Evo Terra:
It said that money can't buy happiness.
Evo Terra:
Well...
Evo Terra:
it can't buy podcast listeners either, according to the data generated from
Evo Terra:
a Facebook Ad experiment I funded for 76 days and have just terminated.
Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
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Evo Terra:
Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:
Over the last two and a half months, let's say, I spent $360 in media
Evo Terra:
to prove something I already knew.
Evo Terra:
Facebook ads are not a great choice to grow the audience of a podcast.
Evo Terra:
More specifically than that, running an ad campaign on Facebook
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is prohibitively expensive.
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It's a prohibitively expensive way to generate and acquire a
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measurable, increased number of listeners to your podcast.
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And again, I knew this to be the case, yet I still contracted with a firm,
Evo Terra:
a firm that specializes in running Facebook advertising campaigns to
Evo Terra:
grow podcast audiences dramatically.
Evo Terra:
I did that.
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I have them run the experiment to take my negativity out of the mix because
Evo Terra:
hey, maybe I'm wrong about this spoiler.
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I was not wrong, but a quick programming note, this is the final episode of 2020.
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My long winter's nap commences right after this.
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And we'll end on January the fourth, 2022.
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So if you're brand new, welcome, I got 500 episodes in the can for you to
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ponder while I take my little break here.
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So please stay subscribed or stay followed, whatever
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we're calling it these days.
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Whatever cool.
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Cool.
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All right.
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Back to the money now that $360 I spent on targeted Facebook
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ads brought me to my show.
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500 clicks.
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But that's 500 clicks, not listeners.
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It is very easy to buy clicks.
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And at less than a buck, a click, they seem like they might actually be
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inexpensive, but clicks by themselves like monthly downloads by themselves.
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It's kind of a worthless number.
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It's useless.
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The real question is did those 500 clickers become 500 lists?
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Hmm.
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Okay, maybe not 500.
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What about 400 listeners then let's take it down a notch.
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Let's go half to 50.
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In a word, no.
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In four words, no, of course not.
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Nor would I expect them to and nor should you, and nor should the person running
Evo Terra:
your advertising campaign and here's why.
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Now, remember I have spent for the better part of two decades running
Evo Terra:
a digital advertising companies.
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So I know that most people who click on an ad will not actually convert.
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And of course, in my case, converting means actually becoming
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a listener of the program.
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So what percentage of clickers will convert well historically and
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across the broad range of advertise.
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We typically project somewhere between 0.2% and 2% for a conversion rate.
Evo Terra:
That's it 2% at the most two out of 100.
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Now 2% of those, again, that's the high end.
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2% of the 500 clicks I had would be 10.
Evo Terra:
Okay, fine.
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Maybe the ad campaign got me 10 new listeners.
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If I look at, and I have looked at my average seven and 28 day per
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episode, download numbers then sure.
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I think I can probably see it got me maybe 10 more listeners or at least
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10 more listeners are inside of that growth, but that 10 more listeners
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cost me $360 in media dollars.
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To acquire that's really expensive acquisition costs, especially
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considering the fact that I'm not selling a product on my podcast to you.
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My listeners.
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So after 76 days of spending, when there were no indications whatsoever that the
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campaign would do anything more, unless I threw more money at it, I pulled the.
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I was pretty confident at the time and still am that I had enough data to say
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that, no, of course it didn't work.
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As I anticipated.
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Now I could wax poetically for as long as you really want about
Evo Terra:
why this plan failed to work.
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And in my considered opinion will always fail to.
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I could slice and dice the numbers.
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I could analyze the efficacy of the messaging that was used.
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We could extrapolate on the disconnect between clicking to a website and
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subscribing slash following a podcast, or even remind you that of the lack of
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attribution, the lack of attribution tracking we get from podcasts, listening
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apps that makes it vastly different than other sorts of digital advertising.
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And yes, all of those issues are very variable.
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And all of them played a part contributing to why campaigns like
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this and this one specifically failed.
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But let's go back to the beginning where I said that I spent this money
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to prove something I already knew.
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That's true, but it's only part of the truth.
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I did it so that I could demonstrate to you the serious
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podcaster that it would not.
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And quite frankly, given the current state of podcasting where we live today with the
Evo Terra:
technologies that work to make podcasting work, this kind of advertising campaign
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can't work clicks on ad campaigns.
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Do not matter if those clicks fail to convert people, to being a listener.
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And that best 98% of the clicks you pay for will not convert someone to
Evo Terra:
becoming a listener of your show.
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So my advice don't waste your money on this.
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Now for those data in there is out there.
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I am publishing and have linked in the episode, details a link to the Google
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sheet that has all of these numbers on it.
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Feel free to examine the results at your leisure.
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Go as deep as you want to.
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I've got tabs showing the seven day and 28 day per episode.
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But I get from my hosting company, captivate, I've got the Facebook
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campaign data and I've got a few fancy charts to show you what I'm not
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seeing in these lackluster results.
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Now, also with that, this is the end of this half season of Podcast
Evo Terra:
Pontifications it is now coming to a close for the next few weeks.
Evo Terra:
I'll be taking what I call my long winter.
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And my plan is to emerge with all new content just after the new year.
Evo Terra:
I think on January 4th, 2022 right now.
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But during that time, over these next few weeks, I will still be quite active,
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mostly on Twitter sometimes also in the Advancing Podcasting community.
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Are you a part of that advancingpodcasting.xyz, please chime in.
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That's a Discord server that is set up just for serious podcasters.
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Please join us over there.
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So that's it.
Evo Terra:
I shall be back on January 4th, 2022 with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
Evo Terra:
Cheers!
Evo Terra:
Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
Evo Terra:
Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
Evo Terra:
section of your podcast listening app.
Evo Terra:
A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
Evo Terra:
podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
Evo Terra:
Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
