Sequencing Retail Messaging With Podcasts

Performance marketers have known for some time about the power of podcasts — promo codes and URLs don't lie! Direct response advertising in podcasts returns some of the highest conversion rates in the business, thanks to the unique relationship podcast listeners have with the host(s) and the content. It's easy to see how podcast ads can be effective with purchases like meal kits and clothing, but what about larger purchases that require more consideration and have a longer sales cycle?

Turns out, podcasting can also be extraordinarily effective in moving customers along the journey from awareness to purchase with complex sales. One way to optimize podcast advertising for larger retail purchases is to consider them a sequenced part of the same journey customers take on their way to purchase, treated very differently from things like display.

In the latest research from Sounds Profitable, The Ad Bargain, we examined how consumers perceive ads across a wide range of media channels, from podcasting to YouTube and CTV. The results were very clear — podcast ads work better than any other medium that makes use of spot advertising, and those effects are most strongly felt in mid to lower-funnel measures from consideration to purchase. Besides asking a raft of general perception questions, we also examined four key measures (awareness, consideration, favorability, and purchase behavior) for five leading brands across the audiences for podcasts, YouTube, and CTV. Podcasts led the charge in every measure for every brand.

Why is this? Well, podcast devotees might point to things like the host-listener relationship or the "theater of the mind" that happens between the earbuds, and certainly that's part of it. But there are also some key facts about the podcast audience that explain the effectiveness of advertising messages a little more tangibly: the audience is different.

In study after study, Sounds Profitable and other entities have shown that podcast listeners are affluent, educated, and decision makers when it comes to both business and household finances. But there's more to it than that: podcast listeners are also less likely to consume other ad-supported media (e.g., commercial broadcast radio or network/cable TV) than any other media consumer, and also less likely to report even hearing ads in the podcasts they listen to. This means that podcast fans aren't being inundated with spot advertising from other sources.

Additionally, among all major media consumers, podcast consumers are the most likely to subscribe to one or more premium, ad-free music sources AND one or more premium, ad-free CTV platforms. So not only are they less often exposed to traditional broadcast advertising, but they're also largely opting out of digital media ads as well. This makes the podcast consumer both a very attractive target to reach and an extremely difficult one as well!

Luckily, there are podcasts. What we observed in The Ad Bargain was that while listeners may be exposed to far fewer ads than the general population, they're not critical or intolerant of ads in their favorite podcasts. Indeed, 69 percent of weekly podcast consumers indicated that their "opinion of a brand is more positive when they find out it supports their favorite podcast," higher than the results we observed for YouTube or CTV consumers. Also, 80 percent agreed that these ads "help creators to continue making new content," which again was the highest figure observed in the study.

The net result of this positivity is what we're all trying to earn, and the key behind using podcast advertising in more complex retail sales is attention. We know that ads work … if people actually listen to them! In one of my favorite questions from The Ad Bargain, 28 percent of podcast consumers indicated they "watch or listen to all of the ads" they encounter on the medium — the very top of a list that included YouTube (10 percent) and TikTok (14 percent). When consumers actually give their attention to ads, as opposed to simply tolerating (or skipping) them, magic can happen — people move beyond simple awareness of a brand to something much more valuable: curiosity.

The result of that curiosity is another area that podcasting leads the field in. More than seven in 10 podcast listeners agree that they're "more willing to consider products and services after they learn about them" on podcasts, which was significantly higher than channels like AM/FM radio (52 percent) or websites (57 percent). Now, does this mean we should all stop buying radio spots and display ads? No. But it does provide the opportunity to use these vehicles "in sequence." Rather than running the same spot everywhere, at the same time, brands with longer sales cycles can use the reach and efficiency of things like radio, TV and online ads to build reach and awareness, and then follow that phase with deeper messaging on podcast ads to an audience that's receptive to learning more about these brands.

With this approach, more complex messages are possible, as well as messages that feature multiple rhetorical appeals, which in turn can facilitate stronger consideration and favorability scores for products and services that take a little more time than buying a T-shirt. By treating a podcast campaign as the deeper payoff for a curious consumer, broadcast AND podcasts can work together, in sequence, to guide the consumer through a full-funnel process.

Podcast consumers are listening, paying attention, and very loyal to their favorite shows and hosts. That loyalty and attention are priceless for retailers looking to capture attention in a media landscape that grows more fragmented every day.

Tom Webster is a partner at Sounds Profitable, the leading voice of significance for the digital audio industry, devoted to growing the podcast sector through audio insights, education and connections.