Podcasts have taken the digital audio world by storm. This has created many podcast marketing benefits for businesses and organizations to consider, including:
-
Podcast advertising reaches more people in more areas.
-
It's more captivating and engaging than other types of streaming or traditional radio.
-
It produces greater ROI than other forms of audio marketing.
-
Podcasts feel trustworthy and authentic.
-
Audiences are highly targetable.
According to a U.S. national survey by Edison Research:
-
202 million people have listened to a podcast—that's 70% of the population!
-
About 115 million people enjoy podcasts weekly—and average listeners consume 8 podcasts weekly.
-
More than 9 out of 10 Americans own a smartphone, smart speaker, or smart TV — so their podcasts are always with them.
With podcasting's massive market reach, it's clear that podcast advertising can influence millions of listeners. And not just any listeners. Podcast fans are especially valuable to advertisers. In this article, we'll review and explain a wide range of podcast marketing benefits.
5 Podcast Marketing Benefits
The widespread interest in podcasts gives marketers tremendous opportunities and benefits. One report showed that 78% of ad agencies and advertisers currently advertise through podcasts, a 5X increase since 2015. They recognize the value and are seizing the opportunity.
Here are five podcast marketing benefits to consider:
1. Reach an Expanding Podcast Landscape
One great advantage of podcast advertising is the exponential growth in the industry. Spotify alone has more than 6.5 million podcast titles available. This growth enables marketing strategies unlike anything before. Podcast advertising has become a hyper-efficient way to connect with customers and build brand awareness.
The growing diversity in podcast genres enables advertising that caters to niche markets. The majority of podcasts focus on comedy, news, true crime, and sports. But podcasts explore countless topics that can be used for specific customer targeting—science, feminist studies, history, law, philosophy, gaming, health, and more.
This creative content can be streamed through multiple podcast platforms using always-present smartphones and other devices. This greatly magnifies consumer reach. When you factor in smart speakers, PCs, laptops, tablets, and digital audio in cars, it's actually difficult to be outside the reach of a podcast.
2. Tell Your Story to Engaged and Captive Audiences
The audience engagement levels for podcasts are off the charts. 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, ads can create loyalty and stickiness for products. 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. It's easy to target ads to appear on podcast episodes that most closely match your target audience.
3. High ROI
Digital marketing through podcasts is amazingly cost effective. The average podcast campaign delivers a whopping ROI of 242% on the dollar, according to an industry study.
A Nielsen survey found that podcast ads drive strong brand awareness and motivate listeners to make purchases. Consider these findings on podcast brand lift:
-
6 point lift for making a purchase
-
7 point lift for info seeking
-
10 point lift in awareness
-
52% boost in intent to share
-
70% boost in recall
All those boosters build great ROI value, and the boost in intent-to-share adds an additional lead generation facet.
But if that's not enough, how about this: Edison Research says sports fans who watch sports videos spend an average of $185 yearly on sports merchandise. But fans who listen to sports podcasts spend an average of $321 yearly.
That's 73% more spending for podcast listeners.
In addition, 46% of weekly podcast listeners said they bought a product or service because they listened to a podcast ad.
4. Establish Trust and Authenticity
Podcast advertising is often viewed as being more trustworthy than traditional media and social media ads. And podcast hosts are often considered as "trusted advisors" by listeners.
Strong customer loyalty to their favorite podcasts and hosts helps amplify the faith in ads running concurrent with podcasts. It all combines to enhance ad effectiveness. One report puts it like this: 45% of Millennials and Gen Zs said they trust brands or products promoted in podcast ads because of the trusted relationship they experience with the podcast host or hosts.
Even more consumer trust is generated when a podcast host reads ads directly to listeners. It's like a recommendation from a respected friend, and it builds brand authority.
Host-read ads and sponsorship deals leverage host credibility to better promote products or services. A Nielsen survey found that around 36% of listeners rate podcast ad elements as interesting, believable and trustworthy.
SiriusXM reports that:
-
70% of podcast listeners value the transparency and authenticity of their favorite
podcast hosts.
-
65% feel a personal connection to the hosts of the podcasts they listen to.
-
42% say hosts provide a sense of deep connection, which is lacking in traditional media personalities.
That listener loyalty heightens the level of trust and engagement in your audio branding efforts.
5. Generate Targeted Advertising with Measurable Results
Unlike radio or TV ads, podcasts provide specific targeting options for listener demographics and audience segments. For example, AudioGo lets you target listeners based on specific interests such as home improvement, car repair, or cooking.
There's over a thousand targeting options, plus 550 Predictive Audience targeting options, including gender, age groups, ZIP Codes, cities, device type, time/day, content genre, and behavioral segments. Employ the content strategy of creating audio ads designed to resonate with specific target audiences to boost ad budget effectiveness.
Plus, AudioGo's platform provides analytics tools to measure:
-
Ad effectiveness
-
Brand lift
-
Reach
-
Engagement
-
ROI
Another great option is AudioGO's Pixel technology. This tracks conversions by measuring total and unique website visits after a visitor listens to an ad.
Advertisers can engage Spanish speakers by tapping into over 5 million Hispanic-Americans streaming Entravision’s AudioEngage. AudioGo partners with them, along with other platforms like Univision and the Spanish Broadcast System, to provide additional levels of audience targeting.
And there's more good news: AudioGo can create your audio ad in Spanish as easily as English. See our tips to create an audio ad.
Starting a Podcast Advertising Campaign
You can begin your advertising campaign today with AudioGo's intuitive platform. It's simple, fast, and affordable. Upload a script, and for $10 AudioGo's voice actors will record your ad in just 24 to 48 hours. As soon as it's finished, you can start your campaign immediately.
Create free English-language ads with AudioGO's Synthetic Voice. It's realistic and fast, and the audio quality is great. Included along with our 14-voice, AI speech generator are 10+ free background tracks. It's a fantastic way to get started with audio advertising with a small investment.
Plus, you can change your ad anytime, without any hassle. Just upload a new script and press the start button. It couldn't be easier.
The Takeaway
Podcast marketing is the clear winner over traditional channels like radio. 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 take action.
Whether starting a new marketing campaign or reenergizing a stagnant one, check out what AudioGO offers. Take advantage of the tremendous podcast marketing benefits we've just reviewed to help your business profit and grow.
