The effectiveness of podcast ads continues to grow as podcast viewership grows and diversifies. According to research from IAB, podcasting is one of the fastest-growing digital media channels today. In just two years (2020–2022), podcast advertisement revenue increased by over 115%. That’s double the growth of the digital advertising market as a whole.

What are some strategies your client can use to get the most out of each podcast advertisement? Let’s discuss.

How Podcast Advertisement Buyers Can Power Outcomes with Audience Data

Brand Safety and Suitability

According to IAB, brand safety and suitability are becoming more important to podcast advertisers:

Brand Safety: “Controls that companies use to protect brands against negative impacts on consumer opinion associated with specific types of content.” Basically, ensuring your client’s brand’s ads aren’t played during podcasts with inappropriate or offensive content
Brand Suitability: “Enables a brand to determine appropriate content for an individual advertiser’s goals.” In short: Ensuring your client’s ads are played during podcasts that feature content aimed at your client’s target audience.

Basically, brands are investing in brand safety and suitability solutions to analyze podcasts’ content, title, hosts, etc. to make sure their ads are consumed by the right people and in a positive light.

The first step to achieving both with your client’s next podcast advertisement is knowing exactly who their target audience is.

Audience Targeting

Your client’s next podcast advertisement should utilize various targeting types, such as geotargeting and audience demographics, says IAB. You can gather that information for your client using audience data from AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel.

Using AudienceSCAN, you can look up your client’s target audience to discover their:

Demographic information (gender, age, average household income, occupation, etc.)
Geotargeting (the type of areas they live in)
Personal interests
Favorite things
What they plan on paying for within the next year
What motivates them to make purchases/how they want future purchases to make them feel
Much more

With that audience data, you can better determine which types of podcasts are best suited for your client’s podcast ads.

What Types of Podcast Ads to Use

The primary purpose of podcast ads is brand awareness, says IAB. In 2023, podcast advertisement revenue by campaign type is expected to be divided as such:

Brand Awareness: 42% of ad revenue is expected to be generated by podcast ads in this campaign type
Direct Response Ads: 39%
Branded Content: 12%
Brand Mentions: 7%

Additionally, the majority of podcast ads (92%) in 2022 were dynamically inserted ads (DAI). Only 8% of podcast ads were edited-in/baked-in ads.

How Long Your Client’s Ads Should Be

No matter what type of campaign your client’s next podcast advertisement is for, make sure it isn’t too long. According to IAB, the majority of podcast ad inventory sold last year includes:

16- to 30-second ads: 50% of podcast ad inventory in the U.S. fall into this length
31- to 60-second ads: 35%
61- to 90-second ads: 8%
Less than 15-second ads: 6%
Greater than 91-second ads: 0%

Podcast listeners are tuning in to hear their favorite content. If your client’s podcast advertisement contributes to it in a small but well-correlated way, they’ll be more likely to seek out more information about your client’s brand later. But if your client’s ad distracts from the podcast content, they may come to resent the brand instead.

When to Place Your Client’s Ad

According to IAB, podcast advertisement revenue is split between:

Pre-Roll Ads: 31% of ads are expected to be pre-roll in 2023
Mid-Roll Ads: 66%
Post-Roll Ads: 4%

Post-roll ads being last is hardly a surprise. How many people stick around after the content they tuned in for is over? Place your client’s podcast advertisement before or during the content to get their message heard.

Photo by: Soundtrap