(+ When To Use Which One)
What are the different ad formats to use in your podcast content?
I’m super excited to talk about this because season six is mostly about podcast sponsorships, where to find sponsors, how to talk to sponsors, and how to work with sponsors.
In this episode, I want to talk about what to offer sponsors, because podcast sponsorships can look really different depending on what you want. And as a podcaster, you have a lot to offer to sponsors. So today I want to walk you through some of the choices that you have on what to offer to sponsors.
What Are The Different Ad Formats?
There are several choices you can choose from when thinking about what to offer sponsors. And the first one is the distinction between dynamic ads and evergreen ads.
Dynamic ads are usually in the podcast for a certain amount of time. I do this with my Digital Nomad Stories which is hosted on Buzzsprout, where you can easily insert dynamic ads. In Buzzsprout, it is possible to have pre and post-roll ads. Pre-roll means to the start of every episode and in the dynamic ads, that also means that it’s before the intro. While Post-roll is at the end, after the outro.
And the cool thing about dynamic ads is also how I sell this to potential sponsors. You can just check one box and it’s in all the episodes, all new and previous episodes. That is cool when you have a lot of people listening to previous episodes. And I have seen in my stats that a lot of people go back to episodes that are months old. This is a great option because a lot of people listen to older episodes and sometimes they listen to several episodes in a day. That means they will hear your ad several times a day.
Evergreen ads are in the middle of the episode or what you call mid-roll ads. This is done manually, and you do this when editing an episode. There is no one-click solution to this. Evergreen ads mean the ad will stay in the episode forever. Okay. So that is your option in the audio.
When Is It Best To Offer Each Ad Format?
I already mentioned that dynamic ads are awesome when you have a lot of people who listen to older episodes, especially when your audience is growing. To a sponsor, I always mention that this is a great solution if you have a launch coming up. Dynamic ads boost brand awareness.
On the other hand, Evergreen ads live in the episode forever. In a few months, a few years, the ad will still be in there. I always tell my sponsor, to give me a link that is valid forever. I always tell my sponsor to give me a link that is also evergreen, reachable, and doesn’t have broken links. That is also awesome for overall brand awareness because people still go back to all the episodes. And ideally, even years from now, people will still listen to it.
How You Can Also Use The Show Notes
If you have an audio ad in your podcast, you can also add a link to your show notes. However, if they can’t pay for the ad then you can also offer an ad that is written at the end of your show notes You can also sell an ad in your newsletter. And If you have social media presence, you can sell an ad on social media too. As a podcaster, audio is not the only thing that you can leverage when you make a brand deal, you can offer way more.
Sponsored Content As An Ad Format
Sponsored content is sponsored interview episodes or specific episodes about a topic related to the brand that you’re working with.
When I do an interview, and I invite someone on the podcast or someone pitches me to be on their podcast, then I want to make sure that we don’t just talk about their brand. I want to go deeper, I don’t want it to be one giant pitch. However, if it is sponsored content, then it is okay to pitch a little bit more. I try to make it valuable to the audience, but I also want to make sure that there is enough room for a pitch so that the brand can really tell the audience what they do exactly. And they can really sell to my audience because that is literally what they’re paying for.
What Ad Format Works For You?
As podcasting has become a thing over the past few years, it is only natural for sponsors to look into promoting their brands, products, or services to different platforms. And that is good news to us, but sometimes we’re clueless on how to do this, or we don’t exactly know which ad format works best for our podcast.
And as we have discussed, these are some of the ad formats you can offer potential sponsors, To name a few, there are Dynamic Ad, Evergreen Ads, Show notes ads, and Sponsored content. All of them are great, you just need to find the right fit for you.
Now that you know the different ad formats, start looking for sponsors that resonate with you and your podcast. And find the best ad format that works for you.
Resource mentioned:
How to Prepare Your Podcast for Future Sponsorships or Brand Partnerships