Your Host-Read Ads are Too Dang Long!
Good morning, podcaster. I'm reaching out this morning to tell you that you're spending WAY too much time on your host-read ads. You're giving away the farm. Knock it off.
Your sponsor is not going to give you more money because you talk longer. They're going to give you more money when your ads sell their product. When you go long, people tune out.
On this episode, I give you a way to have your ad-lib'd spot and sell more stuff too.
The research quoted in this episode is from Bryan Barletta at Sounds Profitable. Link to the research below.
Intro credit to my 7-year-old. ❤️
Links to the things we discussed this episode:
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Transcript
Interviewer 0:00
Good morning podcasters!
Fuzz Martin 0:05
Good morning podcasters, it's me, Fuzz Martin. Thank you for joining me on the second week, and fifth episode of the all-new GMP. Today we're going to talk about host-read ads and how you can make them better for your audience in a number of different ways.
Fuzz Martin 0:23
For this episode, we're going to be reaching into my current ad agency experience as well as my former radio personality and program director experience to put them both together to talk about what we should and shouldn't do when it comes to host read ads.
Fuzz Martin 0:38
Back in September Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable, released some information from a research study they did with host read live, post, read scripted, and announcer read podcast ads, and I will link to that article in the show notes. The Sounds Profitable study showed that spots either ad libbed or read off a script by the announcer performed better overall hands down than spots that were produced and sent in from a third party announcer. And that's great again, totally expected.
Fuzz Martin 1:11
What was also unsurprising to me was that, while ad lib spots ranked highest in the listeners overall appeal of the spot the fit of the show, unaided recall of the spot, the scripted host read ads, so the scripted versions of that did best with interest in learning more the audience's likelihood to purchase and likelihood to learn more about that product.
Fuzz Martin 1:37
In other words, listeners said that while they liked the long drawn out, ad libbed spots the most, they were more likely to act when the host stayed focused and on script. So let's talk about why. Podcast hosts (that's you) tend to spend way too much time when it comes to ad lib sponsored ads. Most of you are completely giving away the farm.
Fuzz Martin 2:05
We used to run into this all the time in radio where a host would get a sheet with bullet points on it. And it would say 60-second live read for you know, name a car dealer. And they would go on for sometimes two minutes and 30 seconds. And they didn't need to.. The advertiser paid for 60 seconds. And that's why now that I'm in advertising, I love to have my clients by host read radio and podcast ads, because I know that they're going to get way more value. And the price is exactly the same as if we paid for a exactly 30 or 60-second announcer read ad. If you are set a set of bullet points with an expectation of 60 to 90 seconds, but you go on and on for three minutes.
Fuzz Martin 2:52
You're wasting your time you're giving your advertisers way more than they need, and you're potentially doing both a disservice. Unless it's completely hilarious. Your listeners do not want to hear a three minute ad. We're in an era where people watch 45 Second Tik Tok videos, and Gen Z kids can't listen to a song that is more than a 1:50 seconds. So a three-minute ad is way too long. If you're getting paid for 60 seconds, give your sponsor a good 60 seconds with a tight call to action.
Fuzz Martin 3:28
And that gets us to my second piece of advice. Scripted ads are good because they have a clear call to action and it gives the host a solid beginning middle and end but sometimes they can be boring, which is why respondents to sounds profitable as research study said that they thought that the ad live version sounded best. So I recommend hybrid. Allow yourself a brief ad libbed intro again brief, and then write the rest of the spot in your own voice using the supplied bullet points. Make it your own. But don't make it a novel. Give your sponsor the time they purchased and give your audience what they want to hear. Without wasting their time. You can get the best of both worlds pretty easily. And both you and your sponsor and your audience all win.
Fuzz Martin 4:20
On top of all of that your sponsor is more likely to reward you based on your audience's intent to purchase rather than brand awareness or recall. You can quantify the former. The latter can be attributed to the advertiser sponsoring a whole bunch of different shows. And they're not going to buy more spots because you go over on your sponsor every time they're going to buy more spots, because when they advertise on your show, people interacted buy stuff from them. Remember that.
Fuzz Martin 4:52
So to recap, podcast ads perform better when you as the podcaster are saying them but don't fall into the trap of giving your sponsors more time than they paid for.
Fuzz Martin 5:01
My name is Fuzz Martin and I am the new host of Good Morning Podcasters you can find the show on Twitter @gmpodcasters. Website should be coming this week. I'm just waiting on the domain from Tanner. New episodes two or more times a week with an episode of Podcasting Sucks with Jeff Townsend every Saturday morning. I do appreciate you listening and I will talk to you tomorrow. Right here on Good Morning, Podcasters!
