Study: All Podcast Ad Formats Are Extraordinarily Effective

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, September 12, 2022 | 1:42pm CT

Cumulus Media

So which podcast ads work best? Live reads, talent pre-recorded ads or pre-produced programmatic executions? A new study from Tom Webster and Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable called "After These Messages" looks at these ad formats and answers the question. This week's Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group blog outlines the findings.

• Sounds Profitable podcast ad format study: All perform well while talent-read ads (live or recorded) do the best, justifying the premium nature of podcast host reads.

• The podcast ad frequency problem: "Remind the many, don't lecture the few." Podsights, the podcast attribution firm, recently released their Q3 2022 Benchmark Report, and while podcast ad frequency levels improved in Q2, they are still a concern, negatively impacting conversion rates. In Q2 2022, podcast conversion rates improved slightly but are still below recent quarters.

• Three strategies to grow podcast campaign reach: Buy more shows and genres than the "obvious fit" podcasts, purchase genres and shows based on reach among category buyers, not index, and spread impressions further down the ranker and buy more than just top shows.