Podcast advertising has been a key driver of measurable sales and ROAS for direct-to-consumer brands for years.  The success they have experienced with podcast advertising is one of the main reasons that the YOY increase in podcast advertising spend is so astounding and shows no signs of slowing.  The personality-driven medium, with its host endorsements, is the cornerstone for driving measurable sales lift for many advertisers.  In fact, 74% of podcast listeners have visited a brand’s website after hearing a podcast ad and 72% have considered trying a new product or service*.

Brands know that the listeners of podcasts really trust the opinions of hosts and 49% of regular listeners believe that hosts actually use the products or services they talk about on their shows*.  This effect is not unlike what we see within the broader creator marketing space.  Social creators are also driving tremendous growth in social commerce. According to eMarketer, the US social commerce market will be nearly twice as big in 2022 as it was in 2020. Social commerce sales will rise by another $14 billion this year. By comparison, social commerce sales will grow almost four times faster than total e-commerce sales.

The team at Ad Results Media recommends taking a multi-platform approach to creator marketing to take full advantage of your partnerships and drive maximum impact.  By leveraging the power of podcasts and social platforms in tandem to drive sales, brands and retailers will begin to see an incremental lift in several key metrics.  There are a few ways to get started planning creator partnerships as multi-platform efforts and 360 campaigns.

Partner with Large Scale Podcasters

When looking to have an impact on multiple platforms, including social platforms, brands can identify large-scale podcasters who have already established themselves on multiple platforms.  These podcasters who have been busy building their media empires can help brands achieve scale through podcast advertising as well as their other digital properties like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.  These big stars like the hosts of Call Her Daddy and Crime Junkie have the infrastructure in place to help execute full 360 campaigns.

Grow Together Through Co-Promotion

For those brands that do not have the budgets required to partner with large-scale podcasters who have already established multi-faceted digital footprints, they can help some of their favorite podcasters expand into new platforms through co-promotion and grow together.  Most podcast hosts know that expanding to social platforms or YouTube is critical for increasing their reach and growing incremental audiences.  Structure a collaborative promotion between the brand and the podcaster to help grow one another’s audiences.  This could be as simple as a promotional code that is unlocked when they follow the podcaster’s new account as a result of seeing a message on the brand’s channel or something more sophisticated like a co-branded experiential event designed to produce a high volume of social impressions.  By partnering together, both brand and podcaster benefit from the collaboration.

Run Digital Companion Campaigns

For better or worse, affinity targeting on social media or through digital video can be very specific.  We often recommend running a small companion campaign when brands have a large podcast advertising campaign in-market with a specific show.  These companion campaigns can target those users who have a specific affinity for a show or host.  By reaching these audiences on social media or other digital video platforms, brands are able to reinforce host endorsements to their devout or new listeners in an adjacent environment.  This tactic is particularly effective on both YouTube and TikTok.

There are many other ways to explore working with creators across multiple platforms, but these three tactics are a good place to start.  There are methods to measure incremental lift in key metrics by adding in new platforms to your mix and surveying those who were exposed to one or multiple channels.  These learnings can then be applied to future campaigns or hone and evolve this strategy.

As you begin to explore all the opportunities that creator-based marketing holds, please reach out to the team at Ad Results Media for a consultation.

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Sources:

*Edison Super Listeners Report 2021

**eMarketer Social Commerce Forecast 2022