Podcasting continues to explode in popularity. Edison Research reported in early 2023, that 75% of Americans aged 12 and older listened to online audio in the past month, while 70% have listened in the past week. In a world of abundant digital media, those numbers are impressive for an audio-dominated format!
It’s never been a better time to start advertising on podcasts. Millions of Americans devotedly tune into podcasts each week, seeking the opinions and thoughts of their favorite personalities. A majority of consumers are more likely to remember a brand from an ad in their favorite podcast than from anywhere else. Brands partnering with podcasters can reach a wider and more receptive audience.
While all this sounds well and good, how do you ensure that your campaign is successful? Here’s where your worries end! Check out the following tips to run a successful ad campaign on RedCircle!
Tip #1: Understand Podcast Advertising
This may seem like the most obvious, and that’s why it’s the most overlooked! There are a few different ways to advertise on a podcast. For RedCircle, we offer both Programmatic and Host-Read opportunities. Programmatic refers to pre-recorded ads, similar to those heard on traditional radio, while Host-Read refers to ads that are read by the host of the podcast themselves.
One advantage of Host-Read Ads is the podcast host using their own voice to promote the product and/or brand. Their listeners trust them to share beneficial information with them, and not just sell them something. Hosts often tie back their own personal experiences with the product and/or brand to provide a genuine and thoughtful ad-read. This is why it’s so, so important to select podcasts that fit with your brand and targeted audience!
Tip #2: Choose the Right Podcasts
An essential key to running a successful ad campaign is to select the right podcast for your ad. You want to choose a show that shares a similar audience with your product/brand. You don’t want to advertise on a show whose audience is wildly different from your own as that can create a pretty jarring and unpleasant experience for the listeners.
You also may be tempted to advertise on the most well-known podcasts in the industry. But this can be quite the gamble as you may spend more to receive little promotion time and space. It’s best to find podcasts with a smaller, but mightier, audience and diversify where your ad plays. You’ll reach a similar amount of people and receive more proportionate time and space on those shows.
It’s a more reliable strategy to choose frequency over popularity. Advertising experts recommend running your campaign anywhere between 2 and 10 shows as it allows you to test different reads, types of shows, new audiences, and more. RedCircle is home to hundreds and hundreds of independent podcasters with dedicated audiences!
Tip #3: Create a Clear Brand Message
You want to make sure that your ad demonstrates the value of your product/brand as concisely and simply as possible. Don’t overcomplicate your message with buzzwords or perplexing jargon; get straight to the heart of your brand!
You want to keep your target demographic in mind when crafting your brand message. A good way to do this is by creating a persona to whom you can write the message directly. How does your product/brand improve their lives? What issue is it solving for them? Understanding how your product or brand fits in with your target audiences’ lives will help you to create a perfectly clear brand message.
Tip #4: Let Hosts Try Your Product Before the Ad-Read
A fantastic way to ensure a genuine ad-read is to allow your partner podcast host to test out the product/service before they record. This allows them to not only understand the product/service on a much deeper level, but helps them to create content based on their personal experience.
Host-Read Ads on podcasts are particularly effective due to the trust the podcast host has built up. They’re able to provide personal recommendations to their audience. Providing them with the ability to test out the product/service creates better results as the host can tell a truly authentic story.
Tip #5: Provide Feedback
Advertising on a podcast is more than just that. It’s building a relationship with the podcast host, creating a partnership that benefits the both of you. A healthy relationship requires a level of communication. Take a proactive approach and provide the podcast host with your feedback on the campaign. Listen to the ad and share your thoughts with them. Just like you, they want to run a successful ad campaign!
We often receive requests from our podcasters asking what else they can do to improve their ad-reads. While we do provide them with our own thoughts, nothing beats the direct feedback from the brand they’re promoting. Taking an active role during this part of the campaign helps to build a better rapport with the podcaster and results in better future ad reads!
Advertising on a podcast is a terrific way to spread awareness of your brand and meet new customers. Unlike any other medium, podcast listeners deeply trust the opinions of their favorite podcast host. RedCircle can help your brand to bridge the gap between your products/services and your key demographic. See how else we can partner and grow together on our Advertising page!
