Understanding how you can get more out of your podcast advertising is key in your campaign gaining the right kind of momentum
Any advertiser will tell you that the key thing that they care about is conversion. That could be conversion to a website, an app, a software, a product, or a podcast! But it is by far the most important metric that people want to understand when it comes to investing in advertising.
Podcast advertising is no different to any other audio ad, and we are here to tell you that tracking conversion to your show does not have to feel like rocket science.
Simply put: you can track conversion to your podcast through a pixel in your ad campaign which is then connected to a prefix on your RSS feed.
This happens by the system checking for listener IPs and the IPs of those who have interacted with your podcast/product – and then matching them up!
The number of those matches is your Conversion Rate (or CVR).
Still sounds complicated? Here is a closer look at how you can start tracking conversion:
- Choose a Conversion Tracking Provider
When it comes to conversion tracking, you don’t have to do it alone. Most likely, you will go through one of the expertly placed conversion tracking providers like Podscribe and Backtracks, among others. These will help you attach the mentioned pixel to your audio ad so you can see when the campaign goes live, where it is live and if it is being correctly distributed, and then will show you any of the CVR data that they collect through matching the pixel to the prefix on your RSS. The data you will receive from them will also be extremely clear in that it will show you a total number of impressions that was delivered from the ad, as well as the number of conversions that the ad received.
Note: If you are thinking of/are using Chartable, the news has come in that the platform will sadly no longer be with us post December 12th. SmartLinks and SmartPromos will be introduced natively in Megaphone instead. If you have paid for a subscription already – do not fear, you will be refunded. Spotify is also working on introducing more conversion links through their Spotify for Podcasters (similar to SmartLinks), so we can all rest assured that the tools that Chartable brought us will remain, even without its singular Chartable umbrella. If you want even more information on different services you can use, Podnews did a comprehensive deep-dive and it includes tools like Linkfire (for Apple Podcasts) and CoHost tracking.
- Understand Your Goals
Looking at conversion data alone can still be difficult without knowing exactly what you are hoping to achieve from your ad campaign. If you are promoting a podcast and simply want to know how many people go from listening to your ad to then interacting with your show, that’s simple enough… but if your bigger aim is to send people on a journey to your app or website, think about what the ad is doing for you and what CVR data you want to see. It can be converting people to your show, or it can simply be seeing how many people visit your website.
- Calculate Your Cost Per Acquisition
Once you have run your campaign and received your CVR data, it might be a good idea to think about calculating your Cost Per Acquisition rate. The way to calculate it is:
COST PER ACQUISITION = TOTAL CAMPAIGN COST / TOTAL NUMBER OF CONVERSIONS
This number would help you understand how your podcast ad compares to other marketing activities you might be running at the same time, and it could also help you tweak your message for any further campaigns too.
- Go Beyond Just Spot Ads
It’s good to keep in mind that your tracking doesn’t have to be limited to spot ads only. It can also track the data you can collect from host reads. To do this, you will have to also speak to the provider of each host read to place the pixel, but once you are all set up – the data can flood in! We do see more interaction from host reads than spot ads in general, so a healthy mix of the two is usually the most effective. Make sure to read the latest guidelines on host reads to give you the most effective and compliant campaign, too.
We hope this guide brought you a piece of mind in that podcasting ads absolutely do not have to feel like throwing your mind at the wind. You can safely, and easily, track and understand exactly where each of your spent dollars is going and how it is affecting your overall goal of the marketing campaign.
Want to start tracking conversion of your podcast ad? We can definitely help!