Speaker 1: Buzzsprout makes podcasting simple, and now they've made monetizing your podcast simple, too. At Podcast Movement 2022, I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitypodcast.com with Alvin Brook from Buzzsprout. Alvin, tell me about Buzzsprout Ads.

Speaker 2: Buzzsprout Ads is our way to make monetization easy as possible for the independent creators. So how does it work then? Independent creators have a number of unique challenges to monetize their podcasts. Smaller download numbers, we were able to create a program that monetizes people's entire back catalog so that more podcasters can actually start earning meaningful amounts of money with their podcast.

Speaker 1: So is this something where I have to go and record all of these ads for all of my old podcasts? How are the old episodes getting ads in them?

Speaker 2: All right, so a few different features. One is actually going and doing the legwork, putting in insertion points or putting in ads. We have now an algorithm. We go back through all of your old episodes, and we find the best spots to put mid-roll advertisements. Another piece is monetize the back catalog. We can monetize the show that gets 1,000 downloads in 30 days. So most podcasters that are looking at monetization, this ends up being a good solution for them.

Speaker 1: So it's really easy. We can insert the ads where we want or let the system insert them for us. What kinds of payout rates might we be able to expect?

Speaker 2: One of the other things we kept running into where we kept seeing all these top-line numbers, ad buyers are buying ads at $20, $25 CPMs, but then when you start talking to podcasters, the reality is single digits. They're looking at eight, six, maybe even $2 per 1,000 downloads that they're getting. That almost just feels like an insult to some of the work that's being put into podcasting. So what we did was we've eliminated a lot of the middlemen in this scenario. So we sell the ads for $20, and then you make $14 of that. So six of it will go towards Buzzsprout being able to operate the marketplace. Okay.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and then that's pretty standard for the industry.

Speaker 2: One of the other benefits for indie podcasters, a lot were, for a long time, either selling their own ads, which is cost prohibitive or time prohibitive, actually going and finding advertisers, setting up a deal, and you may get a nice deal, but for you then to go and take that and put it in your podcast for maybe a couple hundred dollars is a lot of work. And then another piece is actually when you can move to the more dynamic inserting podcast ads, you end up facing a lot of personal brand risk, I would say. So there have been issues where maybe a sobriety podcast accidentally had a Wild Turkey ad dropped in. Nobody knows who on the ad tech side made that mistake, but I know the listeners. They naturally assume the podcaster themselves made the mistake, and this has happened lots of times. There were cruise ships that were advertising right next to talking about how dangerous a cruise ship was in a news segment, and it's not safe for the advertisers or the brand. So how is Buzzsprout fixing that? So every ad can be approved by the podcaster before it's ever inserted into your episodes. So you have a lot of opportunities that we present. We're finding these opportunities based on the demographics that your show is targeting and the actual categories that your show is in. And then we present them. You can hear the creative. You can see all of the description, learn more about the brand. And if you decide to use it, then it can be dropped into all of your podcast episodes.

Speaker 1: That's great. I like that because with so much of this programmatic advertising out there, you might have no idea who's been on your podcast or whether you like that company or that's nothing to do with even brand safety to that aspect. So I like this that keeps the podcaster in control and how easy you've made it. So now, how about, can I use this to grow my podcast?

Speaker 2: So for years, we've seen lots of podcasters use cross promotions as an effective growth strategy. The idea is you find a podcast that's similar to yours, and then you trade promos. There are a few issues with this, but one of them is maybe it's not a one-for-one trade. It's totally fair. It's probably much bigger than my show, or maybe it's just not the right fit or the right time for them. Well, now you can just go and buy podcast promos and have them dropped into other people's podcasts. So the way you would do this, it's just like an ad buyer. You go and run, make a nice promo about your podcast. You go to buzzsprout.com slash ads, and you have the opportunity to put your podcast ad out there and buy a bunch of ad impressions. And we'll find and match you with people who will run the promo in their shows.

Speaker 1: I love that. So whether you are trying to grow your podcast or grow your wallet, you have the opportunity here with Buzzsprout ads. Are you thinking of using that as a slogan?

Speaker 3: It's like an official new tagline. You want to grow your podcast or grow your wallet? Buzzsprout ads.

Speaker 1: So there you have it. To learn more about Buzzsprout ads and everything else that Buzzsprout offers, they have a fantastic and easy to use and podcasting 2.0 compliant podcast hosting, and they're really leading the way in many of these podcasting 2.0 features. To learn more, visit the links below this video or at theaudacitypodcast.com slash PM22. For Alvin Brooke from Buzzsprout, I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitypodcast.com. Thanks for watching. Transcribed by https://otter.ai