5 Ways To Buy Podcast Ads For Your Business

[00:00:30]Heather Osgood: [00:00:30] Hello, and welcome to The Podcast Advertising Playbook. And today, on the show, we're going to answer a simple question that isn't always so simple. And that question is, how do you advertise on a podcast? So if you are a company, if you're a marketer, if you have considered podcast advertising, and you're not sure where to start, I will lay out some ways to advertise on a podcast.

[00:00:54]We all know, especially in the marketing industry, that podcasts are going crazy right now, [00:01:00] which is very exciting. I've been in the industry for five years. And I remember when I started, I would call on companies, and I am not joking; many marketers had no idea what a podcast actually was. 

[00:01:12] So here we are five years later, and most, if not everyone I speak to, knows what a podcast is. I shouldn't say most everyone knows what a podcast is. I haven't gotten that in a very long time, so that's exciting. Right? We all know what podcasts are.

[00:01:26] And advertisers are eager to advertise on podcasts now, but they don't know where to start. The other day, I got a phone call from a friend of mine, someone I had worked with within a local market in California for a very long time. And he runs a marketing agency and is like, Heather; I have searched high and low.

[00:01:47] How exactly do you advertise on a podcast? He's like, it can't be that difficult. And unfortunately, I did not have a great answer for him. However, today I'm going to share some [00:02:00] easy answers for you because although the conversation I had with him was just a few short months ago, some strides are being made in podcasting all the time.

[00:02:09] So before we dive into answering the question of how you can advertise on a podcast, I first want to start with the types of ads that you can run because that's the basis of deciding to advertise. 

[00:02:23] If you were looking to do host read endorsement ads, you're going to go down a very different path than if you were interested in doing programmatically inserted ads. So that is the key distinction. So as you were approaching podcast, advertising is determining exactly what it is that you want to do. 

[00:02:41] Now, in the case of my friend, he works in a local market. He works with a lot of car dealers. And the question that he wanted to answer was, how do I run ads on a podcast like I run ads on Pandora? So he is very accustomed to advertising on Pandora. Local car dealers that work with him [00:03:00] are happy with Pandora because they can target the local market. With podcast advertising, one of the downsides certainly can be that a lot of it is very national. And if you're not looking to reach a national market, it can be a bit challenging. 

[00:03:15] So I directed him to some online resources similar to a Pandora-type buying atmosphere. The one that I would say is probably gaining the most steam right now is the Spotify platform, of course. You can go onto Spotify, and you can purchase these targeted ads within Spotify.

[00:03:35]And when I say targeted, what I mean is that you are deciding the geographical location you're advertising to; you are selecting the demographic information for who you're advertising to. Then essentially, you're uploading a radio ad to be played on podcasts. Now I will say after I had that conversation with him, not too long after that, I was listening to a podcast, I was living in that [00:04:00] market, and I got served an ad that he plays through Spotify. 

[00:04:03] So there are definitely opportunities to do that. So if you are a small agency, if you're a small marketer and looking to reach a small community or one specific market, you can definitely use a platform like Spotify to do this.

[00:04:19] Now, one of the important pieces about this is that, of course, it's not a host read ad. It is going to be an ad that you upload to the platform that's going to play. And there is definitely value in that, but host read ads have a big punch that they can pull. And if you are a national advertiser and you're not looking to market in a small area, I would highly encourage you to consider host read endorsement ads.

[00:04:48] And the reason that I encourage advertisers to consider this is that we know that people don't love ads. How many of us really want to hear a car commercial ad? Right? [00:05:00] Like, we're not super excited about that radio car commercial ad. Granted, if you were in the market to purchase a vehicle, of course, you might be interested.

[00:05:08] And radio advertising has worked phenomenally for car dealerships for many, many years. And so it is a natural progression action to say, of course, podcast advertising would work just as well. And from what I have seen, it has worked well. So there definitely are opportunities to do that. The value of the host brand endorsement ad, though, is that we bring this influencer piece, which is so important.

[00:05:34]So we're bringing this influencer piece, and suddenly our ads don't feel as intrusive. They feel more like the content. So there is this opportunity. To go through a platform like Spotify and to buy very regionalized advertising. 

[00:05:49] But let's talk about what hosts read endorsement ads look like and who should be looking to capitalize on those.

[00:05:55] So first, I think it's important that you determine you are the type of [00:06:00] company that has a lot of weight in the brand of who you are. If you are trying to establish a brand, or if you are a brand, then host read endorsement ads will go much further to help create that brand. And the reason they're going to go further in that the host who people know, like, and trust is going to be talking about your brand, and they're going to be giving more brand credibility to the company that you're trying to create.

[00:06:24] That's going to happen a lot quicker through an influencer-type campaign than it would through a radio-type ad that is pre-programmed. So it would be best if you determined the goal behind that. 

[00:06:36] Now, if you have determined that you do think that that endorsement host read ad is going to be best for you, what next? Where do you go? You can't go to Spotify because Spotify is not selling those hosts read endorsement ads. 

[00:06:47] So, where you can go is you can definitely look to marketplaces online. There are several different marketplaces. There is a handful that has, have been in existence for a while. My suspicion is we will [00:07:00] see more to come. When you go to a marketplace, like, let's say, Advertisecast, for instance, you go to this marketplace where they have thousands of different podcasts. You can go through their catalog of shows and choose the podcasts you're interested in advertising with. The value of using a marketplace is that you have lots of different shows in one location, and you can use the technology, right?

[00:07:24] So you don't necessarily have to reach out and actually speak to somebody. If you want to, you can place your campaign through their platform, which is a benefit. 

[00:07:32] A couple of other considerations that I would have for you are to consider a representation firm. So True Native Media, our company, is a representation firm. Our rep firm brings a lot of value to someone interested in doing host read endorsement ads because we have very intimate relationships with the podcasts that we represent.

[00:07:53] We know the shows in our portfolio. We know where their strengths are. We know what shows do the best host read ads. [00:08:00] We know how they deliver. We know that the past advertisers that have succeeded, what types of companies they are, and we can really help put together a plan for you. That is going to be very specific and very targeted.

[00:08:13] Now, of course, getting back to regional advertising, if you're looking to regionalize advertising, host read might not be the best for you. So I would recommend you think about doing host read ads to really look at it from a national perspective. 

[00:08:29] Now, of course, there are lots of bigger shows where you can do geo-targeting with bigger shows. And that can work as long as the market that you're trying to target is large enough. And when I meet what I mean by that is, are you looking to target New York, LA, Chicago, or even Phoenix or, you know, Portland, right? So it would help if you made sure that the area that you're trying to target is large enough because you know, every time we put specifications on who we are [00:09:00] targeting, the audience gets smaller and smarter, smaller. So, of course, that audience will be more targeted, and there is definite value in that targeting the issue, though, is that; if you're only reaching a hundred people, how much value is there? So you have to, if you're going to do geo-targeting with host read ads, you have to make sure that you're targeting a location, a market that is large enough to sustain that type of targeting. So really think about that. 

[00:09:28] With representation firms, depending on the company's size, some of them can do geo-targeting. Others may not do geo-targeting, so it just depends. So we talked about the idea of marketplaces. So we talked about the idea of representation firms.

[00:09:43] The other option out there is to target networks. Is there a True Crime Network out there? Is there a business or a financial network out there? I know HubSpot just announced that they are launching their network, and they were able to get existing podcasts to come on that network. So could you [00:10:00] approach someone like HubSpot and say, Hey, we want to advertise on your network. There could be opportunities there. So networks can be a good place. 

[00:10:07] And then finally, there definitely are advertising agencies that specialize in podcast advertising. Now, these agencies typically are looking for a buy at about a hundred thousand dollars. So if you're not quite there, representation, firms and networks, and platforms marketplaces could be a better solution for you.

[00:10:28] So, just to recap, there definitely are opportunities for you to advertise if you were looking to do regional advertising in podcasting. You can definitely go to a company like Spotify, and there are also larger organizations and trade desks that you can buy programmatic ads through. So keep your eye out for that if you're interested in doing that kind of ad.

[00:10:52] If you're looking to do a host read ad, my recommendation would be to look at the online marketplaces, representation firms, networks, [00:11:00], and finally, the agencies. 

[00:11:01] I hope that this has been helpful for you. And if you were interested in learning more about podcast advertising. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to talk to anyone who is maybe a brand, a company interested in learning more about how they can market their products and services through podcast advertising. Thanks for being with me today. We'll talk to you soon.

[00:11:22] Take care. 

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