How to use podcasts to promote your charity and find like-minded supporters

So how do you go about advertising in a podcast?

The first digital strategy decision you need to make is how big your charity advertising campaign is to be. If you want to start by advertising in just one or a few podcasts then you can approach each podcaster individually. If you want a much larger campaign you may be better off using a podcast advertising company such as AdvertiseCast, Acast or Midroll. These can help you choose podcasts and arrange for advertising placement. These companies will generally also offer a choice between "baked-in" advertisements, which are often read by the podcast host during the show’s recording, or "dynamic" advertisements, which are slotted into the content afterwards. This allows you to change your messages at any time, and potentially even allow you to vary your message by things like the geographic location of the listener.

Content

Podcast advertisements are much like radio adverts, and the precise contents will vary depending on what message your charity wants to put across and who your target audience is. But a good template to use might be:

• Begin with a story, the more personal the better
• Talk about the benefits or positive outcomes that your charity can offer
• Finish with a call-to-action - most likely details of how to make a donation or volunteer for your cause

Formats

If you approach a podcast host directly then, in theory, there are no limits to how long your advertisement may be or where it is placed within the ad. But standard advertising formats appear to have evolved for podcast advertising, and commonly these are a 15 second pre-roll advert, which appears before the start of the podcast, and a 30-60 second mid-roll advert, which appears 30% to 70% of the way through a podcast. Some podcasts also feature short post-roll adverts at the very end of the show.

Cost

The cost of a podcast advertisement can vary widely depending on the popularity of a show, but a good guide is between £7.50 and £40 per 1,000 downloads of the podcast within 30 days of its release.

More specifically, John Lee Dumas, host of the Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast, estimates the cost to be about:

• $18 (£13.82) per 1000 downloads for a 15-second pre-roll
• $10 (£7.68) per 1000 for a 30-second mid-roll
• $25 (£19.20) per 1000 for a 60-second mid-roll

Some podcasters will offer volume discounts to encourage a relationship with advertisers, and anecdotal evidence suggests that repeating your marketing message (or a variation of it) over the course of a number of podcast episodes can significantly improve the results of a campaign.

Choosing one or more podcasts

Selecting the right podcasts to advertise on is likely to be critical to the success of your charity’s campaign, so the first step is to have a clear understanding of who your intended audience is. This may be something general like men between the ages of 40 and 60 or young women under 30, or it may be people with an interest in the environment, or animals, or almost anything else.

Only when you have a clear idea of who you want to target can you start looking at specific podcasts which are likely to appeal to that audience. You can find candidate podcasts by searching in podcast directories such as iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

Podcast advertising companies may be able to provide significant help with your podcast selection by using data that they have collected about their stable of podcasts which they provide advertisements for.

Alternatives to placing adverts in podcasts

As an alternative to placing adverts in podcasts your charity could also consider:

• Offering a charity representative as a guest speaker on an appropriate podcast – you would need to choose a staff member or volunteer who is engaging with a good "radio personality".
• Pitch story ideas related to your charity to podcasts – many podcasters struggle to think of relevant content for their shows week in week out, so story ideas can be helpful. They also may offer an opportunity for a guest speaker from your charity.