It’s not even Halloween yet and we’re already preparing for something big in the next few months – the jolly Holiday season! This time of year is busy for brands and podcasters alike. New opportunities are being sent out, brands are collaborating with some podcast hosts for the first time, and there’s plenty of revenue to be earned.
The last few months of the year can be overwhelming for podcasters new to monetization. There’s no need to fret, though! We’re here to help guide you through these coming months with tips on how to impress your brand partners. Read on to learn more about acing your ad reads, solidifying the partnership, and bringing them back for more!
Perform the Ad Read Well
This one sounds pretty obvious, right? But how does one go about accomplishing this nebulous task? Is it in the way you read the ad? The show notes that follow? Or something else entirely? It’s a combination of everything, really! Let’s dive a little bit deeper into what makes a good podcast ad read.
A couple of our top-performing podcasters perfectly summed up the key to creating amazing Host-Read ads. They focus specifically on:
- Authenticity
- Effort
- Technology
Authenticity goes beyond just telling the truth. The most successful Host-Read ads are representative of the podcaster’s real experience with the product/service. Talk about how the product/service has made an impact on your life and how it could transform the lives of your listeners. You know your audience best. Don’t be afraid to go a little off-script and speak directly to your audience about your true experience. Not only will your listeners appreciate your candidness, the brand will also appreciate the effort that comes with being real.
Speaking of effort, it’s important to ensure real effort is put into your ad read. Authenticity goes hand-in-hand with effort, too. You can’t create an authentic ad without putting in the effort to understand your audience and craft a message that will resonate with them. Effort also extends past the actual ad read though (but we’ll get to that a bit later!)
Finally, technology plays a crucial role in creating a great Host-Read ad experience. Not just the technology hosting your show, but the technology used to create it. A good microphone and a quiet place can be enough to make your ad read sound so much more pleasant. Use technology to your advantage to figure out the perfect spot for an ad break and slip it into your show with ease.
Put in the Effort
As we touched on before, effort goes beyond just simply reading the ad. A reliable way to win over brands is to put effort into every aspect of your podcast. Your podcast should be representative of the care you put into it!
One of the best ways to highlight your effort is to be consistent with both your schedule and content. Not only should you upload your episodes on a regular basis, you should also ensure that the content of your episodes are in line with the rest of your show. It’s important that each episode has the same level of effort put into it so your content retains the same quality over its lifetime. You don’t want your episodes to vary so much so that it seems like you’re listening to a completely different podcast!
Consistently great content not only reassures brands that they made the right choice, but also helps you to build a loyal community of listeners! It’s hard to keep listeners interested if your podcast varies in content, tone, and feel too much. They might drop off if they feel like the podcast doesn’t match with their interests any longer. And a strong podcast community is a major hook for brands.
Effort put into your own podcast translates to effort put into Host-Read ads. If brands see how much care you put into crafting your show, then they’ll know that you’ll treat the partnership with the same level of respect. This goes a long way in creating a fruitful relationship!
Go Above & Beyond
Another surefire way to impress brands during a campaign is to go above and beyond what they initially expected. You’d be surprised by how effective, and simple, it can be to provide a little extra during the campaign.
The first way is to simply add a link to the brand in your show notes. If your hosting platform offers dynamic text, like RedCircle’s episode suffix feature, then you only need to set it once for it to be applied to all episodes. Listeners can then easily find the information in your show notes!
Social media is another reliable way to show brands you’re a great partner. A quick post here and there about the brand, their services, or their product helps to further solidify the relationship. You’re showing the brand that you actually enjoy their services/products in a more tangible way (and one that reaches a wider audience!)
If you have an active online community, then sharing the brand in those spaces is another bonus! Whether that be through newsletters, community posts, or blogs, anywhere you can shout out the brand is appreciated!
Invest in Good Technology
While it’s important to have pleasant-sounding audio, it’s equally as important to have a podcast hosting partner who can help you make the most of the campaign. You want to keep an eye out for podcast hosting platforms that offer analytics, customizable dynamic insertion, and the ability to implement third-party analytics like Prefix URLs and Tracking Pixels.
RedCircle offers all of the above and more! But let’s hone in on Prefix URLs and Tracking Pixels specifically as the two often tend to be confused with one another.
A Prefix URL is a trackable URL that’s placed directly in the RSS Feed of a podcast. It allows third-party services, like Chartable, Podsights (Spotify Ad Analytics), Podtrac, and Podscribe to track all download requests that come through your show’s RSS Feed.
A Tracking Pixel is a small snippet of code that allows you to gather specific information from website visitors. This can be helpful to see how many people are visiting a website directly from your podcast, as well as seeing how many of them have purchased.
Having a podcast hosting platform that allows you to implement these analytic tools can be extremely helpful in demonstrating the success of your podcast to brands.
Final Words
There are tons of different ways to impress your brand partners – from performing an ad read superbly, to going beyond what’s expected, to using the right technology to show value, you can demonstrate to your brand partner why you’re worth investing in. It’s also important to keep in mind how small the podcast advertising community can be. If you please one brand, another might hear and wish to work with you, too! There are so many reasons to put your all into your Host-Read ads, but this one, specifically, can help you to grow further than you might have first imagined.
Interested in monetizing your podcast? See how RedCircle can help you reach new heights!
