Dynamic Insertion Podcast Ads - Reaching Everyone at The Party

We can talk, and we do about the changes happening in the podcast industry.

I could tell you that when I founded my podcast advertising agency just four years ago there were 400,000 podcasts on Apple Podcasts and now there are a staggering 1.5 million and climbing each day.

I could let you know that ad sales are projected to exceed $2 billion in 2021, and I could list the acquisitions in the multimillions that have happened in the space just this year that have set records, but I’d like to highlight one of the most significant changes I see happening in the podcast industry- dynamic ad insertion.

Let's take a quick moment and learn about the different podcast ads to set the stage for why dynamic ads are revolutionizing podcast revenue opportunities.

WHAT IS A PODCAST AD?

Podcast advertising is still nearly untapped when compared to other advertising mediums and the value it brings to advertisers is substantial. The value podcast ads bring that not all mediums can tout is the connection of host-read ads. The host samples the product, they experience the company and then they create an authentic ad for their listeners. The audience knows likes and trusts the host and when the host delivers a product recommendation the audience responds. Podcast ads aren’t just another canned pre-produced bit of advertising, they have been thought through by not only the brand but also the host. Host read ads deliver value. 

THE TWO TYPES OF PODCASTS ADS

There are two types of ads in the podcast space, baked-in ads and dynamically inserted ads.

Baked-in ad reads are host read ads that are produced as part of an episode and only reach the listeners who listen to that specific episode.

Alternatively dynamically inserted ads are host read ads that are electronically inserted into all episodes of a podcast both current and back catalog. Currently, based on a study by advertising research firm WARC 41% of podcast ads are dynamically inserted at the time of download. As the use of dynamic ad insertion increases, we find an increasing number of advertisers trying to understand the differences and the value that each presents. 

HOSTING A NETWORK PARTY IS LIKE HOSTING A PODCAST

To illustrate the reach and power of dynamic ad insertion let’s consider this analogy.

Let’s pretend that for the last three years, you have been hosting a networking party on the third Thursday of the month.

Each month you send out invitations to the event, but you don’t invite the same people each time.

Sometimes you invite old colleagues from a job you had years ago and other times you invite business associates you’ve met at the Chamber of Commerce events but you invite people month after month.

You let your invitees know that they are welcome to join the networking event serving food and drinks as long as they bring a printed copy of their invitation. 

When you started the event there were just 10 people who showed up.

Within six months 100 people on average attended and by the year mark you’ve surpassed 1,000 attendees.

At year three there are 3,000 people attending the event.

Each month business deals are made at these events and everyone is talking about the power of your networking event. Most everyone in the business community has received an invitation to the event at some point. When attendees show up to the event, you collect their printed invitations.

After the event, you catalog the invitations and sort them by the date the invitation was sent. It’s interesting to you that the invitations come from a wide range of dates. Some invitations are the very first you sent out three years ago while others are the invitations you sent last month and from every month in between.

All of these invitations you’ve sent have built the event to your 3,000 attendees.

The attendees who received the invitation three years ago are no less valuable than the attendees who received the invitation most recently. They all come together at this current month’s event, ready to do business. 

THE PODCAST LISTENER

 Podcast listeners are very similar.

Each time a podcast episode is produced and published the creator is sending out an invitation into the world, inviting listeners to come and listen to their podcast.

The invitations go out as the episodes are being published, over and over again. Each month the host is able to see who has shown up to the party.

Some listeners come to hear their most current episodes and then go back in the achieve to check out older episodes. While others just come to listen to episodes that address and cover a specific topic.

Dedicated listeners might download and play all episodes. In a given month all of the listeners have come to the party to listen to the podcast.

Listeners who have sought out the very niche target content of the podcast fall into a specific demographic and those listeners, all of them, are equally valuable because each listener is currently, actively seeking this content. 

THE REACH OF DYNAMIC INSERTION

Dynamic ad insertion allows an advertiser to reach all of the attendees at the party as opposed to baked-in ad insertion.

Baked-in ad insertion only allows an advertiser to reach the listeners who are “attending” just one part of the party- listening to just one episode that includes an advertisement. These listeners have come to the party just to grab a quick snack.

Dynamic ad insertion allows an advertiser to reach everyone at the party having their ad inserted into all of the episodes, the people who have come for a glass of wine, a bite to eat, networking, deal-making, all of it from beginning to end. 

HERE'S HOW DYNAMIC INSERTION WORKS

If an advertiser wants to reach the full audience they are able to insert their ads into all episodes both back catalog and current episodes because the podcast is formatted to have ads electronically inserted into all episodes.

The ad is set to run for a specific time frame and the ad is still host-read. As a listener, you should not be able to tell that the ad you’re listening to dynamically inserted. Dynamic insertion allows the advertiser to keep their ads current with no more listening to an episode that has an old outdated ad, with an outdated offer or an offer that has an expired promotional code. 

The bottom line, listeners who are currently listening to a podcast are valuable. Millions of YouTube viewers, watch videos each day that was produced years ago. They are valuable targets today, the relevance isn’t in when content was created, but when it is being consumed.

Podcasts are no different and now with dynamic ad insertion advertisers are able to target all of today’s listeners and not just a portion of them.