A Guide to Advertising a Podcast
Growing an audience for a B2B podcast organically can take a lot of time and energy away from focusing on building business relationships through the podcast itself. You can promote the show through unpaid means like social media, and you should do that as much as possible. But if you're in a big enough niche to justify it, you might want to look into advertising your podcast to increase growth by attracting more podcast listeners.
But you must keep in mind that it is buyer beware when it comes to advertising your podcast. At Content Allies, the leading global B2B podcast production and strategy company we have seen both the good and the bad when it comes to return on investment for buying podcast advertising. This guide will take a comprehensive look at all the different ways you can advertise your podcast episodes for maximum growth.
Different Ways to Advertise Your Podcast
Advertise on an Ad Network
Advertising on an online ad network follows the traditional advertising model that ad agencies have been using for decades. You buy ad space from the network, and they distribute those banner ads across various media outlets to build your brand awareness or drive listeners to your show or a specific episode. This is currently the best way to get the bang for your buck. Listen Network, the ad platform designed specifically for podcast adertivising currently operates on this model.
Social Media Advertising
Advertising on social media means paying for placement in individual users' feeds to expose them to your podcast with the hope that the exposure will lead to a direct click or a search for your show. Those social media outlets include LinkedIn, Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, and YouTube. All of these platforms allow you to run video ads, which gives you an opportunity to attract new listeners or potential customers by showing them short snippets from your show. If you don't record video, you can use audiograms to achieve the desired effect.
Run Paid Advertising on Search Platforms
Let's face it, the term search platform almost always means Google, but it's still worth considering other search engines like Bing, DucKDuckGo, Yahoo and Google Scholar. In fact, depending on your niche, one of the smaller search platforms might be the best way to reach your target audience. But most podcasters will choose Google for this type of advertising, which targets your ideal listeners by identifying keywords in individual search queries and then running your ad in the search results. In order for this strategy to be effective, you will have to put in a lot of work to tweak your setting based on past performance.
Run Ads on Smaller Podcast Listening Apps
It only makes sense that running your podcast ads on other podcasts is a good idea to help build your podcast audience. Those listeners are already listening to podcasts, which often makes them receptive to discovering new podcasts. And the fact that you're advertising a podcast on a podcast can give your ad more credibility and make it seem less like a sales pitch. Small podcast apps include Overcast, Pocket Cast, Podcast Addict, Anchor, Stitcher Podbean and Player FM.
Advertise on Major Podcast Apps
The two giants in the podcast app space are Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And between the two, Spotify is the leader when it comes to reach. Spotify features a self-service low-cost advertising management system, which can be a great way for you to get your show in front of Spotify listeners without too much work.
Advertise on Individual Podcasts
If there are other podcasts in your niche that aren't run by direct competitors, advertising directly on those shows can get your podcast in front of the right audience. Advertising options include podcast sponsorship and dynamic ad insertion, including pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads. If the podcast host or hosts offer it, you can run baked-in host-read ads. An interesting way to get maximum exposure to your brand and your podcast is to buy a paid interview, where you pay to be the guest on an episode. When a listener hears an ad on their favorite podcast, they are more inclined to pay attention to the message.
A Deeper Dive: Ad Networks
There are some well-known problems with ad networks, not the least of which is fraud, mostly by unscrupulous networks running ads that are never seen or seen only by bots. This is a big problem in mainstream advertising, where big brands are spending millions of dollars on ads that are never seen by the consumer. There is also little or no attribution when advertising on ad networks as far as what ad specifically led to a person actually listening to your podcast.
The good news is that if you're advertising your podcast, it's doubtful that you're going to be spending that kind of money on ad networks. But it is good to be aware of the landscape, no matter what level of spend you are budgeting for your podcast ads.
There is one clear exception to the rule, which is a new network built specifically for advertising podcasts to get verified clicks on your show.
Listen Network
The most advanced ad network for podcasters is called Listen Network, a new ad platform that was built specifically for B2B podcast advertising to get direct clicks and promote growth. The way most industry-standard podcast advertising works is the same way traditional advertising has worked for years: Throw it out there and hope something sticks. There is little or no attribution for metrics like conversion rate, and advertisers have no direct way of knowing if their ad resulted in any clicks or listens.
Listen Network takes a different approach from traditional types of podcast ads, in that it guarantees that you only pay for verified listens to the episode you're promoting. Not only do you get better results, but you can also measure those results through verified listens to your show of at least 60 seconds, which is the industry standard set forth by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Tech Lab.
At Listen Network, you work with them to create ad campaigns using relevant keywords that correspond to the niche or industry your podcast or specific episode is addressing. Listen Network only runs ads on published content that is relevant to that topic based on those keywords. The banner ads that are generated on the page have a built-in podcast player. If the person reading the article or watching the video is interested in your podcast, they hit play without ever leaving the website they are on (Entrepreneur, Forbes, and The New York Times are examples of the websites your ads could run on).
At this point, you still haven't spent a dime. The great thing is that if they click on your episode and abandon it after 10, 30, or even 59 seconds, you still don't pay. Only after they have listened for at least 60 seconds, a verified listen, do you pay for the placement.
For example, you have a podcast that interviews people who are leaders in the subscription box industry. Your target audience is other founders and leaders in the subscription box business, and people who are thinking about getting into that business. The podcast is designed for the content to be inside information about running a subscription box business.
With traditional keyword-focused ad networks, if one of your keywords is "subscriptions," your ad could be embedded on all kinds of content that had nothing to do with running a subscription-based business. And you would have to pay for those worthless impressions.
On Listen Network, you won't pay for any of those worthless impressions. You only pay for the verified listens. There are some pretty big enterprise companies that have used or are using Listen Network, like Meta (Facebook), Alibaba, Siemens, Gusto, Skanska, NICE and BPM.
Traditional Ad Networks
There may be reasons why you want to use a traditional ad network. If you're an enterprise company, you probably already have an ad agency that has relationships with all the major ad networks, and they can often get you discounted rates because of those working relationships. They can be especially helpful partners if you want to think outside the box and advertise in your industry print magazines or on terrestrial radio in a region that has a large population of your target audience.
A good ad network account manager will help you with your strategy, your selection of keywords based on your industry and your target demographic, and the types of publications you would like your ads to appear on. Here are the categories most traditional ad networks will use to charge you for your ad campaign:
CPM or Cost Per Mille: This is cost per thousand impressions. They monitor how many times your ad is placed in front of a person and charge you per thousand. For example, if your CPM is $10, the cost for 10,000 impressions would be $100.
CPC or Cost Per Click: In this model, you pay for each time someone actually clicks on your ad. This is a good way to quit paying for worthless impressions, but the cost per click will be significantly higher than the cost per impression.
CPA or Cost Per Action: This model is the basis for many direct response ads. You agree with the ad network to only pay for a certain measurable action. For example, you might only pay for a sales conversion using a unique promo code that you can track. You might only pay if someone goes to one of your YouTube videos. Or maybe you pay for capturing an email address. The CPA will be, by far, the most expensive option, but also the most effective in many cases.
Advertising on Social Media Platforms
Most people have some type of social media account, and advertising on social media can be an effective way to get the word out about your podcast and potentially grow your audience. There is a lot of strategy involved in creating effective social media campaigns, and it starts with choosing the right platforms for advertising your podcast. The most important driver of your strategy is to target people who could potentially be interested in the content of the show.
One of the benefits of advertising on social media is that you can see nearly immediate results. You can start a campaign on Instagram or TikTok on Monday and have a pretty good idea about how it is going to perform by Tuesday. This gives you an opportunity to adjust and adapt the parameters of your campaign quickly if the number of impressions you're getting isn't as high as you had planned. However, for some actions, like seeing a significant increase in weekly podcast listeners, for example, you'll have to let the ad campaign play out to determine your ROI.
There are some universal best practices when it comes to social media advertising and promotion, no matter the platform:
Interact With Others: It's not enough to run ads for your podcast on various social media outlets. For the best results, you should also have an account on each platform so you can interact with others in a genuine, personalized way. We recommend basing the username on the name of your podcast for brand awareness purposes, but if the show is tightly connected to the host, and there is little to no chance that the host will leave, that would be another choice. If you have multiple repeating hosts, an account for the show and one for each host is a smart way to go.
Use A/B Testing: You'll want to test variations of your ads to track effectiveness, and the best way to do that is to A/B test different versions at the same time and measure the engagement or other desired outcomes for each. Then you can compare the results to determine which version performs better.
Join Groups: When you're using social media to promote your B2B podcast, the groups and communities you would benefit from joining should be pretty clear, those focused on your industry or niche. Join all the relevant ones and be an active participant. You can even start your own group to focus on exactly what you think is important for increasing awareness of your show.
Partner with Influencers: If there are influencers in your industry or niche, consider partnering with them to boost your message and create awareness for your podcast and your brand. The very nature of an influencer, someone who has a large audience that listens to what they have to say, can be a big boost for your show. You can usually pay either a fixed rate, pay by views or impressions, or work out some kind of affiliate deal if that is possible in your particular business.
Listed here are three major players when it comes to social media:
Facebook (Meta): While Facebook wasn't the first popular social media platform (most would say that would be MySpace), it has certainly grown into being the biggest and most influential. With Facebook Ad Accounts, you can get hyper-focused with your targeting and deliver messaging that is specific and detailed in ways that will appeal to those groups.
LinkedIn: You have a B2B podcast and LinkedIn is a B2B social media platform, so it only makes sense to spend your ad dollars there. Like all the social media platforms, the LinkedIn Algorithm is constantly being tweaked, but lately, users have been rewarded for uploading video content directly to the platform.
When running ads on LinkedIn, you'll want to use their Campaign Monitor tool. It will walk you through the steps to running successful ads by defining your objectives and desired audience, determining your ad format, and tracking the results.
TikTok: Short-form videos are hot, and that is what TikTok is all about. Make sure your videos are engaging and human. You don't want your ad to look and feel like an ad. It should be a fun or interesting video that makes your target audience want to find out more about your podcast.
Advertising on Other Podcasts
Advertising on other podcasts that focus on topics that are relevant to your own can help boost awareness of your podcast. Keep in mind that B2B podcasts by companies that you are in direct competition with probably won't accept your ad dollars.
The types of podcast ads you need to be aware of are:
Pre-roll ad: An ad that runs at the beginning of an episode.
Mid-roll ad: An ad that runs in the middle of an episode.
Post-roll ad: An ad that runs at the end of an episode.
Baked-In Ad: An ad that is a permanent part of the episode's audio file.
Native Ad: An ad that takes on the form or tone of the show. An example would be an audio ad read by the host.
Dynamic ads: An ad that can be inserted in postproduction anywhere in the show.
Conclusion
Using advertising to boost your audience can work, but it takes some careful planning and a winning strategy. Get that right, and you can see a significant boost in your show’s audience awareness and an increase in plays and subscriptions.