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Podcast
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Podcasts have virtually taken over digital audio listening. Sure, folks still listen to music and news radio — but podcasts are growing fast. According to stats compiled by backlinko.com:
- There are about 202 million podcast listeners in the United States.
- The average podcast listener spends 7 hours a week listening to their favorite podcast.
- 73% of podcast listeners use their smartphone to tune in, which means their podcasts are always with them.
With podcasting's massive reach and coverage, it's clear that marketing with a podcast ad can reach millions of listeners. And it's not just any listener — podcast listeners are especially valuable to advertisers. In this article, we'll explain why as we review the full range of podcast marketing benefits.
5 Podcast Marketing Benefits
The widespread interest in podcasts gives marketers tremendous opportunities and many benefits. Over 50% of marketers advertise through podcasts, and the field is growing daily.
Here are five podcast marketing benefits to consider:
1. Reach an Expanding Podcast Landscape
One of the many advantages of podcast advertising is the exponential growth in the industry. Spotify alone has about 5 million podcasts available. Those numbers enable a marketing strategy unlike anything offered before. It's a hyper-efficient way to connect with customers and build brand awareness.
The growing diversity in podcast genres enables marketing that caters to niche markets. Comedy, news, true crime, and sports make up the majority of podcasts. But many other types of podcasts can be used for specific customer targeting. Science, feminist studies, history, law, philosophy, gaming, health — the list goes on.
Podcasts can be streamed through multiple platforms and devices, which enhances consumer reach. In addition to smart phones, people use smart speakers, PCs, laptops, tablets, and digital music players.
2. Tell Your Story to Engaged and Captive Audiences
Podcast marketing offers high listener engagement levels. That statistic about the average listener spending 7 hours a week with a favorite podcast speaks to the many advertising opportunities a marketer has.
When it comes to podcasts, it's an intimate and immersive listening environment. Podcast listeners are a willing and captive audience. They feel like they "know" their content creators. They generally prefer to sit through short ads rather than change podcasts or channels. And because they appreciate the podcaster, the ads can create loyalty and stickiness for the product. Even when a prerecorded ad runs, it hits with greater impact because it's associated with a trusted podcast.
Another benefit is the tendency for listeners to actively seek out new content, increasing the chances for ads to be heard. People look for more episodes of their favorite podcast as well as different podcasts on similar subjects. This ties into another benefit of podcast marketing: You can target your ad so that it appears on the podcast episodes that most closely match your target audience.
3. High ROI
Podcast marketing is amazingly cost effective. The average podcast campaign delivers a whopping ROI of 242% on the dollar, according to an industry study.
A separate survey measured the number of people “taking action” among those exposed to an ad. It found a 16% jump for podcast listeners versus non-listeners, far better than the 6% gain for radio and a 1% gain for TV.
4. Establish Trust and Authenticity
Podcast advertising is often viewed as more trustworthy than traditional media and social media ads. This likely results from podcast hosts being considered trusted advisors — enhancing the effectiveness of ads running concurrent with podcasts.
Even more confidence is generated when podcast hosts read the ads directly to listeners. It's like a recommendation from a trusted friend. These host-read sponsorships leverage host credibility to better promote products or services. A Nielsen survey found that 36% of listeners trusted what a podcast host says about a brand or company. The same survey provided another telling statistic: 47% of listeners don't mind listening to ads read by podcast hosts. That's serious trust and engagement.
5. Generate Targeted Advertising with Measurable Results
Unlike radio or TV ads, podcasts give you options to target specific demographics and audience segments. For example, AudioGO lets you target listeners based on specific interests, such as home improvement, car repair, or cooking. AudioGO provides hundreds of Predictive Audience targeting options, including gender, age groups, ZIP Codes, cities, device type, time of day, content genre, and behavioral segments.
Plus, AudioGO's platform provides many ways to measure ad effectiveness, brand lift, reach, engagement, and ROI. Another great way is by using AudioGO's Pixel technology. This allows for tracking conversions through measuring total and unique website visits after a visitor listens to an ad.
Advertisers are able to engage Spanish speakers by tapping into more than 30 million Hispanic-Americans streaming Entravision’s AudioEngage. AudioGO partnered with this platform to provide customers even more levels of audience refinement. And good news: AudioGO can create your audio ad in Spanish just as easily as in English.
Starting a Podcast Advertising Campaign
You can start your advertising campaign today with easy steps using AudioGO's intuitive platform. It's simple, fast, and affordable. Upload a script, and for $10 AudioGO's voice actors will record an ad specifically for your campaign. The ad will be ready in 24 to 48 hours — soon as it's done, your campaign can immediately start.
You also can create English-language ads for free with AudioGO's Synthetic Voice. With our AI speech generator, you can choose from one of 27 free background tracks. It's a great way to get started with audio ads for little investment. Plus, you can change your ad anytime without hassle — just upload a new script and press the start button. It couldn't be easier.
The Take-Away
Compared to traditional channels like radio, podcast marketing is the clear winner. Podcast ads provide cost-effective marketing, with lower startup expenses, lower running expenses, and greater ROI. In today’s cluttered ad market, listeners actually hear your messages, and they’re more likely to engage and take action.
If you're starting a new marketing campaign, or reenergizing a stagnant one, check out what AudioGO has to offer. Don't miss out on the tremendous benefits of podcast advertising and how it could help your business profit and grow.
