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Radio vs podcast ads. Does podcast advertising really have the advantage? Yes! Especially if you’re a local or small business.
Compared to radio, podcast advertising allows businesses to talk to targeted audiences in a highly-personal, highly-engaging medium, that has been shown to deliver strong results at a low cost per acquisition.
The advantage of podcast advertising
It’s not to say radio is ineffective, it does have its place. But in the battle radio vs podcasts ads there’s distinct advantages podcasts win. Firstly, more and more consumers are switching from traditional media to digital on-demand content . Podcasts are doing to radio, what the internet did to print. This is great for local businesses to compete with bigger brands that have big budgets.
With podcast ads, you can spend less and get A LOT more.
5 More Advantages for Podcasts vs Radio Ads
These are 5 benefits of podcast advertising vs radio. These might be particularly beneficial for local and small businesses.
DISTINCTIVENESS
Radio ads go on forever! Breaks can include up to 10 commercials played back-to-back multiple times during a show. Not only is the ratio of ads-to-show content oversaturated, but so too is the frequency. We’ve all heard the same ad, played repeatedly, driving us to negatively associate with the advertiser. With podcasts, typically there will be only 1-2 ad spots per episode and played at a low frequency. This is why there is marginal ad-skipping and higher brand recall. Your ad stands alone, delivering a complete message in over 30 seconds.
NARROW TARGETING
Radio has high budget wastage because of its general and broad nature. Radio is intended to appeal to multiple demographics at the same time. Podcast ads on the other hand offer incredible targeting by leveraging third-party data sources to profile listeners. There are over a million podcasts out there giving you incredible niche contextual targeting options, as well as platform, demographic, and geographical targeting. You get your ad in front of people that are relevant and interested – reducing budget wastage.
LOCAL BUZZ FACTOR
Of course, local radio stations are beneficial for promoting local businesses because the audience is guaranteed to be local. But with programmatic targeting capabilities, you can target podcast listeners at a local level too. Plus, you get the added benefit of “sounding big”. Having your ads on global popular shows gives your brand grandeur and creates a buzz, without spending a lot.
AWARENESS
The battle for radio advertisers to get the attention of listeners is hard. There are a lot of ads and the content is undefined and general causing listeners to be less engaged. Podcasts however are listener selected and mostly heard through headphones. Researchers at UC San Diego’s Rady School, UCLA, and UC Berkeley found that audio messages heard while wearing headphones make a deeper and more intimate and emotional connection – and can be twice as persuasive. As an advertiser, you become part of the intimate connection, and if you craft an ad that matches the tone and mood of the show, it will be highly persuasive and memorable.
MEASURABLE
Radio is hard to measure and control beyond listener numbers. Once the ad is out there you can only wait to see if searches, sales or leads come in. Whereas programmatic podcast advertising is highly measurable. Real-time analytics monitors performance and budget spending, so you can optimise during the campaign. Then, post-campaign ROAS can be gathered from attribution technology that uses tracking pixels. It gathers data on leads, sales and searches performed online by people exposed to an audio ad. The evolution of podcast ad technology goes beyond listener numbers and gives you the full picture.
Ready to learn more?
Read how we helped a small B2B business generates leads with podcast ads
New to programmatic podcast advertising? Read our quick intro
