Five Best Practices for Podcast Advertising

As podcasting listening booms, more advertisers than ever want in. Brands and businesses of all types are waking up to podcasting’s ability to reach new customers and generate leads. 

You might be wondering if podcast advertising is worth the hype. Trust us, it is. One huge reason is the sheer number of regular listeners on streaming services. Almost half of the adults in the U.S. (47%) currently listen to podcasts on a monthly basis and 67% of all Americans say they’ve listened to at least one, according to Edison Research. These users are listening for longer periods of time, too. Almost a quarter of weekly podcast listeners spend 10 hours or more listening to the medium each week.

And beyond the potential size of the audience, remember that podcast listeners are loyal, engaged listeners who value what they hear on podcasts. When they're tuned into a podcast, you have their attention, trust, and interest. An even more compelling reason to advertise in podcasts is how effectively they deliver a brand message to an engaged, loyal audience.

Here’s a great example of how one company leveraged podcasting advertising’s strengths for an effective campaign. Squarespace, a website building platform, ran targeted ads during the "Office Ladies," a TV show re-watch podcast featuring two lovable cast members from the cultural phenomenon “The Office.” 

The ads were carefully woven into the show’s episodes. These weren’t just typical ads, either. They featured the hosts telling personal anecdotes about how they built the show's website on SquareSpace. Listeners, who were fans of the show and connected with the hosts, were hearing an endorsement they were likely to respect — and act on. Even if listeners weren’t operating a mid-range paper supply company in Scranton, PA, they might be on the verge of starting a new, small business and needing to build a website for it.

Best practices for podcast advertising

To make the most of this massive opportunity to reach the right people, it is wise to implement some proven best practices. We’ve curated five tips to boost your podcast advertising success:  

1. Choose relevant podcast genres

Digital consumers have come to expect targeted ads that speak to their needs and interests. Some podcast listeners might actually get annoyed if they feel an ad has reached them by accident. Even worse, they might pay for some kind of ad blocker. In today’s hyper-targeted world of advertising, it just looks sloppy to market an irrelevant service to someone who isn’t interested. This is why it’s crucial to choose podcast genres that match up with your intended audience. 

Podcast listeners go out of their way to discover and explore certain types of content, so they’re already primed to engage with relevant brand marketing. By aligning your ad with a relevant podcast genre, you’ll make sure your audience is in the right space to receive your message. 

2. Target specific demographics

Once you’ve honed in on the best genres for your audio branding, you can dig even deeper. On podcasts, advertisers can target consumers beyond what types of shows they are listening to. Businesses promoting any type of regional offer, like a small local business, an event, or a grand opening can target listeners by specific Zip Codes and cities. From there, you can retarget display ads to podcast listeners who have been exposed to the podcast campaign, amplifying your reach and scale.

Podcasts are an effective way to reach listeners across demographic groups, and you can target age groups by genre. According to Pew Research, younger listeners (adults 18 to 29 years old) are most interested in comedy and music content, while users 30 to 59 years old opt for TV/film, tech, comedy and music podcasts. Listeners 60+ are attracted to music, religion, tech and comedy. 

AudioGO's latest feature launch includes automated targeting recommendations to help you target the right audiences with greater precision. Based on your business category and usage patterns, this feature will suggest relevant Behavioral and Predictive segments during campaign setup, making it easier to connect with the audiences that matter most.

3. Find the optimal length

Podcast listeners are focused and engaged with the content — they don’t like it to be disrupted by irrelevant ads. When it comes to podcasts and ads, listener retention is an art. They’re responsive to short, 15-second ad spots, which podcast listeners prefer to traditional 30 or 60-second audio ads. In fact, in one study, 46% of listeners who heard a 15-second ad spot could remember the brand without any hints, according to SiriusXM Media research. That recall rate is similar to the rates of longer ads, showing just how efficient podcast ads really can be.  

What’s the right length? That depends on your campaign objectives. If you’re looking to boost top-of-the-funnel metrics, 15-second ad spots are highly efficient. Likewise, if you’re looking to boost brand recall and awareness, go with shorter ads. 

4. Measure and adjust 

No matter how well an advertisement performs right out of the gate, you can always fine tune it.  Study your data and audience analytics, and work with your partners to make adjustments to your campaign. In time, you’ll need to make changes based on the reactions from your audience and whether you’re getting positive ROI.   

It is important to set goals and establish the advertising metrics you’re using to measure success. You’ll also need to find a simple way to monitor the ads' performance and make the necessary adjustments going forward. 

AudioGO makes this simple with our newest feature rollout, which includes a Campaign Stats Dashboard. Here, you'll find analytics tools with actionable insights like:

• Audio impressions
• Listeners reached
• Clicks
• Listen-through rate

You can even export detailed reports to further analyze your campaigns. After you download the top results, you can compare performance across different KPIs, and use the advanced reporting tools to gain deeper insights into what’s working best for your ads, and what's getting the best audience engagement.

5. Make sure your ad is compliant

Now, it's time for some brief housekeeping, particularly for anyone who has, or is planning to have, ad placements with AudioGO. As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, publishers are also keeping pace themselves with some enhanced ad scrutiny. Please make sure your ad is in full compliance with the following guidelines or it may risk the possibility of getting blocked.

While podcasters are free to say what they like, there are certain things you’re not allowed to say in your ad. Like the following:

• Ads must directly relate to the content on the landing page, and must clearly represent the company, product, brand, or service that is being advertised. Ads must not be false, misleading, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, or contain gross exaggeration, unsubstantiated claims, spam, harmful code, or other disruptive content.
• Ads cannot insult, harass, or threaten a listener, or be vulgar, profane, abusive, defamatory, libelous, or otherwise objectionable. Targeting audiences that would likely be offended by the product or service you are promoting is a violation of AudioGO ad policy.
• Ads cannot contain hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or language of such individual or group.
• Ads must not violate the intellectual property rights of a third party.

Here’s also a short list of what not to say when it comes to name-dropping in your audio ad:

• Don't use the publishers’ name (e.g. Pandora, iHeart, or other audio publishers), logo, or other brand features without prior approval. For example, ads cannot mimic or resemble a publisher’s graphics, text, or other aspects of a publisher’s "look-and-feel."
• Ads may not suggest the endorsement or partnership of the publisher (e.g. Pandora, iHeart, or other audio publishers).
• Ads must not promote publisher partners that are not a part of the network. So when telling your listeners where to download or access your podcast, it’s always best to say something to the effect of "download wherever you get your podcasts" or promote your website instead. Please refrain from mentioning your podcast publisher's name.

These requirements have been established in the interest of maintaining the highest-quality listening experience for our audio streaming community. Any ads that do not adhere to the aforementioned policies may be subject to disapproval.

To view our ad guidelines in their entirety, please visit: https://www.audiogo.com/how-to/ad-guidelines

How the industry is changing

The Age of Programmatic Advertising is upon us. If you're in the digital audio production industry, you probably know all about this type of advertising. It allows advertisers to buy ad space in real time through automated platforms like AudioGO. This shift makes it easier for smaller advertisers to enter the podcast space. They no longer need to manually negotiate with podcast networks or creators. As more and more niche brands look for ways to get their message to the right audience, AudioGO is ready to deliver results.

In 2025, dynamic ad insertion is evolving, too. You'll see even more sophisticated features, such as the ability to use ad targeting and re-targeting based on listener preferences or past interactions with the brand. This allows advertisers to run multiple campaigns across different podcast episodes while also optimizing for listener engagement and performance.

Podcast hosts are a big part of how the industry is changing, too. Podcast hosting personalities are increasingly crucial to what makes podcasting so popular with younger listener demographics. It's less about the message itself and more about who is delivering it — and their ability to entertain. This makes it crucial for businesses who advertise on digital platforms to know exactly what kind of personalities entertain and resonate with their target audience.

AudioGO: The future of great podcast advertising

With new shows going online daily and fresh crops of listeners tuning in, podcasting is well positioned to continue its rapid ascent. AudioGO is poised to meet small businesses and ad agencies where they are — and make sure their message is heard by the right people. With a dynamic audience network, expert analytics tools, and even the ability to make ads in mere minutes, your advertising revenue will reach new heights. Find out today just what you're missing!