Podcast advertising is a growing industry and it’s ripe for advertising at scale. Podcast listeners are some of the most engaged and loyal listeners around and podcasts are a great way to reach out to potential customers. And with the ability to target ads by a variety of targeting criteria, podcast advertising has become an incredibly effective way to reach your target audience.
However, it’s important to understand the landscape and how to work with available tools and technology in order to get the most out of your investment. Here we’ll outline some of the key considerations when scaling your podcast advertising operations.
Advertising Campaigns at Scale
As digital audio consumption continues to grow at an accelerated rate, digital audio ad space is beginning to be used on a larger scale. What this means for larger advertisers is figuring out how to strategize, manage, and measure multiple advertising campaigns across multiple podcasts and digital audio channels which was previously not possible with audio mediums like podcasts.
Traditionally, radio has been the primary way that advertisers have reached large audiences in audio. But in recent years, digital streaming services and listening destinations have become increasingly popular, and podcasting has experienced a resurgence. This shift in how people consume audio content presents both opportunities and challenges for advertisers.
On the one hand, there are now more ways than ever to reach potential customers through audio advertising. But on the other hand, managing multiple campaigns across multiple platforms can be challenging.
There are multiple ways to strategize scaling a company’s advertising strategy. A couple include:
- Scaling targeting criteria to expand the audience: For example, if you’re selling a product that is only available in the US, you may want to consider targeting people in other countries who are interested in purchasing from US retailers. Or, if your product is aimed at a specific age group, you may want to consider expanding that age range to reach more potential customers.
- Scaling budget to reach higher profile podcast shows and their audience: Once you’ve tested a smaller budget on podcast advertising campaigns, you can take the targeting criteria, content insight, audience specs, etc. and expand the budget to reach more potential customers across higher profile shows, or a wider range of shows.
- Exploring dynamic and programmatic ad strategies across digital audio channels: For example, if you know that your target audience is more likely to listen to podcasts during certain times of the year you can adjust your ad delivery to coincide with that time period.
To ensure an effective scaling strategy, successful management and measurement of those campaigns need to be ensured. This includes setting clear objectives, defining success metrics, and establishing a process for continual optimization. By doing so, you’ll be able to fine-tune your campaigns as they scale and ensure that they are performing at their best.
Measurement Consistency and Transparency Across Campaigns
As a marketer, you understand the importance of making sure your data is consistent and transparent across all campaigns. This is especially true when it comes to your company’s podcast advertising operations. Having a singular trusted source of management for your podcast advertising will help maximize efficiency across campaigns.
In addition, having a singular trusted source of data across all campaigns will ensure consistency, transparency, and unified reporting across the board. This is why it is important to use campaign management software that is established, verified, and accredited by the reporting bureaus, like Backtracks.
Valuable Data for Podcast Advertising at Scale
Digital advertising has continued to grow and evolve, and so too has the landscape of where and how ads are purchased and delivered. In the early days of online advertising, buying ad space was a fairly simple process, but as the industry has grown more complex, so too has the process of ad purchasing.
One area that has seen significant change is podcast advertising. In the past, podcast advertising was generally limited to pre-roll or post-roll spots read by the host. As podcasts have become more popular and listeners have become more accustomed to hearing ads on their favorite shows, advertisers have begun to experiment with different ways to reach this valuable audience.
Some of the most valuable data for podcast advertising includes listener behavior data, geolocation data, listening destination data, and time-based listener data. This data can be used to create targeted campaign strategies and measure the success of those campaigns.
In addition to listener behavior data (like geolocation, listening apps or destinations , time–based listen data, etc.), there are a few valuable data points that are crucial for advertisers to be tracking in their digital ad campaigns. They include:
Attribution and Conversion Tracking
As digital audio advertising continues to grow in popularity, measurement tools are becoming increasingly important for advertisers. Attribution and conversion tracking tools, like Backtracks Attribution, allow advertisers to track the exact revenue their audio campaigns are generating, as well as verified audience reach, ad conversions, and detailed campaign metrics. These insights gained can help advertisers make more informed decisions about their audio campaigns and optimize their performance at scale.
Pre- and post-ad traffic
Pre- and post-ad traffic data provides valuable insights for podcast advertisers. Knowing how listeners are reaching your ad (which platform, browser, or app they’re using to listen or the referral URL that led them to the episode where your particular ad sits, etc.) and how far they navigate through the CTA in the ad (all the way to the transaction) is very valuable information for an advertiser to know.
This data can help guide future advertising strategies by identifying which platforms or apps generate the most engaged listeners, what type of referral URLs are most effective in driving traffic to your ad, and whether or not listeners are completing the CTA. Additionally, this data can be used to track listener engagement over time to identify any trends or changes in behavior.
Campaign KPIs
As a large advertiser, being able to compare KPIs across campaigns can be important in order to see which campaigns are performing the best and how they compare to each other. Backtracks provides a tool that makes it possible to see metrics such as ROAS, cost per impression, cost per conversion, frequency, and more in an organized and singular dashboard across campaigns. This makes it easier for advertisers to make informed decisions about their podcast advertising strategy.
When looking at KPIs for podcast advertising at scale, advertisers should pay attention to several key metrics. These include ROAS (return on ad spend), cost per impression, cost per conversion, and frequency. By understanding how these metrics interact with each other, advertisers can better optimize their campaigns.
Tie data into existing dataflows
As podcast advertising continues to grow and become more popular, it is important for brands and advertisers to be able to tie this data into existing dataflows and warehouses. This can be immensely valuable in ensuring consistency within internal operations and departments.
Finding a trusted data partner like Backtracks that is built to integrate into existing workflows and data warehouses can be highly beneficial. This integration allows for Backtracks technology to be pulled into existing eCommerce sites (like Shopify) or the website check-out experience, making it easier to track ROI and track conversions.
Working with a partner like Backtracks can help make sure that your brand is taking advantage of all the benefits that podcast advertising technology has to offer.
Explore Backtracks Today!
At Backtracks, we’ve been working hard to build out our podcast advertising offering so that it meets the high standards of our advertiser and publisher partners. We offer campaigns at scale with measurement consistency and transparency across campaigns, audio destinations, and check-out experiences.. Not only does our system support dynamic ad insertions, but we also work hard to combat ad fraud in podcasts.
Our data provides valuable insights into how people listen to podcasts and how they engage with ads. Backtracks can help you get the most out of your audio campaigns. If you’re interested in learning more about podcast advertising or how Backtracks can help your organization advertise at scale, contact us! We would be happy to show you what we can do.
