This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclaimer for more info.
Podcasts are growing and so does audio experiences.
Whether it is the number of podcasts or the listeners, the world of podcasts is growing by leaps and bounds. And that’s why it is important for us to learn about podcast advertising networks, and open an extra income source.
If you don’t have your own podcast then I will suggest you to read our detailed guides,
Once you have an established audience, podcast advertising is the next best goal one can have.
When it comes to advertisement, “heavy listeners” are often targeted more. Edison Research says 70% of people listen to a new podcast after hearing about it in an advertisement on another podcast. Due to the way people consume podcasts daily, they are now the new gamut for advertisers and sponsors.
This article would cover some of the most important questions related to podcast advertising. These were questions that came to me when my podcast was in its initial stages. Now, let us tell you a little about how podcast ads work.
Page Contents
When Should You Start Monetizing Your Podcast?
After establishing the podcasts, making money from them is what people often target. But, podcasts don’t or cannot start earning immediately as soon as you host it on a platform.
However, there are other advantages to having a podcast. With podcasts, many can try building a solid relationship with others in the market. One can establish authority over other people with their podcasts. It also ensures people have a creative outlet after a random 9 to 5 job.
Yet, almost five years down the line, not monetizing it, might seem a little absurd.
So, the best time to plan to monetize your show would be, much before you have even launched the podcast.
Yes, it is true!
Plan much ahead to know when you have enough listeners who would not hesitate to pay a little to you. After all, the information you pass on to them through your show could be changing a lot of things around them.
Podcast Advertisement Tips You Must Know
With almost 550,000 shows a whopping 73 million Americans follow these podcasts. The number of listeners would grow up to almost 81% of the total population of the United States by 2022.
Some important things to consider before you onboard advertisers to your podcast,
- Evaluate podcast data and demographics.
- Understand how podcast pricing work?
- Look for podcasts in your niche.
- Check on your competitors.
- Buy many small show ads rather than a big podcast ad.
- Advertise simultaneously on all podcasts.
- Understand which kind of ad (native or sponsored ads, interviews, direct response ads etcetera) suits your podcast best.
- Try purchasing ad slots online or personally.
A brief revenue estimate of the podcasts from the United States alone until 2021 is provided in the table below.
Before you decide to bring advertisers to your podcast, here is a brief about the specifics of the podcast ads.
There are three different positions where you can roll your podcast ads. They are pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll periods in the podcast.
- The pre-roll ads begin within 15-30 seconds into an episode.
- The mid-roll ads are scheduled in the middle of the show and can last from 1 to 1.5 minutes.
- The last roll ads come at the closing of the show. They cover 20 to 30 seconds post-roll (intended for the end of the show to catch the listener’s attention).
The respective ad companies must find out if the ad has generated an ROI (return on investment) after being successfully rolled.
Thus, now you know podcast ads work when they are appropriately strategized as per the standard procedures. You too must have your strategy. Study and understand how and where your ads would do better within a podcast.
Some podcast ads that have fared well are here for you to see. They will tell you a lot about how people are planning in terms of placing their ads. It will also tell you how they choose their ads and how the podcasts of their choice are helping them out.
In the Armchair Expert Show, Dax Shepherd delivers ad-lib (spoken or performed without prior preparation) ads with grace.
In one of his episodes with Ashton Kutcher, Dax promoted CBD oil (CBD MD). He spoke on how it relieved his muscle and joint pains in no time while he had gone for a trip to the ‘dunes.’
He follows a non-scripted format that guides his guests to comment in favor of the product.
Forcing ads in the wrong place won’t work. Have a firm judgment of what works and what doesn’t.
Take, for example, Blue Apron who advertised Adam Carolla’s podcast quite some time back. Both podcasts are different in many ways; a rather odd fit is how you may define it.
However, when you look closely, you will find that Adam in the past had used several of Blue Apron’s recipes and thus, they do tend to appropriately match. So, find your fit appropriately.
Gifting a gift box to the host of the podcast might also be a good way to ensure your ads become successful.
Sling Media received a lot of engagement (almost 2-3 times more). It happened when they began gifting a Sling box to each of their hosts in various podcasts that advertised them.
Podcast Advertising Rates
Usually, the cost of an ad is determined as cost per mille which is nothing but the cost per 1000 listeners. Podcast advertising rates for a 30-second ad CPM is $18 and for a 60-second ad, CPM is $25 in the current market.
It also differs on the number of listeners per episode.
Find the basic rates for podcasts that vary with the number of listeners per episode.
| Number of Listeners/Episode | Ad for a 30 Sec CPM |
| 500-999 | $21 |
| 1,000-2,499 | $25 |
| 2,500-4,999 | $22 |
| 5,000-24,999 | $21 |
| 25,000-99,999 | $22 |
| 100,000-999,999 | $29 |
Data collected from Advertisecast.com
The benefit of advertising through a podcast is to have a secondary income source from it.
Podcast sponsorship must aim for different products that you are willing to sell. But, what is it that you can sell?
Ways to Monetize Your Podcast
What can you sell that will earn you revenue through advertisements? You could sell some products through your podcast or it could be through a blog attached to your podcast. Surely there are many other ways to monetize your podcast but the below ones are most commonly used.
- Affiliate marketing: Through affiliate marketing, you can earn a profit by promoting other’s products. You can advertise for someone in your podcast and earn a percentage out of the sale that they would make by advertising on your site.
- By developing premium content/ goods/ products: You can charge a small fee to display some of your special content/ goods/ products. This content from which you are earning becomes your premium content. Anyone who pays you the amount would only be able to unlock or access that content.
- Organizing events: Arrange an event and talk about something that people around you want to hear. Earn a small fee for such events in return.
- By selling books through your site or courses: Now this is something authors can do for themselves. They can run a podcast and can ensure to talk about the storyline of their books and a lot more about their making. You can also talk about other’s books/courses and shows in your podcast.
- Taking up public speaking: Go for public speaking and talk about the topics close to your heart. Once there are a lot of people attending your shows, begin by charging them a sum.
- Providing consultations/services and training: Training is a good way to begin. Provide consultation/services to people who need it. Additionally, you can also arrange suitable training for them.
Next point, you need to know is about the popular podcast advertisement options you can use.
Popular Podcast Advertising Ideas
Here are a few ideas you can put in place to advertise your podcast.
Create Snippets and Images for Your Guests
Guests on your show is the best place to begin your podcast advertisement. On the go-live day of your episode, try to send out a snippet and a photograph of your show to them. Links and tweets or status updates can also be shared with them. This is the best way to begin advertising. Leveraging your skills could never have been easier than that with your own guests.
Do Not Leave Out Social Media
Ensure you have a vibrant and growing social media funnel. Do not ever underestimate its power; make sure you use it fully. When you are a beginner, you can follow some of the below rules to gain prominence.
- Create tweets and posts with your iTunes URL.
- Create suitable images using ‘Pablo’ and ‘Canva.’
- Upload a sound clip to an online audio distribution platform like SoundCloud.
- Then upload the same sound clipping on your tweet or post.
- Reshare the podcast episode multiple times with your followers.
- Talk about the making of that episode and much more on social media (Yes! All of it can be done at a budget of your choice).
Share More on the Day of Launch
Share more than one episode of your podcast during launch.
This way you have more snippets to share. You can reach out to more people this way. More attention will shower upon you as you generate a lot more interest than you get with a single episode.
Try YouTube for a Complete Video Experience
- Choose a nice SEO friendly name for the episode.
- You can shoot it in video mode or you can use Periscope and Facebook to mix a live video with a live podcast interview.
- Use different tools to convert any audio to video mode. You can use iMovie for Mac and Windows Live Movie Maker if you have a Windows PC.
Use Podcast Apps and Aggregators
For reaching out to the masses, drop your episode links to the ‘Podcatchers’ to spread the message about your podcast. You can try any of these below apps,
- Overcast: It is a free, simple, and an award-winning podcast player.
- Podcast Addict: This is a free app and is not at all restricted. It has a wide reach that you can harness for your podcast.
- TuneIn: To get your podcast accepted in TuneIn, ensure the artwork submitted is 1400 x 1400 JPG image. Name it by a unique program file name. There should be at least one blog post with the media.
- Castro: There is just one single playlist that gives you total control with Castro. This can surely help you.
- Downcast: A very cool podcast player is available for iOS, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay and is quite popular among young masses.
Sell Sponsorships or Join Advertising Network
Podcast advertising networks are a sure shot means to achieve your ends.
- Midroll: These people love podcasts and would go a long way to match you up with your advertisers who comprehend the idea of podcast ads.
- Adopter Media: These guys do a podcast sponsorship, even the smaller ones. So if you have a show where you are struggling to find advertisers due to the size of your audience, the best you can do for yourself is head straight to these people.
- AdvertiseCast: Simply sign up, describe your podcast, and go live. Advertisers get to shop from over 1000 podcasts to find a show that fits their sleeves. Your show too could be found easily by them.
Additionally you can sign-up on ads platform. Advertising networks like Podcorn and PodcastOne act as middlemen between podcast hosts and sponsors.
Do a Giveaway Contest
Whatever gifts can give to people, gift it off to people who listen to your podcasts and even to your hosts. Leave a review on iTunes for gifts and this could pull a crowd.
Find other Colleagues in your Niche
Find other colleagues in your niche or in different niches who can mention you or your podcast.
Mention other Brands in Your Podcast
Mention other brands in your podcast episodes and others might mention you back.
Try Being a Guest on Popular Podcasts
Try being a guest on other people’s podcasts to gain a good list of followers from those shows where you go as a guest.
Wrapping up,
Many weren’t known at all in the market and became a brand when they advertised it up on podcasts. Startups became an overnight success story with podcast advertisements. Now remains the appearance of branded shows in the future. These shows can revolutionize the future of podcast advertisement industry landscape forever.
So here’s what you can do to monetize your podcast. These are a few ways you can earn your profits. But remember it won’t be easy and not that fast as some people claim it to be. There is a lot of planning and scheming involved in it.
Follow the above article if you plan to monetize your podcast.
Remember that if you are planning to advertise, mid-roll ads are the best choice. Try to fix a mid-roll slot for yourself. Find your niche. Run simulated tests to check the performance of your podcast advertisement before actually running it. Use a proper metric tool and run proper offer codes to attract more people.
