Is Your Podcast Advertising Strategy Working?

You just released a new podcast advertising campaign. Yay, you! But, sending your ads out into the wild is only half the job. Now comes the tracking, analyzing results, and waiting with bated breath to see if your strategy is actually working. 

Here, we talk about the importance of having a well-defined podcast advertising strategy and how to tell if it’s bringing your business the desired results.

Understanding the Importance of Podcast Advertising Strategies

Using podcasts for advertising is a win-win for both advertisers and listeners. For starters, it allows businesses to build strong connections with a highly engaged audience. And this audience appreciates what they hear—91% of podcast listeners admit they have taken some sort of action after hearing a podcast ad. 

Podcasts are a medium that gives advertisers plenty of freedom in format and delivery. You can choose from different types of ads, add visual and video elements, work with one creator or across the whole podcast network—the sky’s the limit. With the right strategy, podcast advertising can become a powerful tool in achieving your marketing and business goals. 

But how do you know if your podcast strategy is actually working? Let’s jump in.

How to Know if Your Podcast Advertising Strategy Is Working

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to see if your podcast advertising strategy is successful. It can take time to see results. Sometimes, you might go through multiple trial-and-error steps to finally realize what makes your audience tick. Below are some tips to help you assess and optimize your podcast ad strategy. 

1. Define Your Goals

Here’s the deal: You need to know your campaign goals to assess if your advertising strategy is effective. Setting clear and measurable objectives is one of the first steps when working on a new campaign. 

So, let’s start by defining your goal. Is it to drive brand awareness? Promote a new product? Increase sales? Your answer might shape the whole strategy to come as specific formats and approaches might work better than others. 

Don’t try to achieve too many things with a single campaign, especially at first—it can quickly become messy for you and confusing for your audience. Also, your objective will determine which metrics matter the most, which leads us to the next part of the success equation.

2. Track Your Campaign KPIs

Podcast advertising allows you to receive tons of in-depth data and analytics, so you need to understand which metrics are the most important for your campaign. Here are some examples of metrics that can shed light on your campaign’s course:

• Conversion rate: The number of people who performed a desired action after hearing your ad.

• Audio reach: The number of unique listeners who heard your ad.

• Frequency: The number of times each person hears your ad.

• Click-through rate (CTR): Calculated when an advertiser uses a display banner in their campaign, this metric represents how many times listeners click on a banner.

Analyzing these numbers will give you a better understanding of your ads’ performance and can help you diagnose whether anything needs to be changed or adjusted. As a benchmark, you can compare these indicators to your previous campaigns and inspect them together with your podcast network partner to find areas for improvement. 

3. Measure Impact

Measuring your audience’s response to a campaign deserves to have a strategy of its own. From tracking URLs, to sales data analysis, to surveys, there are many ways to see if your advertising campaign has won the hearts and minds (and ears) of your audience. The method will depend on your goals and where they fit in the marketing funnel.

For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, a brand lift study is an effective way to measure your campaign’s impact on your goal. A brand lift study can be difficult for a business to perform independently, which is why SiriusXM Media works with many experienced media partners to provide the highest-quality data for your informed decisions.

4. Educate Yourself on Best Practices

Following best podcast ad practices is a great approach if you’re relatively new in podcast advertising. As a starting point, this can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and increase your chances of creating a campaign that will work for your audience. 

We know plenty of little tricks to increase listener engagement and drive desired results. For instance, did you know that a shorter 15-second ad works best at capturing attention and driving brand recall? A longer ad (30 to 60 seconds) works great for driving lower funnel metrics, such as product sales.

Our advice? Never stop learning. The more you know about placement strategies, ad length optimization, and different creative approaches to try, the higher the chances your campaign will be truly exceptional. Or, find a great advertising partner and reap the benefits of their expertise.

5. Experiment

Sometimes, the only way to see if something is working is by comparison. Maybe you never knew it was possible to get over a thousand signups in one week for your local business until you created that viral campaign. Breaking some rules and trying out new approaches could be exactly what you need to see if your strategy is as good as it can be. 

Podcast advertising is very dynamic, so an experimental mindset is a must to create a highly successful strategy. Make A/B testing your best friend, try different ad formats and placement strategies, and analyze your findings. Learning from your mistakes and victories (and having fun along the way) is a fundamental part of creating a podcast strategy that will win your audience over.

Create a Successful Podcast Advertising Strategy with SiriusXM Media

With over 15 years of experience in podcast advertising, SiriusXM Media lives and breathes podcasts. We offer a comprehensive solution for our partners, from exclusive insights to detailed analytics to help with ideation and execution.

Are you ready to take your podcast advertising strategy to the next level? Let’s talk.

Learn More About Podcast Advertising