Drive downloads and find a new sampling audience for your branded podcast with performance marketing.
Branded podcasts are not slowing down. And neither should their marketing efforts. With more podcasts made by brands in existence now than ever before, the question of paid ads for branded content is one that we get asked often. So how can you enhance your branded podcast’s visibility? And is investing in performance marketing a good idea?
But most importantly – what does performance marketing even look like when it comes to podcasting?
Performance marketing refers to any advertising that asks you to pay only when a specific action is completed by users you are targeting. In a podcast, this is usually downloads or an addition of new subscribers for your show. Simply put, performance marketing guarantees you results by placing advertising of your podcast where listeners you are targeting are most likely to clickthrough and listen to your show. Most often – this is within different podcast platforms!
Performance Marketing and Sampling Audiences
While targeting a specific audience is always a great idea with any marketing activity, podcast performance marketing is usually a more broad exercise. You are looking to attract a bigger audience that would sample your show and drive downloads of your feed. If your podcast is about something as broad as insurance, you might just find that you could find a new and unexpected demographic within this sampling audience that would engage with your show! And if, on the other hand, you have a very niche podcast – you could also be struggling to find your very specific audience and performance marketing could be your answer to advertising to a big sample of people that could then convert to your interests. Remember: performance marketing means that you only pay for the downloads that you do acquire during the campaign, so all of your investment would go towards your overall audience numbers and downloads.
Cutting Through the Branded Competition
Vitally, performance marketing is a straightforward solution to standing up to your competitors. As a branded podcast, you might find that you are competing with every brand in the same space as you. This means that you need to kick someone off a listener’s feed to make space for your show – and what better way to do that than by being placed front and centre on everyone’s podcasting app! Investing in visibility in podcasting is a great way to pull more influence in the space, and to also double-down on any overall marketing objectives when it comes to your brand’s familiarity and recognition. Want to see how it’s done? Check out our case study of a campaign we ran for the podcast The Third Angle.
Advertising Where Listeners Live
If you are new to podcasting, you need to know just one thing – always start with converting podcast listeners to your show, rather than trying to convert your general consumers to podcasting. While most people already listen to podcasts, you would find that you would have the biggest impact by putting your marketing efforts into advertising to existing audiences. This means that performance marketing that focuses on downloads across podcast apps would resonate with the biggest sampling audience you could find. Go where the listeners already are to find your new podcasting community.
Making Waves in Podcasting and Beyond
Any marketing effort could help your brand grow familiarity and visibility. Podcasting itself can be seen as an organic content strategy for your company, so use performance marketing to amplify its impact. Attracting more listeners to your show also means growing your brand’s digital footprint and awareness.
Utilising performance marketing for your show could be a neat way of finding a new sample audience, growing your numbers and even securing the budgets for any upcoming seasons by showcasing strong download trends across your episodes. The key is – do it wisely, and make sure to be clear on all of the objectives of campaigns that you are signing up for!