One of the biggest opportunities in college marketing is podcast advertising. Podcasts are a massive, fast-growing channel. This form of digital storytelling is perfect for reaching target demographics like college-ready market segments.
To make the most of podcasting for college marketing, apply these techniques in your digital advertising campaigns:
Define clear objectives. You could focus on increasing enrollment, building alumni engagement, promoting specific programs or highlighting student life.
Understand your audience. Tailor content to reach prospective or current students, parents, or alumni.
Create compelling audio content. Feature student/alumni stories and campus life, highlight research and innovations, and address financial concerns.
Keep it real. Use approachable and conversational tones and real voices. Avoid overly polished dialog.
Ensure quality production. Use professional microphones and tight audio editing. Include music for superior transitions.
Incorporate distinct calls to action. Direct listeners to visit easy-to-remember web pages to take action, like buying a ticket for an event or signing up to get a discount coupon or receive a newsletter.
Track performance. Employ data analytics to uncover what episodes are most effective. Adjust content to improve results.
Let's look at podcast demographics, 6 ways to use podcasting to market colleges, how to get started with podcasting and with advertising on podcasts, and the importance of measuring your results.
A podcast is audio content, often presented as a series, that tends to focus on one topic. Listeners can use streaming platforms to stream or download episodes. Podcasts are diverse in length (running for minutes or hours), format (solo to multi-person), and content (true crime, sports, news, comedy). They often cover topics not suitable for traditional radio.
They are ideal for marketing due to their storytelling nature, precise targeting and high engagement. Institutions can build trust and visibility through long-form content that listeners choose to hear regularly. Return on investment is enhanced by the precise targeting options available through quality digital marketing platforms.
Research by SiriusXM found that people think podcasts are trustworthy and authentic:
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
42% say hosts provide a sense of deep connection than traditional media
An industry insights report by Edison Research shows that podcast consumption has reached an all-time high. Podcasts are reaching not only college-student-age listeners, but students and parents overall.
73% of the US population age 12+ has listened to or watched a podcast. That's about 210 million people.
66% of Americans age 12-34 have listened to and/or watched a podcast in the past month.
61% of Americans age 35-54 have listened to and/or watched a podcast in the past month.
51% of men and 45% of women have listened to a podcast in the past month.
40% of people are weekly podcast consumers.
Income demographics are also striking. Edison Research found that 56% of monthly podcast listeners have an annual household income of over $75,000, compared to 48% of the U.S. population. Also, 49% of monthly podcast listeners are college educated compared to 44% of the U.S. population.
Podcasts offer institutions unique ways to build audience engagement. Using strong narrative development and compelling content creation, colleges and universities can showcase their academic strengths, culture and values.
As podcast consumption rises, the format becomes even more important in building trust and sense of community while extending brand awareness well beyond traditional advertising. Here's a short list of some podcasting applications:
Prospective students searching for colleges, universities, or online learning can gain authentic insights into campus life and student experiences. When admissions officers, current students and faculty share stories and advice, listeners better envision themselves at the institution.
Podcast marketing helps build a personal connection in ways that brochures and websites can't.
A great use of podcasts is to feature student athletes, coaches and club leaders to improve your "brand voice." Highlighting events, team achievements and a vibrant extracurricular campus life showcases school spirit.
When you use podcasts to promote these activities, it creates a sense of belonging that encourages listeners to be part of your student body.
Podcasts can spotlight academic departments and promote degree programs, certifications and continuing education courses. Feature faculty experts to discuss research, trends and career opportunities related to specific programs. The conversation can help demystify complex fields, demonstrate academic expertise and attract students to specialized studies.
Podcasts can reach adult learners and grad students and tell them about online courses or hybrid degrees.
Using podcasts is a powerful way to advertise enrollment openings, campus events and virtual information sessions. Podcasts can remind listeners of application deadlines, financial aid windows, and proper enrollment steps and procedures. Have admission counselors or students discuss their experiences to clarify processes and encourage action.
Institutions also can use podcasts to promote upcoming events, such as open houses, guest lectures, performances, music and art shows. Along the way, you can promote your social media and other online presences to help spread your message.
Strengthen your alumni connections by sharing stories from graduates and talking about institutional milestones and campus improvements. Foster nostalgia and pride by featuring favorite professors, current students, or former well-known classmates. Encourage alumni to stay involved, attend networking events and mentor students.
Even for distant alumni, regular podcast episodes help maintain a sense of community and connection.
Podcasts give you a chance to highlight the impact of giving, mention sponsorship opportunities and promote funding drives. Produce and promote episodes about scholarship recipients, research breakthroughs and new facilities funded by donations.
Use success stories and inspirational tales to reach supporters and potential supporters. The auditory experience could deepen emotional connections and inspire contributions better than traditional means.
It's easy to get a podcast up and running, so you can use it for college marketing. There are some basic concepts you'll need to address before you can start your podcast advertising campaigns.
Identify your target audience, set your objectives. Will you aim for building student enrollments, connecting with alumni, or boosting donations? Also set your budget allocation, so you have something to compare results against. Setting objectives, factored against a budget, allows better ROI calculations.
Determine content and format. What topics will you cover that best resonate with your target audience? Your digital strategy might include a repeatable format, such as interviews, chats, or traditional reporting segments.
Scheduling. How often will the podcast be published, and how many hours can you or your staff devote to production? Will more staff be needed? If you plan on a regular weekly show, could you dedicate one person to producing the podcast.
Invest in equipment. Do you have good quality gear already, or will you need to buy something? A good condenser microphone is a start. Add a mic scissor arm with shock mount and windscreen. Finish the setup with a USB mixer/input module so you can easily adjust the audio tone and levels. If you'll need a full setup, try searching for all-in-one audio equipment packages aimed at podcasting. Good gear helps your announcer use proper microphone techniques for the program and any possible advertising voiceovers. Quality sound design starts with these basics.
Use editing tools. For professional podcast production, you'll need some basic editing tools to remove dead spots, goofs and noises, and to tighten up the pace. Free editing tools, like Audacity for Windows PCs or GarageBand for Macs, are a great start and may be all you need. Many YouTube tutorials and webinars exist to help you understand how to use editing software. If your budget allows it, you might hire a professional editor. To avoid music licensing issues and costs, use the royalty-free music selections available on websites like the Free Music Archive or Soundcloud.
Choose your podcast hosting service. You'll need a host to handle file storage, streaming distribution and analytics. A platform such as Simplecast is a perfect way to begin. Their platform gives podcasters access to the same enterprise-level features supporting the world's biggest podcasts. Simplecast can distribute your podcast to different multimedia channels like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Overcast. That makes it easier for people to find your podcasts through mobile apps and web browsing.
Promote your podcast. You can put out ads through your current social media integration and your usual channels like press releases, printed flyers and word of mouth. Influencer partnerships are a good way to boost your audio branding. Contact a popular influencer who could mention or promote your podcast. It could seriously improve your reach. Other advertising strategies include running ads on other streaming media and placing ads on other podcasts.
It's even easier to use AudioGo to start taking advantage of podcast advertising. You can use it to promote your podcast and to directly promote your college or university.
Signup is easy and quick, and you can start your audio campaign for as little as $250. There are more than 1,000 targeting options, and you can schedule your campaign as you see fit. Upload an audio ad, or if you don't have one, use the platform to create audio ads.
We provide ad and scriptwriting examples you can explore. For $10, AudioGo can craft a pro ad read by real voice actors. You can even make an ad for free with the lifelike synthetic voice technology option.
There's no better way to market your podcast than with AudioGo's podcast promotion service.
It's mandatory to measure the impact of your podcast if you want it to succeed. For instance, you might find that people listen to an entire podcast about your sports programs, but they tune out halfway through episodes that focus on admissions.
You've probably seen the label on a shampoo bottle: "rinse and repeat" — but for podcasts it's "measure, tweak and repeat." You might improve your results by focusing more on sports, shortening segments on admissions, or revamping your admission content to be more engaging.
You can take advantage of AudioGo's platform and its built-in tools for measuring results. Growth metrics are revealed immediately in reports you can also customize. Real-time listener analytics show:
Total/daily impressions (ad plays)
Total/daily reach (listeners who heard your ad)
Total/daily clicks (including retargeted display clicks)
Conversions
Ad spend, current budget, campaign start/end dates
Demographics like age, gender, device, location
It's a perfect way to track performance and lets you discover how you could reach even more prospective listeners. That way, you can focus your ad dollars on audiences with the best response.
Podcasts offer powerful ways to reach audiences with authentic, story-driven content that builds trust and emotional connections. Their on-demand and mobile friendly access brings your story to listeners wherever they are. Whether they're commuting, working out or kicking back—podcasts take your institution's message right to them.
And by using AudioGo's platform, you can reach even more people to let them know about your podcast as well as your college or university. By harnessing AudioGo's expansive number of streaming presenters, representing millions of engaged listeners, you'll have countless advertising opportunities.
Start your podcasting journey today and add AudioGo to your team to increase your audio marketing results.