A Guide to Getting Started with Podcast Advertising in 2021
If podcast advertising isn’t currently part of your marketing channel mix, now is the time to add it.
From early 2019 to 2020, the number of active podcasts in the world increased from 700,000 to over 850,000. Note that the statistic specifies active podcasts, which means that far more than 150,000 new podcasts were added in 2019.
And what are most new and growing podcasts looking for?
Sponsors!
With the explosion of new podcasts, you have the opportunity to capture a lot of awareness through the long tail of many smaller podcasts that charge significantly less than some of the bigger, more popular podcasts. Not that well-established podcasts can’t be part of your strategy as well.
In order to make this happen, let’s jump into some of the details on expectations, rates, networks, agencies, and more.
Why Advertise on Podcasts
Beyond the reasons stated above, podcast advertising has a lot of advantages. They are easy to create and get out the door, they are highly reusable or customizable and stick around longer than most other ad formats.
Low Production Requirements
Most podcast sponsorships involve the host reading your ad which means it requires little or no creative production unlike making your own videos, ad creative, etc. In the event that the host doesn’t read it and you need to provide a ready-to-go audio file, it is quite simple to record a 15-20 second ad using a USB microphone and your laptop, so the production requirements are still incredibly low.
Easy to Reuse Creative or Customize
If you want to go the simple route and use the same script for each podcast you advertise on, then all you have to do is write one good script and you’ll be able to send it to each podcast you advertise on with no added effort. This also helps give you consistency in your messaging.
However, if you want to customize your ad to a few different personas or something unique for each podcast, it is still incredibly simple. All you have to do is tweak some of the script for each and send it off. Very few channels are so easy to customize your messaging for different audiences.
Long Shelf Life
There aren’t many marketing channels or types of advertisement that have as much permanence as podcast sponsorships. I suppose there could be some outliers but typically when you sponsor an episode, you sponsor that episode forever. This means that as the podcasts grow and more of their listeners go back and listen to older episodes, they still hear your ad.
What to Expect from Advertising on Podcasts
Before we get too far into the details, it is important to highlight the two key items to consider when setting expectations for podcast advertising outcomes are awareness & time horizon.
The expected outcome of podcast advertising should not be a flood of leads or a positive ROI in the first 30 days that follow your ad spot. Advertising on podcasts is about creating awareness and augmenting your existing strategy, not the silver bullet to hit your revenue targets. Expect the latter and you will most likely be disappointed.
Since the objective is awareness and not hitting your number this quarter, it should also change the time horizon in which you are evaluating both your budget and your options. I would strongly recommend a 12-month budget and timeline where you can spread out your exposure and perhaps even lock in one or more episodes of a podcast each month for a whole year. This helps create consistency and repetition with the same audiences over a longer period of time.
Having this perspective on both awareness and time horizon from the onset will positively shape your strategy and allocation. Dropping a large sum on podcast ads in one month and then concluding it was a waste of money the next money is a recipe for failure.
Podcast Advertising Rates
Most podcast advertising uses the CPM (cost per 1,000 listeners) model with the average 30-second ad coming in around $18 for 2020 with the high end (for larger podcasts) being around a $30 CPM. However, many newer podcasts or those with less established audiences may not be able to effectively us a CPM model and offer flat rate episodes or even a flat rate for a bundle of several episodes to make the exposure (and their time spent getting the sponsorship) more worth it.
Before you start doing some napkin math, there is an important note to make as it relates to podcast advertising rates. If you are looking at the CPM rates and thinking they are too high compared to CPMs you pay for display ads, social ads, etc. then you should consider both audience and impact.
Podcast Audiences
The availability will certainly vary depending on your industry and what you are advertising but podcasts offer you the ability to get in front of some specific audiences that are listening and subscribing to niche podcasts. In most cases, trying to run CPM ads on niche websites or newsletters will be as expensive, if not far more expensive, so be careful not to compare widely-targeted display ads to niche podcast ads.
Impact of Podcast Ads
Hearing an ad on a podcast and scrolling past an ad on a website as you are trying to read an article not the same experience. Recent studies have found that those listening to podcasts (with 94% of them multitasking) were 22% more engaged, emotionally involved and likely to remember brands mentioned in a podcast compared to TV ads.
The audio format of the ad allows you to add much more context for the listener than any static ad format — combined with an engaged audience that science shows retains more while multitasking — creates a unique opportunity to create lasting awareness for your product or service.
Podcast Advertising Networks
If the thought of going one-by-one to each podcast to buy and coordinate advertising is overwhelming and you plan to advertise on more than just 2-3 podcasts, you should strongly consider working through podcast ad networks.
Top Networks
Caveats on Networks
- If you are going to use networks, understand that you will likely need to work through multiple as each network has specific podcasts they work with and there is no single network that gives you access to all podcasts.
- Of the 700,000+ active podcasts noted earlier, only a small percentage of them are represented in networks. Some very large podcasts handle selling their own sponsorships and the majority of smaller podcasts or in-house branded podcasts make up the rest. So, don’t miss the opportunity to look outside the networks for significantly more options.
- Most networks will have minimums or sell bundles so it may not be as flexible as you would like, especially if just starting out.
- It should go without saying but obviously these networks have to make money somehow so there will be some added markup to the costs.
Podcast Advertising Agencies
If you are looking to invest heavily in podcast advertising and you don’t intend to have a full-time employee on your team focused on it, I would encourage you to consider leveraging an agency to do the research, coordination, negotiation and measurement of podcast advertising for you.
Podcast advertising is likely one of many formats that media agencies use in a full advertising campaign but if you are looking to only outsource podcast ads, there are agencies that specialize in just that like Adopter Media and Ad Results Media.
An Alternative to Podcast Advertising
If you want to take advantage of the rapidly increasing collective podcast audience but you don’t have the budget or resources to do any meaningful advertising on them, there is an alternative.
It isn’t as scalable and will cost you more time but it won’t cost dollars.
Be a guest on as many podcasts as you (or someone in your company) can.
Of course, not all podcasts have guests but if you can become a guest a several podcasts that are reaching your target audience, you go from having a 30-second ad spot to a full episode to tell your story and make a deeper impact on the audience, without spending the money on CPMs.
Getting Started
No matter your budget, product or creative resources, I believe that many companies can and should take advantage of podcast advertising to grow their awareness by taking advantage of the unprecedented recent growth in podcasts and podcast audiences.
Set your expectations and budget up front, come up with a strategy and commit to it.