CEO Reveals: Why Host-Read Podcast Ads Outperform Traditional Radio for E-commerce

🎤 Nedko, please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us how you came up with the idea to start a podcast advertising platform.

I’m a marketer with more than 15 years of experience. I’ve been involved in SEO, paid ads, email marketing, B2B & startup marketing. During Covid I was listening to many podcasts, and I found out there was no leader like Google in podcast advertising, so I reworked my previous startup Brandvertisor (a website advertising marketplace) into Podvertise.fm (a podcast advertising marketplace) with my co-founder Konstantin Peychev, our CTO.

🎤 When we talked earlier, you claimed that host-read ads are the most converting for e-commerce brands. What’s the foundation for this, and what numbers prove it?

The podcast medium is very personal, and when someone listens to a podcaster week after week, when the podcaster suggests some product or service with his or her own voice, the listeners really believe the podcaster are more willing to test it out than traditional radio ad formats.

🎤 You also mentioned to me a revolutionary technology where AI reads transcripts and targets ads to specific episodes. How exactly does this work?

Yeah, this AI technology is still under development by the best programmatic platforms like AdsWizz, etc. Transcriptions are now available for every episode, where different platforms use AI to gather different information like current episode guests, sponsors, products/services, etc. In the same way, AI gathers the context in the episode, and that will allow programmatic targeting to precisely match advertisers’ context on an episode level and even place pre-recorded ads directly after product/service mentions.

🎤 In which product categories do you see the best results? Why are you focusing specifically on health and entertainment?

Most of our advertisers come from D2C/DTC brands in health, alternative medicine, entertainment, media, finance, and B2C startups. I believe the podcast medium is evolving from a great alternative source of brand awareness to a necessary channel to advertise on and, if possible, to build CEO authority through podcast guest interviews.

🎤 Podcasters are moving to YouTube. How should e-commerce brands leverage this in their strategies?

That’s true – most podcasters are now building video formats of their podcasts for YouTube, as it gives extra great viewership on top of the regular audio channels like Apple, Spotify, and other listening apps. YouTube has targeted advertising per channel, so you can target the most relevant podcasts to your niche and advertise there directly with video creatives.

🎤 For a brand that wants to start with podcast advertising – what budget do they need, and where do they begin?

Great question. Any brand can start with a small or significant budget. The difference is if you start with a small budget, you will need to put in more effort to find and target smaller podcasters, which can bring the same value as huge podcasts, so you can start even with a few thousand euros and still gain excellent brand awareness and even performance results.

🎤 What metrics truly show whether a podcast campaign is working? What should they focus on?

As with every advertising channel, you should apply your goals. Whether you want brand awareness, direct sales, or promotional and discount campaigns, you can track performance with custom coupon codes per podcast and know the ROAS/ROI. You can also run a social media campaign targeting virality, which you can track by social likes and shares. There are side effects which are hard to track but can bring significant SEO/AEO effects, like brand searches in Google, engagement in Reddit, etc.

🎤 Where do you think podcast advertising is heading in the coming years? What will be the next big thing?

Podcast advertising is becoming a must-have for every in-house CMO and marketing agency to have in the mix. The podcast medium has proven itself to have some of the most valuable conversations and strong connections with its audiences, so the advertising formats will only improve with precise targeting and more creative conversion format optimisations. Podcast guest interviews are also a must for any CEO nowadays to build authority in their industry.

Thanks for the chat, Nedko! What really stands out is how the podcast medium creates that personal connection – when people listen to the same host week after week, they genuinely trust their recommendations. And the fact that you can start testing this with just a few thousand euros makes it accessible even for smaller e-commerce brands.