Episode Summary
There are over 2 million podcasts out there. And for those who do listen to podcasts, they average over 6 hours of listening each week.
This presents a big opportunity for brands to advertise their products.
But most small, scrappy marketing teams at technology companies don’t know how to get results from a podcast advertising campaign.
So that’s why Heather Osgood joined host Tristan Pelligrino on the show. Heather is a podcast advertising specialist and is the Founder of True Native Media…a podcast representation agency.
In this episode, Heather and Tristan get into what makes podcast advertising so special and how you can get started with your own campaign.
Guest Profile
- Name: Heather Osgood
- What she does: Heather has been in the marketing industry since the early 2000s, and in 2016, she founded True Native Media, a podcast representation agency specialising in advertising. Currently, she is the host of the Podcast Advertising Playbook podcast
- Company: True Native Media
- Noteworthy: Podcast advertising really works: “I think 68% of podcast listeners say that they’ve purchased something that they heard about advertised on a podcast.”
Key Insights
- Podcast advertising is very similar to influencer marketing. Because of the relationship between the host and the listener, having a podcast host do a host-read ad is basically influencer marketing, Heather says. “So if you're able to identify hosts that will really like your product and speak to your product and add value, that influencer piece is going to be way more powerful than just general brand awareness, or just getting your name out there. If you can find a host who is going to embrace your product, who is going to communicate all of the value of your product, there's so much there. Something that podcasters get wrong is that they aren't doing a good enough job of really partnering with the hosts and making sure the hosts realize that, ‘Hey, we're in this together, you know, I want you to understand and enjoy my product. And on the flip side, I want you to bring me customers,’” she says.
- Advertising on podcasts is effective because it creates a mental picture. “When you listen to a podcast ad, in your mind you're creating this mental picture. That mental picture is so much more powerful than someone serving the app, a video or a social media ad or a banner ad, just the things that pop up because those feel so intrusive. No one asked for that ad to come up. [...] It feels intrusive. I’m not saying that podcast ads aren’t intrusive. Nobody out there is asking for more advertising, but when you’ve got a host and trust as a listener and they bring you a product, there’s this level of confidence that happens,” she argues.
- Software ads tend to do really well in the podcast market. Heather says one of her biggest surprises in the podcast advertising market is tech, but she realizes now it shouldn’t be surprising. “I would say software companies in particular work really well on podcast advertising and truthfully from the very beginning that has kind of surprised me. [...] It's changing as podcasting grows, but podcast listeners do still tend to be a bit of that early adopter. We've had some online banking companies that have just done exceptionally well,” she says.
Heather Osgood
Founder
True Native Media
Episode Highlights
The best place to run an ad is mid-roll
“Ideally you would love to have your ad be somewhere within the content because I’m listening to the show because I like the show and I want to hear their show. Then if all of a sudden I hear an ad, chances are I’m engaged in doing something else. I might be exercising or cleaning my house or commuting, so I’m less likely to fast forward through that ad because I’m already engaged in something else. Uh, so that’s why the very beginning isn’t great because somebody has got their phone in their hands and it’s real easy to fast forward.”
Finding the right demographic is key to successful podcast advertising, and that may require some work
“Oftentimes shows might look from the outside like they could be a good fit for you, but you need to do your homework and dig in and make sure that that listener base is really going to be in the market to purchase your products or services. Podcasts demographic information is not up to par with other digital marketing formats, so it is very easy depending on how you go about structuring your campaign for you to be like, ‘I think that this audience could be right,’ but is it really? So you need to make sure that you’re as an advertiser or an agency getting that information from the host and digging in as much as you can to get that information.”
Start by advertising with podcasts specifically directed at your target audience
“Look at it from a very kind of matching matchy perspective. So for instance, I’m working with a client right now that has developed an app for moms. So it’s very easy for them to say, ‘I need to reach moms.’ So I can go through and I can say, ‘I’m going to choose the mom podcast to advertise on.’ There’s a lot of value in that because we know for sure who they’re targeting is going to be their target market.
The issue with that is that it doesn’t scale super well. So if you’re looking to, to come in and say, I really want podcast advertising to be a big lead generator for me, you’re going to want to scale it. You’re going to want to go somewhere bigger. Starting out with those moms shows is a really good option, but then secondarily, we need to say, there are hundreds of thousands of other podcasts who reached my target demographic.”
When advertising on a podcast, provide the host with three key things
“If you’re able to have the host actually use the product that you’ve created, it makes a huge difference because they’re going to be able to really speak to the ad and to the product from a very authentic, first hand experience type of way. Really do everything you can to make sure that they try your product.
Then you’re going to want to give the host what we call talking points. The ad shouldn’t be scripted. You don’t want to give them a script, but you do want to give them some guidelines. I always look to what is that unique selling proposition that you have created? Make sure that they have that; make sure that they know what sets you apart from your competitors. […] You want them to start by talking about the experience they’ve had with the product, but then you want them to get down to the, you know, the brass tacks about your company and why your company is actually different or again, what that unique selling proposition is, and you need to provide the host with that because they’re not going to know what to say. Then you do want to also make sure that you’re providing them with some sort of a call to action.”
Relationship building between the podcast host and the audience creates a unique opportunity for advertisers
“There is this relationship element and this relationship building that happens. I have had advertisers tell me that they get better quality customers from podcast ads than other forms. So there are customers that are going to stay, there’s staying power with these customers because of the process to get to the place where you’re listening to that podcast and engaging. If they’re going to come over and they’re going to purchase your product, they’re going to be a different caliber of customer than somebody that’s like, just maybe like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m just going to try that out real quick.’”
