Podcast advertising agency: Pros, cons, and an alternative

Hiring a podcast advertising agency may help your business but it also has drawbacks. Find out the details and a better alternative.
Podcast advertising agency: woman wearing headphones and using her phone

Crisp audio, an engaging storyline, and a concise message. 

Those are the three necessary components of a successful podcast ad. 

Much like a chef preparing his award-winning dessert, you need to make sure that each of those elements is included. If not, the end result won’t deliver.

Podcast ads are part science and part art form. Sometimes, it’s best to leave the creation of them to those who have done it before. That’s why so many marketers use a podcast advertising agency to get the job done. But is it worth it?

In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about podcast advertising agencies and if you need to work with one to create a compelling campaign.

The role of a podcast advertising agency

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So many agencies, so little time.

What exactly is a podcast advertising agency? How does it differ from your marketing or branding agency? Well, podcast advertising agencies can fulfill a variety of functions for your business in regard to your audio advertising efforts. These include:

  • Storyboarding: Planning your ad, frame by frame
  • Writing: Drafting the script for your ad
  • Recording: Providing voiceover talent to record and film your ad
  • Editing: Cutting your ad, adding sound effects, digital audio, and more
  • Finalizing: Ensuring audio levels are balanced and appealing to podcast listeners
  • Strategy: Helping you decide if you want the ad to run as a pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ad
  • Targeting: Selecting the best podcast, genres, demographic, geographic, and interest-based data points for your audience
  • Optimizing: Making sure that the ad continues to run as planned with no hiccups
  • Reporting: Sharing the results with you and your company on a routine basis

Most podcast advertising agencies act as an extension of your marketing team. In other words, you can tap into their resources and team to help bring your vision for your podcast advertisement to life. They can help you reach the 116 million monthly podcast listeners.

The best part: The podcast advertising agency likely has created many different podcast advertisements for other clients, so it will have an understanding of what will work well with your target audience. You can leverage their expertise in the industry to drive your success!

Whether you enlist an agency to help with the creation of your podcast or just to assist in securing the placement of your ad in various podcast networks, there are certain times when an agency might be necessary. But do you need one for your business?

Pros and cons of a podcast advertising agency

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No matter how you slice it, working with an agency can be an investment. 

It’s a decision that every marketer and business owner shouldn’t take lightly. You won’t want to bring one on board and forge a partnership if you don’t really need it to drive your business forward. That’s why weighing your options is so critical before you sign on the dotted line.

Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of working with a podcast advertising agency for your future campaigns.

Podcast advertising agency pros

Sometimes, it can be necessary to turn to a podcast advertising agency for help. And let’s face it: There are some definite benefits of using one.

First, podcast advertising agencies have expertise. They’ve been around the block before and likely have a formula for creating an impactful ad. They can coach you, and shepherd you to getting to a final product that exemplifies your business well. Not only do they have the resources to create an amazing ad. They know how to do it right

Secondly, podcast advertising agencies are efficient. While the agency creates your advertisement from scratch, you and your team can focus on the millions of other issues in your business. The agency will have a timeline in place to ensure that they don’t miss a bit and keep production rolling on your ad. 

Finally, podcast advertising agencies are resourceful. It’s unlikely that marketers will possess all the different skills — writing, editing, producing, recording, targeting, measuring — needed to launch a successful podcast advertising campaign. Instead, that’s why it could make sense to partner with an agency. Plus, full-service podcast agencies might have access to a specific podcast host that they’ve worked with before on a host-read ad or bundled ad insertion rates from placing so many audio ads for clients.

However, even with all of these pros, there are still many cons to working with a podcast advertising agency.

Podcast advertising agency cons

It’s not all roses and butterflies when it comes to working with a podcast advertising agency. Let’s take a look at some of the cons potentially associated with the arrangement.

First, podcast advertising agencies can be expensive. Some agencies have media buying minimums, and others require you to work on a retainer basis. Compared to cutting the advertisement in-house, agencies will often rack up a higher bill. 

Secondly, podcast advertising agencies might not capture your vision. They don’t necessarily know your product or company’s vision. As much as you may try to share it, sometimes it just doesn’t shine through on the creative briefs. If your team has the skill and the time, often it can be worthwhile for someone in-house to lead the charge on the creation of these dynamic ads that bring your brand awareness and brand message to life.

Finally, the agency might not be as skilled as you think they are. Despite having glowing case studies or success stories on their site, no two podcast advertising campaigns are the same. Controlling your own media spend and optimizing your own ad budget puts you in the driver’s seat of your campaign, giving you full responsibility for your success or failure.

There is, however, an alternative to podcast advertising agencies, and that’s where Decibel comes in.

Why you should create your podcast ad with Decibel

Podcast advertising agency: woman working and using her laptop

Decibel enables business owners and marketers to launch their next podcast ad campaign and get their brand in front of engaged audiences in just a few clicks.

Decibel’s technology enables you to take advantage of many of the services that a podcast advertising agency may offer at a fraction of the price. 

With Decibel, you can input the exact targeting parameters you want to use on your direct response podcast ad campaign and even use a campaign planning tool to project your budget and anticipated results. Decibel works across all radio and podcast networks, enabling your ad to be shown across a wide array of popular podcasts and radio shows.

Need help creating your ad? No problem. Decibel offers script templates and AI voice-driven ads to read your finalized treatment. From start to finish, Decibel is there with you every step of the way.

Launching your next podcast ad campaign

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Working with a podcast advertising agency is a big decision for businesses of all sizes. Full-service podcast advertising agencies can help with any aspect of your podcast ad campaign production or execution.

Some benefits of working with a podcast advertising agency include leaning on their expertise, efficiency, and resources. However, some agencies can get expensive, misinterpret your vision, and even botch the campaign altogether.

With Decibel, an audio advertising platform, you can create your ad campaign in minutes. Take a look at these 30-second radio ad script examples to inspire your own to help you get started creating your campaign.

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