⌚ Timecodes: 00:00 Introduction 00:27 Our first attempt at sponsoring podcasts 01:54 Lesson #1 - direct lead acquisition 03:00 Lesson #2 - the downloads metric 04:09 Lesson #3 - Downloads per month / per episode 04:51 Lesson #4 - iTunes reviews 05:23 Lesson #5 - Average rates 06:10 Lesson #6 - Campaign reports 06:41 Lesson #7 - Sponsorship packages 07:47 Lesson #8 - Helping the host to understand your product 09:42 Lesson #9 - Organize your data 10:25 Lesson #10 - A hack to win more air time
Hey Tim. Appreciate you making this video. Question: why sponsor the pods vs. trying to get on as a guest? Surely the latter gives you the same (or greater) exposure, but for free?
Amazing question, Oliver :) But it's not like one excludes the other. We did both: I was a guest on dozens of marketing-related podcasts, and we also sponsored many of them. The difference is in how people consume podcasts. A lot of people will only listen to the interviews with people who are interesting to them. So if you're not known enough, your episode will get less downloads compared to an interview with some superstar. So by using ads, you reach more of the podcast's audience compared to doing an interview. And besides, some podcasts simply don't do interviews.
For the record, reviews are not a good metric to measure popularity. Many reviews are done via "review swaps" where podcasters write great reviews like "Great show - love the host" or "Love the show - good topics" and it just so happens that they got 10 of these on the same day. Also reviews do not help you be found in apple. They are social proof, but that is after you get found in search.
well.. I'm sure marketers understand that pretty much any metric can be inflated/gamed. :) I only mentioned reviews because it's an extra piece of information that is useful to know when comparing dozens of podcasts in the same niche
Hey Tim, Very useful information. As we are looking out for more marketing channels to market our SaaS, we haven’t actually even considered doing podcast sponsorship before. This is now something we will strongly consider. Thanks for insight! #TIM30
You primarily use podcast sponsorships for brand advertising, but then still measure leads generated. Are you doing any more nurturing in your funnel to convert listeners or are you just counting on them to eventually find their way back to your site at some point post-podcast? Thanks #tim30.
hey Alex. We don't measure the leads. We just KNOW we get the leads from it, based on the "sign-up survey." And no, we don't do any lead nurturing. We put out plenty of educational content, so if a person is interested in SEO, they will eventually consume enough of our educational materials and become a paying customer.
As usual great content! Which type/industry of podcast do you focus on sponsoring? Is it limited to SAAS related podcast? Or are you thinking about broadening scope to other industries? E.g. podcast from SME to other SME as they might also be interesting in SEO while not having a dedicated marketing team. Lots of love from Germany! #tim30
hey man! For the time being we try to be hyper focused on digital marketing podcasts, and specifically on those that talk about SEO now and then. And you don't need a hashtag to hop on a call with me ;)
Thanks for the epizode. Any tips on how you find these podcasts you want to sponsor? How do you even research them? Still thinking - are you using an agency, virtual assistant, or everything is done in-house? I am still figuring out which is the right team to work on podcast ads? PPC guy or just project manager. Any tips welcome ;) #team30
Finding podcasts in your niche is actually a one-time thing. You do a research once and you end up with a big list of podcasts. So it's up to you if you want to do it yourself, delegate to someone in-house or hire a VA. In our case - we had an in-house employee to the research, and we'll update our list once a year.
Hey Tim, thanks for being transparent about your failures as much as your successes. Clearly looks like there is an opportunity for Podcast analytics tool that does all of this and gives you that ROI insights. Would you be willing to do a similar video talking about your experience promoting through affiliate marketing, managing affiliates, adding more affiliates, vetting affiliates, etc.? #TIM30
Very interesting. Been reading a lot about podcast ads and how to measure ROI and I think I’m very aligned with your strategy - it does bring new customers and lifts brand awareness which reminds me of the quote from Gary Vaynerchuk: “what’s the ROI” of your mama” :) Thinking of starting my own podcast - would be happy to learn more tips and tricks. #TIM30. 👋🏻 🇨🇦
Thanks for the episode. You mentioned that discounts and promos are no longer a part of your marketing strategy, why did you decide to make that change? (We recently made the same decision for our SaaS.) #Tim30
Hey Tim, I'm loving these videos. I run a SaaS link building tool and I've learned a lot from your videos. Ive always been so focused on direct response and immediate conversions that I totally ignored the value of brand awareness. But wouldn't your budget be better spent on direct response marketing channels that have both high conversions and brand awareness? (ie Facebook Ads, RUclips ads, etc) Also, have you guys had any success increasing sales by giving away Ahrefs to industry bloggers / influencers to try out for free? Would love to learn more about how you guys did this if it's something you had success with. #tim30
A great question, Jeff. While I am personally only dipping toes in the water on podcast sponsorships for clients (given how difficult they are for directly measuring results), figuring out where marketing dollars should go is always a good question. For social ads, they are certainly more measurable, and will almost always have higher conversions. But as with any marketing strategy, limit you to that platform, and its ecosystem of followers. Not everyone is on Facebook, or likes the groups or pages that would be most relevant to your brand, but they MAY be listening to podcasts. Adding a new channel may be reaching people you would not otherwise reach (and their own ecosystem as a result), thereby performing well as a top of funnel awareness play, it's a viable option. My tl;dr would be ... if you have a hard budget, and can max it out on direct response ads at conversion rates and CPAs that are attractive, then great, that makes sense. At some point, however, to grow at a faster rate, you have to expand into higher CPA activities. To your second question about giving away access to relevant bloggers and influencers, he touched on that a bit in the video, but the nature of Ahrefs would be a no brainer to give away. It would generate more natural and honest ad spots if the speaker had actually used it.
Yeah, in the first few years of Ahrefs they were giving out a lot of free copies to bloggers and influencers. This is a great way to get early traction. But as of today, we don't do this anymore since most bloggers and influencers are using Ahrefs anyway :) As for direct response - we don't do any of it :) "Direct response" means you're going for an immediate conversion, while we focus on long-term. So on Facebook we advertise our blog articles, that educate people about our product, but don't push for an immediate sale.
I love how you advise such enormous budgets, that are nothing close to anything 95% of thins vlog watchers can spend. Tim Soulo is Jay Gatsby among digital-marketers But don't get me wrong. I enjoy watching your vlog. Maybe one day you choose my comment for #tim30, we'll have a call and I got advice from you on how to grow my business to be able to spend $194,437 for Sponsoring Podcasts.
That big sum is only there to show that our takeaways are based on a large number of podcasts that we have sponsored :) And it took me five years as CMO at Ahrefs to get to these kinds of budgets. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
⌚ Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
00:27 Our first attempt at sponsoring podcasts
01:54 Lesson #1 - direct lead acquisition
03:00 Lesson #2 - the downloads metric
04:09 Lesson #3 - Downloads per month / per episode
04:51 Lesson #4 - iTunes reviews
05:23 Lesson #5 - Average rates
06:10 Lesson #6 - Campaign reports
06:41 Lesson #7 - Sponsorship packages
07:47 Lesson #8 - Helping the host to understand your product
09:42 Lesson #9 - Organize your data
10:25 Lesson #10 - A hack to win more air time
Thanks for the mention here team... an absolute masterclass for any SaaS looking at the podcasting space to advertise :)
Thanks, Tom! :)
Great look at what can be done with podcast campaigns!
Thanks, John! :)
What a highly useful video. 13 minutes packed with insights. Thank you.
thanks, Damien :)
Great episode Tim, appreciate the insights.
thanks, Sam! :)
Hey Tim. Appreciate you making this video. Question: why sponsor the pods vs. trying to get on as a guest? Surely the latter gives you the same (or greater) exposure, but for free?
Amazing question, Oliver :) But it's not like one excludes the other. We did both: I was a guest on dozens of marketing-related podcasts, and we also sponsored many of them. The difference is in how people consume podcasts. A lot of people will only listen to the interviews with people who are interesting to them. So if you're not known enough, your episode will get less downloads compared to an interview with some superstar. So by using ads, you reach more of the podcast's audience compared to doing an interview. And besides, some podcasts simply don't do interviews.
Epic info - thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Tim, great video (as always). What software do you use to edit videos? :) #tim30
I have no idea :) we have a video editor who does all those cool animations :)
For the record, reviews are not a good metric to measure popularity. Many reviews are done via "review swaps" where podcasters write great reviews like "Great show - love the host" or "Love the show - good topics" and it just so happens that they got 10 of these on the same day. Also reviews do not help you be found in apple. They are social proof, but that is after you get found in search.
well.. I'm sure marketers understand that pretty much any metric can be inflated/gamed. :) I only mentioned reviews because it's an extra piece of information that is useful to know when comparing dozens of podcasts in the same niche
Hey Tim,
Very useful information. As we are looking out for more marketing channels to market our SaaS, we haven’t actually even considered doing podcast sponsorship before. This is now something we will strongly consider. Thanks for insight! #TIM30
good luck with this marketing channel, Bogdan! :)
You primarily use podcast sponsorships for brand advertising, but then still measure leads generated. Are you doing any more nurturing in your funnel to convert listeners or are you just counting on them to eventually find their way back to your site at some point post-podcast? Thanks #tim30.
hey Alex. We don't measure the leads. We just KNOW we get the leads from it, based on the "sign-up survey." And no, we don't do any lead nurturing. We put out plenty of educational content, so if a person is interested in SEO, they will eventually consume enough of our educational materials and become a paying customer.
Thank you Tim for these deep insights. Definitely helps to kickstart a podcast marketing strategy. I'd love to speak to you. #TIM30
you're very welcome! :)
As usual great content! Which type/industry of podcast do you focus on sponsoring? Is it limited to SAAS related podcast? Or are you thinking about broadening scope to other industries? E.g. podcast from SME to other SME as they might also be interesting in SEO while not having a dedicated marketing team. Lots of love from Germany! #tim30
hey man! For the time being we try to be hyper focused on digital marketing podcasts, and specifically on those that talk about SEO now and then. And you don't need a hashtag to hop on a call with me ;)
Didn’t want to brag publicly that I have your private number 😬
Thanks for the epizode. Any tips on how you find these podcasts you want to sponsor? How do you even research them?
Still thinking - are you using an agency, virtual assistant, or everything is done in-house?
I am still figuring out which is the right team to work on podcast ads? PPC guy or just project manager. Any tips welcome ;)
#team30
Finding podcasts in your niche is actually a one-time thing. You do a research once and you end up with a big list of podcasts. So it's up to you if you want to do it yourself, delegate to someone in-house or hire a VA. In our case - we had an in-house employee to the research, and we'll update our list once a year.
Hey Tim, thanks for being transparent about your failures as much as your successes. Clearly looks like there is an opportunity for Podcast analytics tool that does all of this and gives you that ROI insights.
Would you be willing to do a similar video talking about your experience promoting through affiliate marketing, managing affiliates, adding more affiliates, vetting affiliates, etc.? #TIM30
yeah.. we actually closed our affiliate program :) So I could do an episode about our experience with it.
Very interesting. Been reading a lot about podcast ads and how to measure ROI and I think I’m very aligned with your strategy - it does bring new customers and lifts brand awareness which reminds me of the quote from Gary Vaynerchuk: “what’s the ROI” of your mama” :)
Thinking of starting my own podcast - would be happy to learn more tips and tricks. #TIM30. 👋🏻 🇨🇦
yeah, in many cases ROI is too hard to measure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for the episode.
You mentioned that discounts and promos are no longer a part of your marketing strategy, why did you decide to make that change?
(We recently made the same decision for our SaaS.) #Tim30
Hey Alban. Well, the logic is simple. If you do discounts once in a while, then people will learn that and will rarely buy at full price :)
Great video. Very interesting to hear how much you guys paid per download and what results you got. Thanks. #team30
But that was answered in the video, no? The average price was 5-30 cents per download.
Yes, my fault. I was trying to say the data in the video was very helpful
Hey Tim, I'm loving these videos. I run a SaaS link building tool and I've learned a lot from your videos.
Ive always been so focused on direct response and immediate conversions that I totally ignored the value of brand awareness. But wouldn't your budget be better spent on direct response marketing channels that have both high conversions and brand awareness? (ie Facebook Ads, RUclips ads, etc)
Also, have you guys had any success increasing sales by giving away Ahrefs to industry bloggers / influencers to try out for free? Would love to learn more about how you guys did this if it's something you had success with.
#tim30
A great question, Jeff. While I am personally only dipping toes in the water on podcast sponsorships for clients (given how difficult they are for directly measuring results), figuring out where marketing dollars should go is always a good question. For social ads, they are certainly more measurable, and will almost always have higher conversions. But as with any marketing strategy, limit you to that platform, and its ecosystem of followers.
Not everyone is on Facebook, or likes the groups or pages that would be most relevant to your brand, but they MAY be listening to podcasts. Adding a new channel may be reaching people you would not otherwise reach (and their own ecosystem as a result), thereby performing well as a top of funnel awareness play, it's a viable option.
My tl;dr would be ... if you have a hard budget, and can max it out on direct response ads at conversion rates and CPAs that are attractive, then great, that makes sense. At some point, however, to grow at a faster rate, you have to expand into higher CPA activities.
To your second question about giving away access to relevant bloggers and influencers, he touched on that a bit in the video, but the nature of Ahrefs would be a no brainer to give away. It would generate more natural and honest ad spots if the speaker had actually used it.
Yeah, in the first few years of Ahrefs they were giving out a lot of free copies to bloggers and influencers. This is a great way to get early traction. But as of today, we don't do this anymore since most bloggers and influencers are using Ahrefs anyway :)
As for direct response - we don't do any of it :) "Direct response" means you're going for an immediate conversion, while we focus on long-term. So on Facebook we advertise our blog articles, that educate people about our product, but don't push for an immediate sale.
Thanks for your input, Gordon! Very well said! :)
Cool shirt
thanks! :)
I love how you advise such enormous budgets, that are nothing close to anything 95% of thins vlog watchers can spend.
Tim Soulo is Jay Gatsby among digital-marketers
But don't get me wrong. I enjoy watching your vlog. Maybe one day you choose my comment for #tim30, we'll have a call and I got advice from you on how to grow my business to be able to spend $194,437 for Sponsoring Podcasts.
That big sum is only there to show that our takeaways are based on a large number of podcasts that we have sponsored :) And it took me five years as CMO at Ahrefs to get to these kinds of budgets. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#Tim30 Are you going to go RUclips sponsorship this year or will concentrate at podcasts only?
hey Igor :) Yeah, we're looking for opportunities on RUclips too, but there aren't as many vloggers with large audience as there are podcasts.
@@ahrefspodcast working on that )