Are you thinking about using Podcasts as part of your advertising strategy?

There has been a huge growth in podcast listening over the last couple of years, whether it’s when exercising, travelling, cooking or just kicking back it’s a convenient, informative and entertaining way of listening to what you are interested in. 32% of people listen to podcasts monthly while 22% listen at least weekly (source: Edison Research). 67% of podcast listeners say that they perceive adverts on podcasts positively, trusting the adverts more than other types of advertising. (source: Statistics)

Podcast advertising allows brands to talk about their products gaining trust whilst listeners are consuming their favourite podcasts on their chosen trusted platform such as Spotify.

How does it work?

Adverts on podcasts can be delivered much like video-on-demand advertising. The audio is placed at the beginning, middle and end of a podcast episode, helping to establish a connection with the audience already engaged with their chosen podcast. 54% of people are more likely to buy from a company they have heard on a podcast advert (source:statistics)

What to consider?

1. Audience demographics – unlike TV advertising the audience won’t be as broad, podcasts offer the opportunity to advertise to the most active podcast audience –  1/3 of millennials regularly listen to podcasts (source EX-IQ), and are often seeking new information and are likely to afford to show interest in new products and have the disposable income to try them.

2. It’s all about alignment – Target podcasts that have audiences that will likely resonate with your advertising message. Podcasts can be niche and may offer great opportunities to connect with audiences by placing adverts in the right episodes to be more natural and related to the topic.

3. Utilise multiple podcasts – Advertise across a wider number of podcasts to ensure your message is being heard multiple times rather than investing in just advertising against one popular podcast with millions of listeners, this will ensure your message is heard more than once and will therefore increase the listener buy-in.

4. Advert type –  Ads can be delivered at the beginning, middle or end of a podcast or alternatively the podcast host can read the advert. Sponsorship is often available too for consistent messaging.

With so many podcasts available, and with so many listeners with buying potential, podcasts are a great addition to an advertising campaign, if you would like to learn more about how to advertise on a podcast that’s appropriate for your business please contact us.

Spotify updates podcast advertising capabilities

As podcast listener numbers increase and the topics available on podcasts broaden, Spotify have launched a new feature to directly engage listeners with brands. CTA (call-to-action) cards.

The CTA cards will appear as a small, interactive button near the middle of the listeners device when a podcast is paused for an advert. The listener can touch the button which will redirect them to an advertisers website landing page. This process enables brands to provide more information about their products and services to the listener in just one step and to engage directly with them as an alternative to an audible 15-30 second advert.

CTA cards are also intended to make it easier for listeners to remember useful information from advertisers  such as a promotional code or URL that may have got easily forgotten in an audible advert.

Spotify has 28 million podcast listeners worldwide (2021) and is the number one podcast streaming service in the world,  followed by Apple Podcasts. It’s success is derived from the acquisition of Anchor, a digital platform which aids creators to produce and monetize original podcasts.

2021 saw Spotify’s ad revenue increase by 75% (Q3) due mainly to podcast streaming. It is estimated that podcast ad spend is set to double from $1.31 billion to $2.71 billion between 2021 & 2025 (Insider Intelligence data)

Ulta Beauty was one of the first companies to test the new CTA cards on Spotify. Advertising via podcasts, says Christine White, head of content at Ulta Beauty, is all about “finding the right connection points” — those moments where it’s possible to grab and hold listeners’ attention.

CTA podcast ads are currently only available in the US and through bookings with a minimum spend of 40K linked to it, but will be widely available after the Spring in the UK!

If you need help using audible streaming to market your business please contact us at [email protected]