Podcasting is full of opportunities, and Tom Webster wants to give you the tools to show brands and future clients those opportunities. Join Tom next Wednesday, August 7th, at 2:00pm EST for the free webinar Building a Sales Pitch for Podcasting. A link to register is available in the show notes, or on the SoundsProfitable.com version of this newsletter.
In our last research study here at Sounds Profitable, Ad Nauseam, we looked at a whole host of consumer perceptions of advertising in podcasts. I’ve talked about frequency, repetition, and the importance of good creative in this space, but there was another insight from this study that has had its sinister claws in me now for a few weeks.
Ad Nauseam looked at some of the reasons why people who say they skip ads in podcasts engage in this behavior, and it’s clear that there is no one monolithic “I just hate ads” reason behind it all. Some people hate ads of any kind, sure…but more commonly people complain about bad ads, ads that don’t tell them anything new, or ads that are just poorly targeted or not relevant to their needs.
I generally don’t skip ads, but this is because a) I know that the ad load of the shows I listen to is not particularly onerous, and b) I am super lazy. There is a c), though, and it’s something that I am aware of as an industry professional that might not be something your listeners know: skipping ads hurts the show. I wonder if this is something that the listeners know – and, more importantly, if the hosts of those shows know it, as well.
I’ve seen all kinds of arguments around this and even some justifications for ad skipping. Heck, there are apps to do this for you. As a listener, you are entirely justified in saying, “I don’t care.” Some creators probably don’t either! But at least hear me out on this. Ad skipping *does* hurt the show, and even the entire industry, because of one simple, un-ignorable fact: advertising actually works. Yeah. Turns out it does. That’s why brands do it. They are smart that way. Ads only work, however, when they are heard.
The more unheard ads that are bought (even if the show gets some kind of CPM/impression rate for those unheard ads), the worse those ads perform. You can do all the crazy math you want to around this, but unheard ads don’t work, which lowers the ultimate effectiveness of the ad, the campaign, and even the perceived effectiveness of podcasting itself.
Ads aren’t the only way to monetize a podcast, I realize, but it’s the main way we monetize podcasts, and the effectiveness of podcast ads is why we can charge the CPMs we do (much higher than radio, for instance), which in turn is why we don’t have to stuff 18 spots into a podcast (see radio, again). If this is a thing that concerns you, and you are a creator, there is something very simple that you can do, and it stems from one of the surprising findings of Ad Nauseam:
Three quarters of podcast listeners don’t believe or know that ad-skipping hurts their favorite podcast. I find this disconnect highly unusual because we know from multiple sources of data that people do make positive connections between the brands that advertise on their favorite podcasts and the support of those brands for their favorite creators. So the positive aspects of that linkage are clear to listeners. But we haven’t made the corollary case here – if that support is taken away (though skipping brand messages) it can actually *hurt* the creator.
Now, I am not saying we have to go insane here as podcasters about how we talk about ads, but at the very least, maybe we can talk less dismissively about them. Every time I hear a podcaster toss off a comment like “Well, it’s time to pay the bills,” a puppy dies somewhere. At the very least, we can actively show gratitude and encourage our listeners to at least hear the ads out. I’d love to see the 25% in the graph above increase in the coming years, if for nothing else than an increased awareness of this central fact of ad-supported podcasting: that which can be giveth, can also be taken away.
Here’s another stat I’d love to see an increase in that is very closely tied to the slide above:
That stat is among people who have used promo codes – they heard the ad, and the ad worked! – and while the primary driver for promo code usage will always be to save money, the responses above were not exclusive – you could select more than one – and I’d love to see that 19% who want their favorite shows to get credit to be higher in the future.
This is something that podcasts can do that many other media cannot – the stars of the show can directly shout out advertisers, thank them, and impress upon listeners just how important they are to the future of the show. Mariska Hargitay can’t look up from a murder investigation on Law & Order and mug for the camera while telling viewers that this autopsy is brought to you by Mr. Clean (gets those stains out!) but YOU can. I think we can do more to at least impress upon our listeners that hearing the show out – *all* of the show – really does support them and make future content possible.
Ultimately, there is a lot about our ads that podcasters should be proud of! The main findings of Ad Nauseam were that we haven’t ruined podcasting with ads – listeners expect to hear some, and we aren’t giving them more than they expect. Podcast listeners pay more attention to ads than consumers of other media channels, and part of that is because the industry is actually doing a pretty good job selling the right ads for the right shows, and keeping ad loads down. The listening experience of podcasting is superior to almost any other kind of ad-supported content, and we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about that on our shows.
We don’t ask much of our listeners, so maybe this one small request won’t hurt, and could even help. We are all in sales, like it or not.
***
Speaking of requests, if you want to get an impactful crash course on structuring an informative, entertaining, and research-supported sales pitch for your podcast or network, I am giving a free webinar next Wednesday on crafting compelling sales pitches in podcasting. There is more information here, and I hope you’ll join me! If you skipped this small ad, know that it hurt me.
