While there are a variety of ways to grow your podcast organically, one of the fastest and most effective methods to develop your show audience is through paid advertising (on podcast apps, other related podcasts, email newsletters, and social media).
Whether you’re just testing the waters of paid advertising or simply looking for new platforms that might be a fit for you, we are happy to impart our wisdom from the hundreds of ad campaigns we’ve run at The Podglomerate.
While the options for paid advertisements are practically endless, we’ve broken it down into five categories to help you determine which strategy is right for your show and budget:
Podcast App Ads
Several popular podcast apps offer opportunities to advertise including Castbox, Podcast Addict, Player.fm, Overcast, Castro, Podcast Republic and Pocket Casts.
Advertising directly on these podcast apps is one of the most effective ways to grow your show because you’re reaching podcast listeners right where they are, and often right when they’re looking for something new to listen to. This can lead to a large number of impressions, downloads, and subscribers relative to your budget, but there are various factors to consider before pursuing in-app advertising.
Some podcast apps, like Podcast Addict, are exclusively available on Android. Others, like Overcast, are only available on iOS. Consider your audience demographics and the characteristics of each app to determine the best fit for your advertising strategy.
Budget will also be an important consideration, as costs can vary greatly among the apps. For instance, Podcast Addict offers genre-specific advertising starting as low as $200, while other platforms like Castbox require a minimum spend of a few thousand dollars. At The Podglomerate, we measure the success of ads by analyzing cost per subscriber or cost per acquisition. For example, a healthy goal for some shows may be to aim for a $3 CPA, whereas others may be as high as a $10 CPA per. Keep these benchmarks in mind when setting expectations for your paid spend campaigns so you can budget accordingly.
We also advise against putting all your paid advertising toward only one app. Diversify your investment by promoting among a few different apps so you’re not building a user base on a single platform.
Audio Ads
While you’ll likely see big spikes in downloads and subscribers from in-app advertising campaigns, they may be temporary as some listeners will decide your podcast isn’t for them. If you’re looking to gain listeners who come back again and again, podcast audio advertising may be right for you as data shows that hearing a personal recommendation from a host you trust can lead to strong conversion. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to write host-read audio ads yourself, so you can tailor the language to maximize its impact.
The first step is identifying a show that you think has strong overlap with your own, which isn’t dissimilar to finding a good cross-promo partner. Once you’ve identified a list of target shows whose listeners you think would love your content, you can reach out and ask them for some details about their advertising opportunities. Here’s a list of questions we’d recommend asking so you have an idea of what audio ads will entail with each partner:
- What is the CPM for a pre-roll ad?
- What is the CPM for a mid-roll ad?
- Do you use dynamically inserted or baked-in spots?
- Are your ads :30 or :60?
- Are your ads host or producer read?
- Do you accept Chartable SmartPromo/pixels for tracking?
- What hosting platform do you use?
- Do you have a minimum spend for advertising campaigns?
CPM stands for “cost per mille” or cost per thousand impressions and will help you determine how many impressions you can expect for your budget. It can vary by genre but will typically range from $15-$50. For example, if your budget is $5,000 and the show you’re buying ads on has a $25 CPM, you can expect to purchase 200,000 impressions.
Once you identify a show (or a few!) that you believe has strong alignment and falls within your budget, we highly recommend using tracking software to determine the success of the ad. At The Podglomerate, we use Chartable SmartPromo pixels and monitor audio advertising campaigns throughout their run to see if there’s a strong conversion rate. This can vary by genre, ad placement, and whether it’s host- or producer-read, but generally we consider anything above .2% conversion to be good and anything above .4% to be great. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, where we’ll begin publishing cross promo benchmark numbers in the coming months.
Email Newsletter Ads
If you’re a podcaster, there’s a good chance you subscribe to a few industry newsletters or trade publications. If you don’t, we highly recommend it! Not only are they great resources but many of these publications offer different kinds of advertising options for great prices, whether it’s on their website or in their newsletter. Plus, many of their subscribers are podcast super listeners, so you know you’re targeting audiences that really love discovering new shows.
Some examples include Podnews, Podchaser, Find that Pod, The Podcast Review, EarBuds Podcast Collective, Podcast Brunch Club, Podyssey, and PodMov, but that’s just the beginning. We recommend subscribing to several and reading a few editions of the newsletter to see which ones are the best fit for your show.
Typically, newsletter promotions will allow you to use a special tracking link like Chartable SmartLinks or bit.ly as well. This will allow you to see how many people actually clicked on the advertisement for your show and, in the case of Chartable, how many downloads resulted from that.
Social Media Ads
There are a variety of ways to engage in paid social media promotion for your podcast. However, if you’re interested in this, we recommend testing out its effectiveness using a relatively low budget to start. Every show is different, but generally when you’re encouraging users to move from one platform to another, it results in a lower ROI.
One method for testing out paid spend on social media is by promoting direct posts from your show, podcast host, or organization/network. A variety of platforms allow for this and have simple and intuitive systems for setting up your ads, selecting your budget, and targeting specific audiences (like podcast listeners!).
Remember: it’s important to focus on the social media platform that you think your listeners already use. For example, if you know your target audience is on Facebook rather than TikTok, make sure you’re spending your advertising dollars accordingly. Since most platforms allow you to pause and restart ads at any time, you can check on performance daily and recalibrate as needed. Sometimes it takes a few tries to find the perfect set of targets for your show, but it’s worth putting extra consideration into that since it has a big impact on the success of your campaign.
Another option for social media advertising involves partnering with influencers and paying them to promote your show. This is generally the most expensive form of advertising and requires a lot of time and effort to pinpoint the right partners to work with. That being said, if there’s someone you think would have excellent audience overlap with your show, it could be worth the investment.
Miscellaneous Ads
In addition to all of the tactics outlined above, advertising options like web display ads and banners could also be good tools for your show. As always, we’d recommend testing this with a limited budget and gauging performance before you invest heavily, as mileage can vary depending on a variety of factors.
Newer platforms like Podroll, mowPod, and more are available to those looking to spend ad dollars.
While there are pros and cons to each type of advertising, we’ve found that having a healthy balance is the best way to foster long term growth for your show. A great plan might include some app spend, audio spend, and one or two newsletter or social media initiatives to get a better idea of how your show performs across a variety of platforms. As always, tracking is critical! Pay attention to what works, what doesn’t, and what’s worth changing and trying again.
Have questions? Interested in working with The Podglomerate to help grow your audience? Email us at [email protected] to learn more about our services.
