How to Find the Best Performing Podcasts as an Advertiser

Podcasting is having a serious moment and if you have a message you want to get out there, chances are you want to harness the power of podcast ads. But which podcast do you choose to wring the most bang from your buck?

Traditional advertising has suffered a decline in recent years due to massive shifts in the media landscape. But podcast ads are a different story.

According to studies, 2021 advertisers will spend $1 billion on podcast ads thanks to the growing popularity of the medium.

Podcast ads are proving to be an affordable and effective way of engaging new audiences and building your brand.

There are a number of reasons for this.

Listeners are tuned in for the duration of each episode, making them an ideal audience for advertising. They also tend to trust their hosts and so are more open to the brands and companies that are endorsed during the show.

It’s a powerful proposition. But once you have decided to get in on the action to promote your brand, how do you go about choosing which show? After all, there are now more than 2.000.000 podcasts out there – a number which looks set to rise.

Focus on your demographic

Start by thinking about who you are trying to reach with your podcast ad campaign – it’s important to have a clearly defined and targeted audience.

Ask yourself what it is that you’re trying to achieve – your objective.

Ponder why your existing customers trust your brand or product. Consider who else might also be interested.

Then find the common point between your current and future customers. What do they all care about?

Market research can come in handy in answering all of these questions, pointing you in the right direction.

What are they listening to?

The next step is to discover the podcasts your potential customers are into.

Find out what these are by simply asking. Social media is a great way of reaching out, or you can use a number of online platforms to create a survey at no cost.

Even if you don’t have a large enough customer base or social media following  to tap into, you can use an online tool like Survey Monkey that will survey people within your target demographic in order to gain those insights.

As discussed already, your target demographic will have interests in common with your existing or former customers. So, this is a great way of working out how to reach out.

Be a podcast detective

Once you have a shortlist of the podcasts that your customers, or target demographic, are listening to, you need to find out more about them.

Check out which shows are trending across all the major platforms and relevant categories in order to see where the opportunities lie.

You will also be able to take a look at the rankings history, reviews and engagement metrics for each show.

Have a listen yourself

Then it’s time to have a listen for yourself.

You need to ascertain if the show will work well with your brand and whether the type of ad you are thinking of putting out there will fit in with its hosts, topics and genre.

Consider also how the hosts handle advertisements, how they work them into the show and how they demonstrate familiarity with the products they are talking about.

If possible, check out the demographics of the podcast audience and see if it fits well with your target customer.

Get some expert help

Consulting podcast publishers is another way of selecting which show to go with for your podcast ad.

They will have an in-depth knowledge of which brand will be best suited to your goal, or they will instead use a number of shows, tweaking according to which one is performing best.