show as well.
Now, do I recommend running ads for podcast promotions?
If your budget allows, then please do it. Else don’t.
For podcast promotions, I would recommend that you look for natural and organic growth.
An alternative to these Paid podcast ads is podcast Ad swaps.
This is something that I will recommend that you do if you are really interested in running ads to promote your podcast.
Podcast Ad Swaps – Things that can help Better Conversions
Podcast Ad swaps don’t involve monetary transactions.
You and another podcaster just agree to run each other’s ads on your podcasts. That’s it!
There are a few things you need to keep in mind if you are planning on running podcast Ad swaps –
- Do it with people you know and trust so that you know that they wouldn’t back out of their side of the agreement after you have placed the ad on your show
- Pick podcasts that are about your size in terms of popularity. While you would never be able to know exactly how popular they are, there are a few things you can look at like –
- A consistent show
- Podcasts that have about the same number of episodes as yours
- Podcasts that have been there for about the same time as yours
- Podcasters who are putting in the effort to promote their show on social media etc.
- And finally, create a promo that doesn’t look like a typical ad.
If you are looking at growing your podcast organically, then I would recommend that you explore the option of Podcast ad swaps.
Resources that I recommend for Podcasting
Here are the links to the resources that I spoke about in this episode –
Here are some of the resources that I use and recommend. If you are new to podcasting, then these resources can help you get started.
- Acast Podcast hosting – Acast is my recommended podcast host because of multiple reasons. I simply love their support, simplicity, and their monetization feature. You can start for FREE!
- Behringer Audio Interface – You will need an audio interface if you are using an XLR microphone. This is my recommended audio interface.
- Zencastr – Zencastr is the easiest option to record interviews, both audio-only and audio+video. This is a must for an interview podcast.
- Audacity – This is the best and the most feature-rich free audio editing software. It gives you a lot of options while editing your interviews.
- Blue Yeti USB Microphone – My recommended microphone
- Tidycal – My recommended calendar and booking solutions
Thank you for Joining
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