April 1, 2025 • 10 mins
Organic growth is powerful, but paid acquisition accelerates it. With targeted ad campaigns, you can reach new listeners who are already interested in your niche. It’s an effective way to boost awareness, drive downloads, and grow your audience more effectively.
The key? Invest in the right platforms based no on your specific niche, track performance, and optimize as you go. Done right, paid acquisition turns curious listeners into loyal fans.The pro strategy is to promote a single, compelling episode, not the entire show. Google display ads drive audio downloads and YouTube ads offer precise tracking and real subscriber growth. Done right, both strategies create a direct path to long-term audience retention.
The key? Invest in the right platforms based no on your specific niche, track performance, and optimize as you go. Done right, paid acquisition turns curious listeners into loyal fans.The pro strategy is to promote a single, compelling episode, not the entire show. Google display ads drive audio downloads and YouTube ads offer precise tracking and real subscriber growth. Done right, both strategies create a direct path to long-term audience retention.
- Use Google display ads for audio downloads – Drive clicks to a custom episode landing page.
- Leverage YouTube ads for long-term growth – Track real subscriber conversions.
- Test and optimize – Start with a budget, analyze performance, and adjust accordingly.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome back to Podcasting Tips Weekly. I'm Ryan Tillotson,
and today we're going to talk about something that every
podcaster has probably thought about, well, definitely thought about, but
really it's hard to do and a lot of people
have a lot of trouble with it, and that is
paid advertising for your podcast. Whether you're trying to boost downloads,
(00:29):
build a loyal audience, or fulfill sponsor expectations, paid acquisition
can be a game changer, or.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I guess it could also be a total waste of money.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We've tested several different strategies over the last four years
and we found a couple that actually work. In this episode,
I'm going to walk you through the two most effective
ad strategies that we use at straw Hut Media to
drive real growth, what they cost, how they perform, and
what to watch out for.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Let's get into it Part one.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Display ads for audio podcasts. Let's just start with what
a Google display ad is or what display ads are
We use Google. These are great for driving more downloads
on your audio episodes and if you're not familiar display ads,
they are an image based ad that you see while
browsing websites on your phone. Or on your desktop. Think
(01:21):
banners at the top of blogs, square graphics, and sidebars,
long rectangles in like an article or something. These ads
run across the Google Display network, which includes millions of
websites and mobile apps. Now here's the strategy behind what
we do. We're not trying to drive someone to your
show page and hope that they pick an episode that's
too much friction.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Really, Instead, our.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Goal is to hook people with one very specific episode,
something that's compelling or a question that draws them in.
The idea is if they love that one episode, they
might stick around, listen to more, and eventually subscribe. Do
you remember in a previous episode when I said like
every episode should pose a question and deliver like a promise.
(02:05):
So we start by identifying the one question that the
episode is built around. That question becomes the headline of our.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Display ad, the hook.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Then we design the ads in all major Google dimensions.
That's like thirty plus different versions sometimes, so they can
appear across the widest range of sites possible. Okay, where
do we send them to a custom episode landing page?
So if you click one of those ads, whether you're
on a mobile app or your desktop or whatever, if
you click it because you're interested in that luring question,
(02:38):
it basically takes you to a very custom landing page.
That landing page is on our website, but it could
be anywhere. You can build a special landing page for wherever.
I like it on our website because it allows us
to be able to track and retarget those people. But anyways,
at the top of the page is the embedded podcast player,
which is like got a click now button to try
(02:59):
to get people to click that episode and listen right away.
And then below that we have the show notes and
then finally like links to all the major podcast platforms, Apple, Spotify,
et cetera, et cetera. This structure basically gives us full
control and allows us to track how people engage with
the episode. Plus it gives us the ability to retarget
them later, like I said, with additional ads if they
(03:19):
finish the episode or didn't subscribe and we want to
retarget those people. In terms of budget, we usually spend
around two dollars to ten dollars a day for like
thirty days, and we're mostly targeting English speaking countries US, Canada,
Australia because that's where most of our listener base is,
but you can go global and you will get a
lot more downloads, but you know they may come from
(03:40):
other countries that aren't aligned with your audience.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But this technique basically.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Allows us to track three key metrics impressions, how many
people saw the ad clicks, how many people clicked into
the landing page and places, how many people clicked on
the episode player, And for us, success looks like thirty
to fifty IAB comples downloads per day. I mean it's
real listens, not just impressions. I think that's pretty good, right,
(04:05):
I think so. One big limitation is that there's no
real subscribe button in these ads. You know, it's not
an option that there is. You know, Apple and Spotify
don't offer direct links that allow people to easily subscribe
from the ad itself. And honestly, if they did do that,
or they do do that, somebody let me know. Please
email me at tips at strawhumedia dot com. If that
(04:26):
link or button exists. A subscribe button that I could
put anywhere exists, I want it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
But anyway, we've.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Explored custom solutions, but they're clunky and require too much
from the user. So while we're confident that the downloads
are real. We just don't have a clean way to
track whether those listeners become long term subscribers, and it
is something that I am still actively looking for. So again,
if you have a solution for this that's not clunky,
(04:55):
that can get people to subscribe. It's tough because it's like,
maybe you could get them to subscribe to Spotify, but
then what if they're not logged into their Spotify account
and you have an immediately asked for like the log
in like, it becomes like multiple steps.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's tough.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's tough, but it would be great to have that
option on mobile devices because you're definitely logged into your
Spotify on your app. You're definitely logged it into your
Apple Podcasts on your app, or your Pocket Casts or
whatever app you use to listen to a podcast. So
it's like, I just want the mobile direct link subscribe button.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I want it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Does it exist? Please tell me? Put it in the comments.
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Part two. YouTube ads for video podcasts. Now, let's talk
about YouTube ads, which we use for video podcasts, and honestly,
they are one of the most effective tools we found
for real long term growth. Just like with the display ads.
Our strategy here is to promote one specific episode. We
are not running general watch our show ads. We are
(05:58):
choosing a standout episode, building a hook around it, and
running the ad in front of other YouTube content. The
goal is simple, get people to click watch, fall in
love with the episode, and then subscribe. These ads appear before, during,
or at the end of other YouTube videos. When someone clicks,
(06:18):
they're taken either directly to that specific episode or to
the channel page.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We've tested both.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
They both perform pretty equally. Okay, why do we love
this method? Well, YouTube gives us incredible analytics and you
can clearly see how many people saw the ad, how
many people clicked, how long they watched, and the one
that I love the most important one is how many
subscribed because of the ad. And those subscriptions are real
(06:48):
YouTube tracks exactly which subscribers came in from the ads,
so we know what's working. Okay, So, for example, we
spend about three hundred dollars over thirty days and we
usually get around thirteen thousand views on a video, and
over that course of that month, you know we'll probably
get like one hundred new subscribers. So if you like
those numbers, which I mean, I am a fan of
(07:09):
those numbers.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Give it a shot, really give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And typically we'll start high, you know, like three hundred dollars,
you know, over thirty days, and then we'll bring that
down because you're building this audience and you you know,
fortunately don't have to spend as much money over time.
I really recommend this if you have YouTube content, or
if you don't consider starting it, so you can run
ads like this and with a strong guest or topic,
(07:33):
that number can double or even triple. We had Conan
O'Brien in the studio for one of our shows. We
ran ads. Honestly, we didn't need to those numbers like
quadrupled because just it's Conan O'Brien, but the ad allowed
it to get seen by people that wouldn't normally find
the video or find the content. But like I said,
(07:53):
even if three hundred dollars per episode is out of reach,
running a smaller campaign with tighter targeting can still yield
rate results. And since YouTube subscribers get notified about future episodes,
it's really one of the best ways to build recurring viewership.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
And fan loyalty.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And what I'm finding, which is what I love even
more is that we're for a lot of shows only
pushing the YouTube content, but because of the way the
world works and because of how people listen to podcasts,
people are finding it through the ads that we're running
on YouTube. But what I've noticed is that our audio
listens are also.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Growing, So you know what that means.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It means that people are finding it YouTube, starting it there,
and finishing the episode on Apple, Spotify, pocket casts wherever
they listen, and that is what I love to see.
That's incredible, And ideally we're getting them to subscribe. Ideally
we're getting them to subscribe on the audio platforms, but again,
it's just so hard to track that. But yeah, I
(08:51):
am seeing growth in both places, even though I'm only
pushing the video on certain shows. So you know, give
it a shot, test it out, let me know how
it works for you. You Okay, final thoughts and takeaways, Well,
in both strategies, whether we're using display ads or YouTube ads,
our goal is really the same. Get someone to listen
or watch one episode and hope that they love it
(09:12):
enough to stick around. We're not promoting the whole show
at once or using a single episode as a front
door a hook and from there ideally that listener becomes
a subscriber and just kind of to recap the display
ads more audio downloads, that's how we do it. YouTube ads,
more video subscribers, more video views. Both are driven by
a smart episode specific hook, and both are about creating
(09:36):
an entry point into your podcast. Okay, I hope this
was so helpful. If not, or if you still have questions,
or even if you want help trying to run these,
message me email me. You can find strahup Media on
Instagram at straw hut dot media. You can email me
directly at tips at strahutmedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Please get in touch.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I would love to hear from you and I will
try to my best to figure out how to help
you with your podcast. That's it for this week. See
you next week on Podcasting Tips Weekly. Good luck out there,
Hello, and welcome back to Podcasting Tips Weekly. I'm Ryan Tillotson,
and today we're going to talk about something that every
podcaster has probably thought about, well, definitely thought about, but
really it's hard to do and a lot of people
have a lot of trouble with it, and that is
paid advertising for your podcast. Whether you're trying to boost downloads,
(00:29):
build a loyal audience, or fulfill sponsor expectations, paid acquisition
can be a game changer, or.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I guess it could also be a total waste of money.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We've tested several different strategies over the last four years
and we found a couple that actually work. In this episode,
I'm going to walk you through the two most effective
ad strategies that we use at straw Hut Media to
drive real growth, what they cost, how they perform, and
what to watch out for.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Let's get into it Part one.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Display ads for audio podcasts. Let's just start with what
a Google display ad is or what display ads are
We use Google. These are great for driving more downloads
on your audio episodes and if you're not familiar display ads,
they are an image based ad that you see while
browsing websites on your phone. Or on your desktop. Think
(01:21):
banners at the top of blogs, square graphics, and sidebars,
long rectangles in like an article or something. These ads
run across the Google Display network, which includes millions of
websites and mobile apps. Now here's the strategy behind what
we do. We're not trying to drive someone to your
show page and hope that they pick an episode that's
too much friction.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Really, Instead, our.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Goal is to hook people with one very specific episode,
something that's compelling or a question that draws them in.
The idea is if they love that one episode, they
might stick around, listen to more, and eventually subscribe. Do
you remember in a previous episode when I said like
every episode should pose a question and deliver like a promise.
(02:05):
So we start by identifying the one question that the
episode is built around. That question becomes the headline of our.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Display ad, the hook.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Then we design the ads in all major Google dimensions.
That's like thirty plus different versions sometimes, so they can
appear across the widest range of sites possible. Okay, where
do we send them to a custom episode landing page?
So if you click one of those ads, whether you're
on a mobile app or your desktop or whatever, if
you click it because you're interested in that luring question,
(02:38):
it basically takes you to a very custom landing page.
That landing page is on our website, but it could
be anywhere. You can build a special landing page for wherever.
I like it on our website because it allows us
to be able to track and retarget those people. But anyways,
at the top of the page is the embedded podcast player,
which is like got a click now button to try
(02:59):
to get people to click that episode and listen right away.
And then below that we have the show notes and
then finally like links to all the major podcast platforms, Apple, Spotify,
et cetera, et cetera. This structure basically gives us full
control and allows us to track how people engage with
the episode. Plus it gives us the ability to retarget
them later, like I said, with additional ads if they
(03:19):
finish the episode or didn't subscribe and we want to
retarget those people. In terms of budget, we usually spend
around two dollars to ten dollars a day for like
thirty days, and we're mostly targeting English speaking countries US, Canada,
Australia because that's where most of our listener base is,
but you can go global and you will get a
lot more downloads, but you know they may come from
(03:40):
other countries that aren't aligned with your audience.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
But this technique basically.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Allows us to track three key metrics impressions, how many
people saw the ad clicks, how many people clicked into
the landing page and places, how many people clicked on
the episode player, And for us, success looks like thirty
to fifty IAB comples downloads per day. I mean it's
real listens, not just impressions. I think that's pretty good, right,
(04:05):
I think so. One big limitation is that there's no
real subscribe button in these ads. You know, it's not
an option that there is. You know, Apple and Spotify
don't offer direct links that allow people to easily subscribe
from the ad itself. And honestly, if they did do that,
or they do do that, somebody let me know. Please
email me at tips at strawhumedia dot com. If that
(04:26):
link or button exists. A subscribe button that I could
put anywhere exists, I want it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
But anyway, we've.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Explored custom solutions, but they're clunky and require too much
from the user. So while we're confident that the downloads
are real. We just don't have a clean way to
track whether those listeners become long term subscribers, and it
is something that I am still actively looking for. So again,
if you have a solution for this that's not clunky,
(04:55):
that can get people to subscribe. It's tough because it's like,
maybe you could get them to subscribe to Spotify, but
then what if they're not logged into their Spotify account
and you have an immediately asked for like the log
in like, it becomes like multiple steps.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's tough.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's tough, but it would be great to have that
option on mobile devices because you're definitely logged into your
Spotify on your app. You're definitely logged it into your
Apple Podcasts on your app, or your Pocket Casts or
whatever app you use to listen to a podcast. So
it's like, I just want the mobile direct link subscribe button.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I want it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Does it exist? Please tell me? Put it in the comments.
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Part two. YouTube ads for video podcasts. Now, let's talk
about YouTube ads, which we use for video podcasts, and honestly,
they are one of the most effective tools we found
for real long term growth. Just like with the display ads.
Our strategy here is to promote one specific episode. We
are not running general watch our show ads. We are
(05:58):
choosing a standout episode, building a hook around it, and
running the ad in front of other YouTube content. The
goal is simple, get people to click watch, fall in
love with the episode, and then subscribe. These ads appear before, during,
or at the end of other YouTube videos. When someone clicks,
(06:18):
they're taken either directly to that specific episode or to
the channel page.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We've tested both.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
They both perform pretty equally. Okay, why do we love
this method? Well, YouTube gives us incredible analytics and you
can clearly see how many people saw the ad, how
many people clicked, how long they watched, and the one
that I love the most important one is how many
subscribed because of the ad. And those subscriptions are real
(06:48):
YouTube tracks exactly which subscribers came in from the ads,
so we know what's working. Okay, So, for example, we
spend about three hundred dollars over thirty days and we
usually get around thirteen thousand views on a video, and
over that course of that month, you know we'll probably
get like one hundred new subscribers. So if you like
those numbers, which I mean, I am a fan of
(07:09):
those numbers.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Give it a shot, really give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And typically we'll start high, you know, like three hundred dollars,
you know, over thirty days, and then we'll bring that
down because you're building this audience and you you know,
fortunately don't have to spend as much money over time.
I really recommend this if you have YouTube content, or
if you don't consider starting it, so you can run
ads like this and with a strong guest or topic,
(07:33):
that number can double or even triple. We had Conan
O'Brien in the studio for one of our shows. We
ran ads. Honestly, we didn't need to those numbers like
quadrupled because just it's Conan O'Brien, but the ad allowed
it to get seen by people that wouldn't normally find
the video or find the content. But like I said,
(07:53):
even if three hundred dollars per episode is out of reach,
running a smaller campaign with tighter targeting can still yield
rate results. And since YouTube subscribers get notified about future episodes,
it's really one of the best ways to build recurring viewership.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
And fan loyalty.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And what I'm finding, which is what I love even
more is that we're for a lot of shows only
pushing the YouTube content, but because of the way the
world works and because of how people listen to podcasts,
people are finding it through the ads that we're running
on YouTube. But what I've noticed is that our audio
listens are also.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Growing, So you know what that means.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It means that people are finding it YouTube, starting it there,
and finishing the episode on Apple, Spotify, pocket casts wherever
they listen, and that is what I love to see.
That's incredible, And ideally we're getting them to subscribe. Ideally
we're getting them to subscribe on the audio platforms, but again,
it's just so hard to track that. But yeah, I
(08:51):
am seeing growth in both places, even though I'm only
pushing the video on certain shows. So you know, give
it a shot, test it out, let me know how
it works for you. You Okay, final thoughts and takeaways, Well,
in both strategies, whether we're using display ads or YouTube ads,
our goal is really the same. Get someone to listen
or watch one episode and hope that they love it
(09:12):
enough to stick around. We're not promoting the whole show
at once or using a single episode as a front
door a hook and from there ideally that listener becomes
a subscriber and just kind of to recap the display
ads more audio downloads, that's how we do it. YouTube ads,
more video subscribers, more video views. Both are driven by
a smart episode specific hook, and both are about creating
(09:36):
an entry point into your podcast. Okay, I hope this
was so helpful. If not, or if you still have questions,
or even if you want help trying to run these,
message me email me. You can find strahup Media on
Instagram at straw hut dot media. You can email me
directly at tips at strahutmedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Please get in touch.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I would love to hear from you and I will
try to my best to figure out how to help
you with your podcast. That's it for this week. See
you next week on Podcasting Tips Weekly. Good luck out there,
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