In this episode, I am exploring the concept dynamic ad insertion for podcasters, focussing on leveraging dynamic ads/content for internal promotions.
Before you hit skip because you’re thinking I don’t run ads or have sponsors for my show….hold up..and hear me out!
And if you are a business podcaster, tune in because this is a golden opportunity that could make a huge difference for you and is a feature that is often overlooked.
We’re going to look at, what is Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) or Dynamic Content Insertion and how it works, the benefits of using this feature, some hosting providers that allow for internal ads and some examples of how you can start using it now.
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More about Podcasting Tips & Tricks
Podcasting Tips & Tricks is a show designed to share quick, actionable tips and tricks for launching and growing a successful podcast and is aimed at both new and seasoned podcasters. We’ll cover a range of topics from launching your podcast, editing, publishing, hosting, equipment, systems and processes, marketing, monetising, industry news and lots more.
Podcast awareness and listenership are growing year-on-year so it’s no surprise that it is still growing in 2024. And now is a great time for small business owners and entrepreneurs to launch a podcast to raise brand awareness and position their expertise whilst building authority and trust.
I’m Lyndal Harris, Podcast Consultant and founder of Podcast VA where my team and I simplify the podcasting journey. We offer a variety of done-for-support services, online and in-person training, as well as strategy sessions and health checks. At Podcast VA, we have launched hundreds of podcasts for both Australian and international clients, who collectively captivate millions of listeners worldwide. And quite a number of these shows have hit number 1 in the charts!
Transcript:
Leveraging Dynamic Ads/Content for Internal Promotion
[0:14]
Introduction
[0:14]
Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode. I am your host, Lyndall Harris, and I’m the founder of Podcast VA, where we help simplify your podcasting journey. In this episode, we are talking about dynamic ad insertion. Now, before you hit skip or stop because you think I don’t run ads or I don’t have sponsors for my show, just hold up and hear me out, especially if you’re a business podcaster, because this is about a golden opportunity that could make a huge difference for you and is a feature that is often overlooked. So we’re going to cover what is dynamic ad insertion or dynamic content insertion and how it works, the benefits of using this feature, some of the hosting providers that allow for internal ads, and some examples of how you can start implementing internal promotions now. hour.
[1:09]
Firstly, let’s talk about the fact that when you think about monetizing your podcast, you’re probably thinking about ads and sponsorships. And that can be really off-putting for a lot of podcasters because they aren’t getting thousands of downloads per episode. And let’s be honest, that’s a lot of us. And you may know that you can arrange informal, direct sponsorship agreements with people, but you’re not really sure how to actually start with this. Now in this episode, I’m not actually going to focus on the ads component or the sponsorship opportunities. I will do that in future episodes, but today I want to talk about the fact that you could potentially be running internal ads or internal promotions by using the dynamic ad or content insertion methods. So for example, you can be promoting your products, your services, events, lead magnets, etc.
[2:09]
So when we are podcasting as part of our business marketing activities, we spend a lot of time in creating our episodes and sharing our knowledge. And whilst listeners may often have an idea about what we do, do they really know? At the beginning of this show, I often say that this episode is brought to you by Podcast VA, who simplify your podcasting journey. But do you know exactly how we do that? If you visited my website, you might know, but I often don’t talk about it much in the show itself and neither do a lot of business podcasters. And I guess that all comes back to, it’s about the listener experience. You don’t want to be spammy and you don’t want to go on about what you do every single episode because then I’m not sharing value and it just becomes spammy and no one will listen. But if I’m spending my time sharing content that is useful, I don’t think my listeners will mind if I then drop in some promotion or information that may be useful and of interest to them. Okay, let me take a step back and talk about what is dynamic ad insertion or DAI as it’s often referred to.
[3:26]
So the dynamic ad insertion is referring to inserting advertisements into your podcasts that are tailored to the audience or the subject matter rather than actually being embedded directly into the episode when it’s recorded. And some hosting platforms allow you to replace the word ad with content. So dynamic content insertion. And if you think about the word dynamic itself, it really explains it. You can add and change the audio files to suit the campaigns really quite easily. Now, before dynamic ad insertion, the traditional way of promoting or running ads were to to fix and record the ad into the actual episode, and they’re known as baked-in ads. If you’ve ever listened to some of my old episodes, you’ll hear that I tried to organise a podcasting conference back in 2020, which ended up being cancelled by COVID, but those baked-in ads are still in my episodes, and half of those episodes are evergreen content, so they’re relevant regardless of how old they are. But when listeners listen to that, the ad isn’t relevant to them anymore and it’s four years old.
[4:47]
With dynamic ads, you, the podcaster, can actually choose exactly where to place the content or the ad in the episodes. And it’s generally pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. And you can actually drop these markers through your entire back catalogue.
[5:08]
So you insert an ad marker or an ad slot and after that you manage the campaigns through your hosting platform so if you have a hundred episodes when somebody listens to episode 10 and you’re running dynamic ads or dynamic content they’re listening to the ad that you recorded and started when you were recording episode 101 but they’re still hearing it because they’re listening to your back catalogue.
[5:37]
With baked-in ads, they might only be relevant for three or four episodes, and then they become old or outdated. And as I mentioned, if you choose the right hosting provider, they will allow you to use these insertion points to drop in dynamic content instead of dynamic ads. So you’re not going to the ad marketplace. You don’t have to have thousands of downloads per episode. You can record a separate ad that promotes your products and services or events or whatever it is and drop it in at that insertion point. And so the dynamic content side of things works really well for the internal promotions or internal ads. But also if you have a sponsorship arrangement that you’ve worked out directly with the sponsor, then you can use it for that as well. So let’s talk about leveraging dynamic ads for internal promotions.
[6:36]
Leveraging Dynamic Ads for Internal Promotions
[6:36]
The beauty of dynamic ads lies in their flexibility and you can modify them to fit the context of your episodes or audience in real time.
[6:48]
Let’s say you’re running a conference and you’re selling tickets. Instead of of recording that into the episode for the time that those tickets are available. You record a separate 30 second to 60 second track, and then you manage it in your hosting platform so that that ad actually runs through your entire back catalog of episodes. So everybody knows when your tickets are on sale. And then when your tickets are no longer on sale, you turn that ad off. It’s no longer running and you can replace it with something that’s more relevant or you could just have nothing there because it will still play through seamlessly for the listener. And I’m guilty of not taking advantage of this, but you will notice that I will be starting to use dynamic ads in my episodes as well.
[7:45]
See what I did there? That was a dynamic ad.
[7:49]
Benefits of Dynamic Ad Insertion
[7:49]
Some of the benefits to using this feature, not just for internal but also external ads, is that the content is fresh and it’s up to date and you’re not hearing about a conference that I was advertising four years ago. You reach all of your audience because you can insert the ad into your entire back catalogue as well as the new episodes as you release them. The flexibility, they’re not permanent, which means that they can be updated and replaced and it doesn’t alter the original content of your episode. The technology behind it makes this a really simple process that you can manage the different campaigns easily and it doesn’t take hours of your time to replace and edit the episodes that have the baked in ads.
[8:43]
It’s a seamless listening experience. To the listener, it’s all going to seem quite organic and it doesn’t feel really jolted. So whether you are running an ad in there or not, it’s going to be a seamless listening experience for them. On that note, you do want to be mindful that you keep them short and relevant and that you don’t put too many of them in there because that will ruin the listener experience. And lastly, the customization. You can tailor different episodes to run different content insertions or internal promotions. For example, if I’m promoting my podcast launch program, I can run that campaign whilst the cart is open for people to buy through all of my episodes. And then when cart is closed, I turn that off. What I could do as well is look back through my episodes and mark which episodes I want to run that into because it’s more around the topic of launching a podcast, as opposed to running that particular ad campaign into the shows that are more targeted for people who are looking for growth tips and tricks.
[9:56]
So you can see that it really does allow for flexibility and content that is
[10:04]
Selecting Hosting Providers for Dynamic Content Insertion
[10:01]
going to be up-to-date and relevant for your listeners. Now, it’s really important to note here that not all hosting providers will allow you to do that. A lot of them will have the dynamic ad insertion feature that then allows you to run ads into your show. So you do need to find one that will actually allow you to add dynamic content. Content. Now, at the time of recording this episode, I am only aware of two hosting platforms that allow you to add in the dynamic content rather than a dynamic ad. And those hosting providers are Captivate and Buzzsprout. Now, I am a massive fan of Captivate. I use it personally. I absolutely love everything about the program, but I also know that Buzzsprout offer a very good platform as well for you to do this. So if you’re interested in doing that, have a think about whether it’s worth transferring your podcast host so that you can start taking advantage of this amazing feature. And I have actually done a previous episode about how to transfer your podcast host, and I will link that in the show notes.
[11:12]
Practical Examples of Internal Promotions
[11:12]
Now, let me give you a few practical examples of how you could start using internal promotions in your podcasts.
[11:21]
The perfect example of that is as I’m recording this episode, the dynamic ad I’m going to drop in is about registering your interest in online networking events with other podcasters. So I’m interested in running some online networking events and I have a register your interest page on my website that I want people to be able to sign up for. But depending on when you hear this episode, that might not be the dynamic ad that you have just heard. Another opportunity could be promoting a lead magnet so that I’m building the list. If you have merchandise for your show, you could put in a special or a discount code or even just a promotion about the actual merchandise.
[12:08]
And another way you could use it is not just for promotion, but also for inserting content blocks. And this is something that I’m about to record to drop into the beginning of my first three seasons of this show. Because that content was recorded so many years ago, I want people to know that whilst it is an older episode, the content is still evergreen and some of the details might be slightly different, but it is still a relevant topic for them to listen to. So you can see that that has saved me having to go and re-edit 30 different episodes to add that one piece of information.
[12:48]
I hope this episode has got you thinking about how you can use these little content insertions or ad insertions to help promote your products, services, lead magnets, events, merchandise, so that your listeners know exactly how they can benefit from what you’re offering. If you have any questions or you know that this is a service that you would like to start using, feel free to book in a discovery call with me because this is something that we can help you with at Podcast VA. We can helpp you transfer your host if you need to, but we can also help manage these campaigns into your catalog or help you set it up. Hopefully that’s given you some ideas is about how you can use this in your podcast. And I’ll chat to you in the next episode.
