Using Podcasts to Reach Customers

How advertising on podcasts can help your business.

Podcasts are a proven and (relatively) easy marketing tool to drive potential customers to your brand, but that doesn’t mean you have to create your own. Advertising on existing podcasts is a great way to boost your brand engagement, further your audience and reach, and drive sales, and it doesn’t require the time and investment of creating your own podcast.

Podcasts listeners are active listeners—meaning that they want to be listening, they’ve carefully chosen what to listen to, and they’re listening during a time they can take in the material. They can access podcasts when, where and how they like, which means when your ad comes on, it’s reaching a much more engaged audience than you would say, on the radio.

A survey by podcast advertising network Midroll found 63 percent of podcast listeners have purchased a product they heard advertised on a podcast. But that conversion from hearing your ad, to visiting your website and purchasing something, doesn’t just happen. You have to make sure you’re choosing the right podcast.

You want to select a podcast that is popular and has a lot of listeners, but that’s not the most important thing. Firstly, look for a podcast that attracts your target market. Podcasts can be very subject-specific, or attract a wide variety of listeners. Create a buyer persona for your brand, and then look at podcasts that also attract that audience, whether you take into consideration age, gender, interests, income, etc. You can advertise on a podcast, but if you’re not advertising to the right listeners, it won’t do you any good.

Then pay attention to the listener base. A podcast that attracts more listeners will be more expensive, so decide how much you can spend, and balance that with what kind of podcast you need. Expect to pay a different amount if your ad is pre-roll (at the start), mid-roll (in the middle), or post-roll (at the end), with mid-roll being most expensive. Most podcast ads are cost per mille (CPM), a certain amount per every thousand listeners.

Finally, be willing to spend. Although podcasts are a fairly affordable way to advertise, you may have to spend a bit more than you expect in order to see a return.

Ready to start advertising on podcasts, but need some help getting there? Rocket Fish Digital can help with everything from starting your own podcast, to finding the right one to advertise on. Reach out to us today to see how we can help.