For brands and media buyers looking to break into the world of Podcast Advertising
With incredible innovations in podcast ad delivery and measurement, marketers are increasingly incorporating podcast ad buys as an essential part of their media buys. Why? Podcast advertising helps them reach young, educated, and affluent audiences at scale through a medium that garners more and more attention — niche and across the board — every day.
In the August 2024 Sounds Profitable Podcast Landscape Study, it was found that:
- Podcasts now reach 53% of Americans 18+ every month
- The medium continues to index highly with 18-54s, and multicultural audiences: Asian-American podcast consumption (62% monthly) and the LGBTQ+ audience (57% monthly )
- Year-over-year, interest in the perceived benefits of podcasting grew significantly, led by “listening to discussions on topics of interest” (a 13 percentage point gain), “learning about new hobbies” (a 12 percentage point gain), and “hearing programs that accompany TV series or movies” (a gain of 8 percentage points)
According to Ad Results Media, Is Podcast Advertising Effective, MAY 1 2024, podcasts are far and away the preferred channel by consumers.
- 64% of consumers pay full attention to podcast ads.
- 95% of regular listeners take action after hearing one.
“If you took even the most engaged paid advertising channels, they don’t get close to podcasting,” Jon Evans, chief customer officer for ad effectiveness company System1 said at Podcast Advertising Summit in January — and clearly, the stats back that up.
As podcast advertising evolves, accountability and measurement tools now offer the same level of sophistication as other digital marketing channels, making their success easily verified. This is good news for podcast advertising agencies, media buyers, and brands everywhere.
This article is designed to help you as a brand or buyer understand the power of the podcast ad and the efficacy of the podcast advertising agency in facilitating successful podcast ad buys for yourself and/or your clients.
Feel Free to Jump Ahead!
- What Are the Different Types of Podcast Ads?
- The Value of the Host-Read Ad — Baked-In & Dynamic
- What about Brand Safety in Podcast Advertising?
- How do I Know My Podcast Ad Campaign is Working?
- Why is Libsyn Ads the Right Podcast Marketing Agency For Me?
- What’s the Best Way to Connect with the Libsyn Ads Team?
What Are the Different Types of Podcast Ads?
Podcast advertising agencies offer two main types of podcast ads: baked-in and dynamic podcast advertising. Let’s take a quick look at both.
Baked-in Podcast Advertising
Baked-in ads are ads recorded or edited into the original mp3, wav file, or video of a podcast episode. These ads are typically host-read and recorded as part of the original podcast recording.
If the ad is evergreen or applicable year-round, this is a real bonus for the advertiser — a permanent brand endorsement with longtail value. In addition, the ad is natural sounding and flows within the content.
If the ad is not evergreen, a listener might come across the ad after its promotional value has passed. In this case, the ad is probably best suited to a dynamic approach that can easily accommodate time and deadlines.
The baked-in add also benefits from target audience perception. Listeners hear that as a brand, you are supporting their favorite creator, which encourages them to form a potentially deeper relationship with your brand.
Note that a baked-in, host-read ad often demands a higher price than a dynamic ad because you are paying for the authentic and sincere backing of the podcast host. Not an endorsement, so much as a thoughtful recommendation.
Dynamic Podcast Advertising
Dynamic ads are those that can be inserted in a podcast pre-, mid- or post-roll, for a defined period of time. They are usually pulled after a certain number of downloads or a certain amount of time as agreed upon by the advertiser.
They can be host-read or pre-produced. In both cases, the placement is determined by ad markers inserted in the episode. The ad markers can be placed in natural conversation breaks so as not to be disruptive to the flow of the episode.
In addition, dynamic ads are conducive to time-sensitive campaigns, as they can easily be turned on and off. They also lend themselves to geographic targeting, and frequency capping, which allows a certain IP address to hear the ad a specific number of times over a specified period of time.
Other Benefits Include:
- Creative can be quickly updated and employed.
- A variety of third-party attribution tools are available to provide better measurement and reporting data.
- Consecutive campaigns can be planned based on seasonal business needs — product launches or sales.
A podcast advertising agency like Libsyn Ads facilitates dynamic ad campaign management and curates the selection of podcasts with audience demographics that meet the brand’s target audience.
The Value of the Host-Read Ad — Baked-In & Dynamic
A host-read ad is like a good friend recommending a product or service. This is especially true when the host uses the product or service themselves and provides a first-hand account of its benefits within the podcast ad read.
The use of the host’s voice in the read makes it sound like a native ad, which listeners rarely skip over. They want to know what their podcast host likes. They trust the recommendation. This speaks to the unique relationship the podcaster has with their audience, one of loyalty and respect.
The listener doesn’t feel like they are being served an ad. They feel like a friend is telling them about a product that they love. This is powerful because of the engagement of podcast listeners. — Karen White, Director of Ad Operations, Libsyn Ads
Podcast Ad Authenticity
Obviously, the power of the host-read ad comes from its authentic nature. To this end, we encourage you NOT to give your podcast host a strict script. Rather, give them your product or service to try. Then, they can speak realistically and relevantly about what they like about it in their own words.
Sure, talking points are great, but how wonderful is it that a podcast host genuinely raves about your product to thousands of rapt listeners?
Note: host-read ads tend to perform better than all other forms of podcast advertising and are highly sought after, commanding a higher Cost Per Mille/Thousand (CPM).
For more information on the pros and cons of all podcast advertising types, read our Getting Started with Podcast Ads blog.
What about Brand Safety in Podcast Advertising?
If you have concerns about brand safety, a podcast advertising agency can suggest programmatic ads. These also employ dynamic insertion, but with pre-recorded, advertiser-approved spots.
What are Programmatic Podcast Ads?
For any advertiser that is maybe not comfortable with a host-read endorsement, there’s always the option to do a pre-produced audio ad that is going to reach these super-engaged podcast audiences. — Stephen Pickens, SVP, Sales, Libsyn Ads
Programmatic reaches an advertiser’s target market by specifying listeners across genre, demographic and contextual targets. They are generally pre-recorded by a marketing agency and produced with a high-quality voiceover. Programmatic ads are one of the many podcast advertising services that Libsyn offers.
Additional Brand Safety Guarantees
Libsyn has teamed with Barometer to provide innovative technology that ensures every podcast episode adheres to the highest standards of brand safety. Barometer’s AI-powered approach brings context back into the picture, allowing advertisers to customize and curate campaigns based on custom requirements.
This partnership offers a robust and nuanced approach to evaluating and aligning content with brand values, emphasizing brand suitability, authenticity in tone, and alignment with the right content creators.
At Libsyn Ads, we can also help with ad production, laying down music beds, adding sound effects, etc. like any other podcast ad agency. But, the most important part is that we can actualize targeted ad placements.
How do I Know My Podcast Ad Campaign Is Working?
A podcast advertising agency like Libsyn Ads offers metrics reflecting real-time impressions and conversions via reliable third-party attribution. These numbers tell the whole story and allow you to judge how your campaign is doing and where it is doing the best. The metrics not only deliver, but help you hone your campaigns to continually improve and exceed.
Podcast Advertising — The Long Game
If you are selling something super cheap or trying to trigger an impulse buy, a couple of well-placed podcast ads in curated episodes might work. However, for most advertisers, maintaining a long-term presence with a podcast/podcasts allows them to introduce their product or service and then convince listeners that they need it in their lives.
Remember, podcast listeners are uber-engaged and loyal to their podcast hosts. We’ve seen this again and again. In fact, according to this data from Sounds Profitable 2024 Ad Nauseum report, designed to learn how people perceive ad quality and quantity in podcasting, it’s not that podcast listeners skip ads, it’s that they skip bad or boring ads.
Quality and quantity of ad messaging play a significant role in results.
In addition, the repetition of a sponsorship does its work over time. Listeners literally appreciate your brand more because it is consistently and reliably sponsoring and supporting a favorite podcast. The more and longer you are in front of these listeners, the better your ad campaign will succeed. This is especially true if you are buying host-read ads.
Why Is Libsyn Ads the Right Podcast Marketing Agency For Me?
Libsyn Ads is a leading podcast advertising agency that has a proven track record of delivering remarkable returns on podcast advertising campaigns since the inception of podcast advertising in 2016.
One of the reasons we are one of the top podcast marketing agencies is our pure podcast focus.
Podcast ads are all we do.
Unlike an advertising agency that buys media in TV, radio, digital and other traditional vehicles, we are a dedicated podcast marketing agency.
With nearly 20 years under our belt and now a part of the Liberated Syndication podcasting empire, our podcast audio advertising team understands the podcasting world in and out.
We use this expertise to create curated marketing campaigns that align with brand goals and reach a specified target audience rather than being satisfied with the typical one-size-fits-all “bundled option.”
While other podcast marketing services treat podcast advertising as a part of a media mix, we treat podcast advertising as the powerful, far-reaching, evolving medium that it is.
Complete Podcast Marketing Service
At Libsyn Ads, we are not a self-serve operation. Many other podcast advertising networks pride themselves on letting you fend for yourself. Instead, we offer a team of real people who work with you personally to create, run and evaluate your podcast ad campaigns.
More importantly, we are responsive and available 24-7 all over the country. If you have a question about your ad campaign performance, trust that we are here to answer it no matter when or where. As a podcast advertising network, we are also quick to react, adjust and pivot to ensure ad campaigns are successful.
We Over-Deliver by Design
It’s no mistake that Libsyn Ads’ carefully curated marketing campaigns are beyond successful at any given time. As experts in all facets of podcast advertising, we create extraordinarily targeted podcast marketing campaigns, often across numerous podcasts to maximize your ad spend and your results.
Many of our podcasts are exclusive and all are hosted by podcasters who genuinely want your campaign to succeed.
Our campaigns do have a tendency to over-deliver. We do this by design. We want for our advertisers to be 100% happy and it’s great for partnerships with our publishers. They want the campaigns to deliver. They want you to rebuy. — Karen White, Director of Ad Operations, Libsyn Ads
Social Influencer Marketing
Our podcast ad buys also include rich social media assets. This allows creators to implement their social media platforms — Instagram, Facebook, X accounts, and even newsletters — to promote your messaging.
When we submit your podcast order, we include social media posts, facilitating multi-channel buys with a single stroke.
Because the social marketplace behaves the same way as it does in the podcasting space, followers, much like listeners, interact with their podcast host’s post.
Our social media management process touches all of our creators’ digital media channels, giving you access to engaged audiences everywhere.
Our Easy 3-Step Ad Buying Process
Our expertise makes ad buying easy. We manage your campaign from start to finish with three simple steps.
- Conversation — First, we talk to you one-on-one about your goals, your budget, and your messaging to curate a buy that connects your brand with podcasts that facilitate an authentic host-and-sponsor relationship. This ensures that a podcaster’s endorsement resonates with your audience.
- Proposal — Within 24 hours, our team will present you with a proposal that will deliver — and most likely, over-deliver — the best results.
- Flexible Ad Formats — Baked-in, dynamic host-read or programmatic ads. We help you choose the right mix for you and your product or service.
It’s this simplicity that makes working with Libsyn Ads a pleasure. We want your campaign to succeed and apply our years of experience to make it happen. We pitch, produce, manage, and monitor the success of your campaign so you don’t have to. And we’re happy to pivot when necessary.
What's the Best Way to Connect with the Libsyn Ads Team?
The Libsyn Ads team brings a longstanding tradition of going above and beyond the standard host-read ad. This includes integrating brands into contextually aligned podcasts, complete with long-form reads, special segments, and social media.
Visit the Libsyn Ads website or contact us directly at ad-sales@libsyn.com to learn more about our services.
