Whenever there is a recession (like right now) brands are forced to reevaluate their businesses. Many brands are tightening their budgets to weather the storm. But curiously, at the same time, podcast ad spend continues to rise.

So why are brands doubling down on podcast advertising in this troublesome climate? In this article, we’ll explain why podcast advertising continues to grow and how your business can take advantage of this unique medium during an economic downturn.

Table of Contents:

• Podcast Advertising is Effective (and Cost Effective)
• 5 Ways To Use Podcast To Grow Your Business During a Recession
  • 1) Target Your Ads Correctly
  • 2) Offer Unique Discounts
  • 3) Be Consistent
  • 4) Focus on Host Read Ads
  • 5) Research Successful Podcast Advertisers
  • 6) Measure Your Campaign Performance
• Dive Deeper into Podcast Advertising – Download Podcast Advertising eBook

Podcast Advertising is Effective (and Cost Effective)

Last year, podcast advertisers spent a total of $1.33 billion, with that number expected to grow to $1.74 billion by the end of this year. If companies are spending more money each year on podcast advertisements, you know they’ve found something that works. But if you’re still not convinced, let’s dig deeper into the statistics.

Podcast listeners are ideal recipients for advertising for a number of reasons. First, there are a lot of them. Every month an average of 104 million Americans listen to podcasts, up from 67 million in 2017. That’s one third of the country! Roughly the same number of Americans who watch football every week.

In addition, 45% of podcast listeners make at least $75,000 per year, meaning that podcast listeners tend to have a high discretionary income. Which they love to spend on podcast advertisements, with more than half of listeners reporting a purchase from a podcast advertiser.

And to top it all off, podcast ads are really cheap, especially compared to syndicated radio or television. We’ve written a whole article diving deep into podcast ad rates, but the short version is that they cost $10-30 per one thousand listeners. A similar 30-second radio ad can cost hundreds of dollars, depending on the market.

How To Grow Your Business During a Recession with Podcast Advertising

1) Target Your Ads Correctly

To take advantage of podcast advertising you need to target your advertisements to connect with the right audience. Podcasting is not a bird-shot advertising strategy, where you place ads on a wide array of shows.

It’s about precision targeting through niches, which is one of podcasting’s greatest advantages to the advertiser. From pens, to The Beatles, to cricket, there’s a podcast for every brand’s niche. 

The problem is finding the right podcasts. If you browse podcast listening apps, you can only click around on the top categories to find podcasts within the niche you’re looking for. This method takes a lot of time, and still doesn’t tell you other important information like the podcasts reach, demographics, and their contact information.

Luckily, there’s Podchaser. Podchaser is the world’s most comprehensive podcast database, and Podchaser Pro unlocks access to truly one-of-a-kind podcast data for podcast advertisers on a budget.

With just a few clicks, you can discover almost every podcast’s contact information, reach, Power Score™(cross-platform popularity), demographics, and more. 

Learn More and Get A Free Demo of Podchaser Pro today.

2) Offer Unique Discounts

Recessions affect everyone. Your potential customers are also tightening their purse strings. So in order to convince them to purchase your brand’s product or service, you need to offer a unique discount in your advertisement. 

To offer unique discounts in your podcast ad, either provide a vanity URL or a discount code for listeners to use at check out. Podcast listeners are used to this method so it’s pain free for them.

 Not only do unique discount codes provide a sense of urgency in the customer, but they also provide a method of tracking the performance for the advertiser (we’ll get more into that later).

3) Be Consistent

When budgeting out your marketing efforts, keep in mind that podcast advertisements are not a one-hit-wonder. The key to a successful podcast advertising campaign is consistency. 

A lot of the benefits of podcast advertising is brand awareness and brand engagement. In other words, they help keep your brand top-of-mind in a listener, so they’ll naturally choose your product or service later when shopping in your market.

To do this, you need to advertise your brand on podcasts over the course of several episodes. As a side benefit, the more you work with the same podcast, the better the hosts get at being able to sell your product. They’ve had more experience with your brand and your products, and can discuss how they continue to love the products you provided for them.

4) Consider Host Read Ads

The data shows that unlike in other entertainment, podcast listeners don’t resent advertisements on principle. On the contrary, when done correctly, many podcast listeners seek out host read podcast advertisements because they know that’s how their favorite podcasters make money. 

Research has also found that consumers are more likely to listen to these ads if the hosts noticeably go off script, as it adds more authenticity to the ad read.

There are a few common advertiser mistakes that induce listeners to skip ads. First, listeners hate when podcast ads are pre-recorded and unnatural. They are also turned off by heavily repeated advertisements and ads for products that have nothing to do with the show.

All of this is to say, if your advertisements are authentic, relevant, and entertaining, you’re much more likely to successfully connect with podcast listeners. 

5) Research Successful Podcast Advertisers

You don’t have to go at this alone. By studying other brands who have succeeded in podcast advertising (and are spending upwards of $1 million dollars every month), you can learn from their successes and failures.

The brands are understandably reluctant to share their data, so advertiser data can be hard to access. That’s why Podchaser has worked hard to compile podcast sponsor history in one easy-to-understand format. Our Brands page shows the top 30 podcast advertisers in the last 30 days, including their ad spend and which podcasts they’ve sponsored on. 

If you want to research from the other direction, you can use Podchaser Pro to research the sponsor history of thousands of the top podcasts. For example: find out who is advertising on The Daily, how much they are spending, and how much it would cost for you to do the same.

6) Measure Your Campaign Performance

It’s a common misconception that you can’t measure podcast advertising ROI. This was more true 10 years ago, but since then technology and techniques have been developed to help advertisers get the most of the podcasts.

You can measure:

• Reach & impressions by asking for data directly from the podcasts you advertise from
• Website traffic via services like Podsights
• Sales conversions with unique discount codes
• Brand engagement with Podchaser Alerts

To learn more about measuring your podcast advertising ROI, we’ve written an in-depth article with more insights.

Dive Deeper into Podcast Advertising – Download Podcast Advertising eBook

At Podchaser, we’re dedicated to helping advertisers get the most out of podcasting. So if you want to learn more, download our Ultimate Guide to Podcast Advertising eBook.

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