Transcripts
Growth and monetization are at the top of every podcaster's wishlist.
Evo Terra:Or at least every podcaster who's yet to achieve those two things.
Evo Terra:Or perhaps not at the level, said podcaster is happy
Evo Terra:with for their own show.
Evo Terra:Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:Buzzsprout aims to change the growth and monetization question
Evo Terra:with a new product they've just released called Buzzsprout Ads.
Evo Terra:And interestingly enough, they're tackling both of those challenges, growth and
Evo Terra:monetization, with the same solution.
Evo Terra:Buzzsprout is the Branded Benefit Sponsor of this week's episode.
Evo Terra:And I recently sat down with Alban Brooke, Head of Marketing at Buzzsprout,
Evo Terra:and a good friend of mine, and I asked him what it is about Buzzsprout
Evo Terra:Ads that makes podcasting better?
Alban Brooke:The things people always want to know about are
Alban Brooke:how do I actually grow my show and how do I monetize my show?
Alban Brooke:And so over the last few years, we've been kind of toying with the ideas
Alban Brooke:of what does it look like for us to start solving these problems at scale?
Alban Brooke:Especially for like the indie podcasters.
Alban Brooke:And our solution has been Buzzsprout Ads.
Alban Brooke:Buzzsprout Ads is the easiest way to grow podcasts by running podcast promotions.
Alban Brooke:Anybody with a show can quickly go and set up a promo, and then your promo,
Alban Brooke:it will be dropped into many of the 115,000 active shows on Buzzsprout.
Alban Brooke:So, if you want to get really massive reach with podcast promos,
Alban Brooke:Buzzsprout Ads is a great way for you to start growing your show.
Alban Brooke:And then on the flip side, it's a great way for Buzzsprout podcasters
Alban Brooke:to start monetizing their podcast.
Evo Terra:So it's interesting, you're combining those two
Evo Terra:things, growth and monetization.
Evo Terra:I agree with you, many podcasters would say those are the things I need help with.
Evo Terra:So when a podcaster places their promo into Buzzsprout Ads and it is available to
Evo Terra:those 115,000 podcasts, is that automatic?
Evo Terra:Uh, how, how does that work?
Alban Brooke:Sure, so you go to buzzsprout.com/ads, and you sign
Alban Brooke:up with an advertiser account.
Alban Brooke:And then we collect a little bit of information.
Alban Brooke:What is the title, description, and up to a forty-second promo.
Alban Brooke:And we get all this information from you, and then you place an
Alban Brooke:order based on how many promos you want, uh, people to listen to.
Alban Brooke:And then what we do is we match you with podcasts that are similar to your show.
Alban Brooke:Uh, we've seen this with podcast promos for a long time, they're most
Alban Brooke:effective when these shows are similar.
Evo Terra:Yeah.
Alban Brooke:So we find people who are also in your same podcast categories,
Alban Brooke:then we reach out to them and say, hey, we think we've got some matches for you.
Alban Brooke:Based on some data we have about the shows we say, I think this is a good match.
Alban Brooke:And once the podcaster says, yeah, that actually does look like a promo that I'd
Alban Brooke:be interested in running, um, they can start dropping it into all their episodes.
Alban Brooke:We recently just saw this kind of hiccup where Spotify was dropping a bunch of
Alban Brooke:Wild Turkey ads into random podcasts.
Evo Terra:Yeah.
Alban Brooke:It was funny, that was the day that we started
Alban Brooke:the beta for Buzzsprout Ads.
Alban Brooke:And we always thought for, especially for podcaster safety, it's very important
Alban Brooke:for podcasters to opt in to the ads that they want to be on their shows.
Alban Brooke:So
Alban Brooke:- Evo Terra: Of course.
- Alban Brooke:that's an integral piece of Buzzsprout Ads.
Evo Terra:Now, how much work does it take for a podcaster on Buzzsprout to
Evo Terra:have those ads show up on their show?
Evo Terra:Do they, they need to go in and create pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll locations?
Evo Terra:What happens there?
Alban Brooke:So, it's almost no work on the podcaster's side.
Alban Brooke:Mid-rolls are by far the best ad spots for podcasts.
Alban Brooke:And so we wanted all of these promos to be in mid-roll slots.
Alban Brooke:The downside was a lot of indie podcasters, maybe you're only
Alban Brooke:getting a thousand downloads a month.
Alban Brooke:At that point, going back through your back catalog, you know, maybe
Alban Brooke:50 episodes, and finding mid-roll spots, that's a lot of work.
Evo Terra:Yes, it is.
Alban Brooke:And so we're now automatically finding the very
Alban Brooke:best spots for mid-rolls for you.
Alban Brooke:And if you want to adjust these later, you can.
Alban Brooke:But right off, as soon as you say, I'm ready to start using Buzzsprout Ads,
Alban Brooke:we will go through every episode and automatically find those slots for you.
Alban Brooke:And then when you accept ads, we will start stitching them into
Alban Brooke:your audio files automatically.
Evo Terra:So that covers how the podcasters on Buzzsprout get paid.
Evo Terra:And they're getting paid by other podcasters who want to use Buzzsprout
Evo Terra:Ads, but use them to promote their show.
Evo Terra:Are you opening up to people who just want to run ads for products and services?
Alban Brooke:Right now, we're trying to solve this problem of podcast promos.
Alban Brooke:We saw a lot of issues where, you know, it was really heady for people
Alban Brooke:to try to go into a Twitter thread and pair up with someone and find
Alban Brooke:a fair trade with another show.
Alban Brooke:And they're putting in so much work for sometimes something that would only end
Alban Brooke:up being, you know, maybe 200 downloads.
Alban Brooke:Now you can run that, you can get 200 downloads on Buzzsprout
Alban Brooke:for something like $4.
Evo Terra:Oh, wow.
Alban Brooke:Uh, so it's, uh, we're trying to make this
Alban Brooke:much easier for podcasters.
Alban Brooke:There, I'm sure, are thousands of ways we can make this better.
Alban Brooke:One of them would probably be opening it up to more people,
Alban Brooke:um, more types of advertisers.
Alban Brooke:But right now it's a hundred percent focused on podcast promotions.
Evo Terra:And what are we shooting the CPM rate to be?
Alban Brooke:So the CPM, um, how much you pay for a thousand downloads is $20.
Alban Brooke:70% of that goes directly to the podcaster.
Alban Brooke:This is directly from the person placing the ad.
Alban Brooke:Uh, Buzzsprout runs the marketplace, and then 70% of
Alban Brooke:that goes right to the podcaster.
Evo Terra:Right, which is in line with what industry standards should
Evo Terra:be, but without all those middlemen.
Evo Terra:So let me ask you the second question, what is it about
Evo Terra:Buzzsprout Ads that is better than what the competition is offering?
Alban Brooke:Well, let's split it into the two different pieces.
Alban Brooke:So, the monetization side for people who actually host shows on
Alban Brooke:Buzzsprout and now want to monetize their podcasts with Buzzsprout
Alban Brooke:Ads, it's completely transparent.
Alban Brooke:You see how much we are charging the advertisers, and you're also
Alban Brooke:seeing how much comes to you.
Alban Brooke:And then we make those payments quickly and get you your money.
Alban Brooke:We're going to be able to identify all of those mid-roll spots for you
Alban Brooke:so that you can monetize your back catalog without any additional work.
Alban Brooke:We're going to make sure that your ads are brand safe because it's not appropriate
Alban Brooke:for a children's podcast to have, you know, alcohol ads in them or something.
Evo Terra:Sure, or even a true crime podcast probably shouldn't
Evo Terra:be run on a kid's show, right?
Alban Brooke:Right.
Alban Brooke:And we're doing just smart things like we're normalizing all the audio so
Alban Brooke:that you're not stuck in one of these weird spots where you have your content
Alban Brooke:and then the ad is like 3x the volume.
Evo Terra:Right.
Alban Brooke:We're going to make sure that everything is normalized
Alban Brooke:and it sounds really good.
Evo Terra:Okay.
Alban Brooke:So we're trying to do a lot to improve the experience for people
Alban Brooke:who are monetizing podcasts and solving each of those problems individually.
Alban Brooke:Then, when we go over onto the promos side, uh, the main thing that we're
Alban Brooke:doing there is we're making it very easy for people who want to experiment
Alban Brooke:with podcast promotions to do so.
Alban Brooke:All you need to do is pull up your podcast, create a forty-second promo,
Alban Brooke:and then you're able to start running podcast promotions right away.
Alban Brooke:This isn't going to be just with an individual podcaster, often when
Alban Brooke:people place really large orders, um, they're probably working with
Alban Brooke:hundreds of different podcasts.
Alban Brooke:So you're getting a really good opportunity to experiment with are podcast
Alban Brooke:promotions going to work for my show?
Alban Brooke:And then when you find an ad that does work for you, well, now you can double it,
Alban Brooke:triple down on it to significantly grow your show without a ton of added effort.
Evo Terra:What's the minimum buy for someone who wants to run
Evo Terra:promo ads to grow their show?
Alban Brooke:Minimum buy, um, when we're launching is $100 and you will
Alban Brooke:get 5,000 plays of your podcast promo.
Alban Brooke:And this is a level where we feel comfortable a lot of people are going
Alban Brooke:to hear about your podcast, a lot of those listeners are interested in
Alban Brooke:podcasting, obviously, and probably interested in a show like yours.
Alban Brooke:So you can start seeing, uh, does this ad work?
Alban Brooke:Do I maybe need to change the copy or change the language?
Alban Brooke:You, then, you're able to actually start running experiments to find something
Alban Brooke:that's going to help you grow your show over the long-term with sustained success.
Evo Terra:So what's on the roadmap?
Evo Terra:What's next with Buzzsprout Ads that people might be looking forward to...
Evo Terra:eventually?
Evo Terra:Where you wanna go next?
Alban Brooke:Well, the next step is telling everybody about what we've built.
Alban Brooke:We've been working on this for the last, um, almost, I think, eight months of
Alban Brooke:going through the ideas and getting this out to the world, really working on some
Alban Brooke:of these features like that automatic identification of mid-roll spots.
Alban Brooke:And I'm sure there are tons of other improvements, but the way that Buzzsprout
Alban Brooke:has always worked is that we don't plan anything more than six weeks in advance.
Alban Brooke:And so I don't have a, uh, an actual next step that we've planned.
Alban Brooke:But, um, we're always open to feedback, especially from Buzzsprout podcasters
Alban Brooke:and would love to hear what everybody thinks and, uh, ways that we can improve.
Evo Terra:Well, I'm going to wrestle up a hundred bucks and write a promo
Evo Terra:and start running it, uh, hopefully, uh, this weekend and see if I can grow
Evo Terra:even my show, Podcast Pontifications.
Alban Brooke:Awesome.
Alban Brooke:Well, we would love to do that.
Alban Brooke:Um, and, uh, yeah, I would love to hear your experience once you've done that.
Evo Terra:Great.
Evo Terra:Alban Brooke, thank you very much for being on the show today.
Alban Brooke:Evo, thank you so much for having me.
Alban Brooke:I appreciate it.
Evo Terra:Special thanks to my friend Alban for coming on to talk about
Evo Terra:Buzzsprout Ads and for being the Branded Benefit Sponsor of this week's episode.
Evo Terra:And I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to put $100 of my own
Evo Terra:money where my proverbial mouth is.
Evo Terra:I literally just did it.
Evo Terra:I wrote an ad.
Evo Terra:I produced the audio.
Evo Terra:And then I spent maybe ten minutes uploading it to Buzzsprout?
Evo Terra:It was really, really simple.
Evo Terra:And pretty soon, 5,000 sweet, sweet impressions will all be mine.
Evo Terra:I'll post about the progress on my Twitter account, @EvoTerra,
Evo Terra:if you want to follow along.
Evo Terra:And if you want to, go to buzzsprout.com/ads and give
Evo Terra:it a shot on your own podcast.
Evo Terra:Let me know how it goes.
Evo Terra:With that, I shall be back next week with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
Evo Terra:Cheers!
Evo Terra:Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
Evo Terra: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
Evo Terra:transcript, both created by Allie Press.
Evo Terra:Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
