How to Promote Your Podcast Using Podcast Advertising
There are dozens of ways to promote your podcast, but podcast advertising is often the most effective.
Whether you’re starting a new podcast from scratch or just want to expand your reach to a wider audience, this guide will show you how. We’ll focus specifically on podcast advertising and how you can use this method to grow your podcast exponentially.
Let’s dive in.
Why Use Podcast Advertising?
Some podcast hosts are hesitant to use podcast advertising over other promotional methods because of the cost. Sure, there are plenty of other ways to promote your podcast, including paid ads on social media, organic content marketing, and PPC campaigns through other advertising networks.
But if you’re willing to spend money on ads at all, your dollar could go much further with podcast advertising. Here’s why.
You can’t always guarantee that an ad on Google or Facebook will be shown to someone who actively listens to podcasts. Even if they fit your ideal target audience profile, those ads are only going to be effective if they’re reaching people who actually listen to podcasts.
But with podcast advertising, you’re automatically reaching people who listen to podcasts—since that’s the only way they’d hear your ad.
Unlike other channels, most podcast listeners don’t find ads to be annoying either. In fact, nearly eight in ten people don’t mind hearing podcast ads.
Not only are you reaching people who are more likely to listen to your podcast, but podcast listeners are more likely to pay attention to ads compared to advertisements on other platforms. A whopping 86.5% of podcast listeners say that they listen to podcast ads, and an additional 89.8% say that they think those ads are effective.
It’s more of an uphill battle if you’re trying to target people who have never listened to a podcast before. But directly targeting existing podcast listeners is the path of least resistance.
Podcast Advertising vs. Podcast Marketing
Before we continue, I just want to quickly clarify the differences between podcast advertising and podcast marketing. These two terms are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually very different.
Podcast advertising is a subcategory of marketing. It focuses specifically on paid advertisements before, during, or after a podcast episode.
Podcast marketing is much broader. It’s any activity that promotes a podcast, including both free and paid strategies. Writing a blog, drafting a press release, posting on social media, or taking a guest spot on another podcast would all be considered part of your podcast marketing strategy. But it’s separate from podcast advertising.
To truly have a successful podcast, you’ll need to mix various marketing strategies—including podcast advertising.
So as we continue below, just keep in mind that these shouldn’t be the only methods you use to promote your podcast. You should still be using other marketing campaigns and potentially other paid media strategies to promote your podcast effectively.
Winning Tips and Best Practices to Promote Your Podcast With Podcast Advertising
Here’s a closer look at my favorite podcast advertising tips for success. Some of these are actionable methods, strategies, and steps, while others are simply best practices to keep in mind as you’re going through this process.
Explore Podcast Advertising Networks
The first thing you need to do is think about how you’re going to distribute your podcast ads. Manually trying to research shows and reaching out to those podcasters directly is a tedious task that’s often ineffective.
It’s much easier to go directly through a podcast advertising network.
These platforms match advertisers with podcasters. Even though you have a podcast, you’re the advertiser in this scenario. So just make sure you’re following the right steps to avoid any confusion when you’re signing up for different ad networks.
For example, here’s the homepage for AdvertiseCast:
You’d want to go through the “Advertisers” flow to promote your podcast. You could also use this platform to monetize your show—but that’s a conversation for another day.
Other popular podcast advertising networks include:
Some of these networks are larger or smaller than others. It’s just a matter of browsing through the options to see which one feels right for what you’re looking for.
Stick to Your Budget
Your podcast is a business. Like any other business, you need to budget for different purposes and departments to succeed.
As a rule of thumb, podcast advertising should account for 25% of your total advertising budget. Some of you might decide to be more aggressive or more conservative. That’s fine too.
Just make sure that whatever number you allocate towards podcast advertising, you stick with it.
Early on, you might even decide to hold back a little until you find the right fit. For example, let’s say you have a $10,000 annual advertising budget, with $3,000 set aside for podcast advertising.
Rather than spending $250 per month out of the gate, you could start with $100 or $150 per month until you find ad slots that you’re comfortable with. If you do that for the first half of the year, then you could up your spending to $350 or $400 for the second half of the year—still on pace for your $3,000 annual budget.
Find Podcasts That Align With Your Target Audience
You can’t just blindly pick shows to advertise on. That’s not going to give you positive results.
Instead, you should be focusing on shows that have the same target audience as your own.
Here’s an example of audience demographics for BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast as it’s displayed on AdveritseCast.
This podcast would be perfect if your target audience is middle-aged men who are educated and make six figures. But it would be terrible if you’re trying to reach college-aged women.
So pay close attention to this type of information as you’re looking for opportunities to promote your show.
Avoid Podcasters With a Bad Reputation
Just because a podcast has the same target audience as you, it doesn’t automatically mean you should run ads on the show.
Some podcasts out there are highly controversial. The hosts may not always be super well-polished and could have a reputation that’s less than stellar.
It all depends on your business and your own personal branding, and some of you might not care. But just be aware that listeners might associate your brand with shows you’re advertising on. Not only will your podcast be mentioned before, during, or after the show, but your ad puts money in the pocket of the other host.
So if you want to keep your reputation clean, make sure you have a vetting process before your ads go live on certain shows.
Advertise on Multiple Podcasts (But Not Too Many)
When it comes to podcast advertising, you can definitely diversify by promoting your show on multiple channels. But don’t go overboard.
Many experts, including myself, believe that less is more.
Start with two or three different shows. But I wouldn’t recommend more than five.
Instead of going overboard with the number of shows you’re advertising on, you can create different ad formats for different portions of the same show. Here are the different ways that podcast ads fit into an episode:
So you could create five different ads for the same show—each for different segments.
I’d experiment with this more, as opposed to running ads on dozens of shows at once.
Speak Directly to Your Target Listeners
The best podcast ads are direct. They’re not blanket advertisements that simply describe your show, who you are, and what you do.
Use this as an opportunity to, literally, speak into the ear of a potential listener. Find ways to pull at their strings that will encourage them to actually take the next step, which is listening to one of your shows.
Let’s look at what to do, and what not to do, using my own podcast as the example.
“Digital Marketing Madness is a business podcast that covers a wide range of topics, including SEO, link building, web development, and more.”
Vs.
“Are you struggling with lead generation? Join me as I uncover the proven tips for lead-gen success. My latest 30-minute episode will take your business to the next level—guaranteed.”
The second version is clearly better and speaks directly to potential listeners who would be interested in my show.
Get Inspired by Your Competitors
If you’re struggling to come up with good ads or you’re not sure which you should be advertising on, you can always steal a page from the competition’s playbook.
What are some similar podcasts to yours? Where are those channels running ads? What format are they running those ads in?
You could use those other ads as a template for inspiration and follow the same flow as you’re coming up with your own creative content.
This can really help you break down the intimidating barrier of a blank page. Then your own unique ads will start to create themselves once you get the juices flowing.
Determine How You’ll Track and Define Success
This might be the most overlooked step in podcast advertising. You must come up with a way to define how your ads are successful.
Otherwise, there’s no way for you to know whether the ads are working or if you’re just lighting money on fire.
This is another reason why it’s not always in your best interest to run ads on multiple shows. If you’re running ads on ten different shows and you suddenly get a 200% spike in unique listeners, then it’s nearly impossible to determine which ads worked. If 90% of that traffic came from a single ad, you’re just wasting money by continuing to run ads on other shows. That money could go much further if you put it into the advertisements that are actually driving results.
Final Thoughts
Podcast advertising is arguably the most effective way to promote any podcast.
I hope you found the information in this guide useful. You can keep referring to it as a quick resource as you’re going through this process.
If you need some extra assistance with your podcast advertising strategy or have any other marketing questions related to your podcast, just reach out to our team here at McDougall Interactive. We’re happy to help.
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