Now or never, it’s the prime time to embrace the audio boom as audio transforms into one of the most powerful advertising mediums. According to this Edison research paper, is an estimated number of 180 million digital audio consumers in America today.
This offers a myriad of branding opportunities for penetrating new market segments as far as the ear can listen. This is why marketing has never been more relevant to audio ads, you need to stand out.
If you are planning to go down that path, you are probably knee-deep in audio ads research and wondering where to begin.
If you prefer to watch a video instead, click here:
This post has been updated in August 2021.
Just like all marketing campaigns, the key to successful execution is strategic planning. Assembling key considerations such as the ones below will help you to manage the entire project objectively and effectively:
– What is your time frame?
– What resources can you allocate to the project?
– Would the ad be a long-term campaign or a one-time air?
– How would you advertise your product?
– What markets are you targeting and through which channels and formats? – Do you intend to develop the ad in-house?
Like a guiding beacon, this comprehensive article will equip you with what you should know about how to effectively marketing your audio ads.
Step 1: Knowing Your Constraints
Let’s first start with the basics. How much are you willing to invest? Setting quantifiable constraints can help you to make decisions on how to best achieve your goal.
Your Time Frame
How much time can you allocate to creating your audio ad? This timeframe transcends to itemized deadlines and can help you to prioritize on-hand tasks.
Integrating your audio ad with the rest of your marketing plan might be another reason for setting a hard and fast deadline. You might want to time it perfectly to execute together with a product launch or the start of a new promotion. True to the word, time is money. Time estimates are crucial in any project as it can affect the scope and the cost of your audio ad.
Your Set Budget
Allocating resources will help you to establish the realistic parameters of what you can achieve. Setting aside a budget helps to prevent incurring unnecessary costs. It can also help you to decide which platforms to invest in. For example, Spotify requires a minimum budget of $250 for individual ads, while Pandora runs basic campaigns starting at $1,500 a month.
Your budget will also help you to determine if you have the luxury to invest in a long-term campaign instead of a one-time radio ad. Lastly, understanding your resource bandwidth can support the possibility of outsourcing overwhelming work.
Your Brand
If you have established brand guidelines, now would be the time to whip them out. When developing content for your ad, make sure your brand voice stays strong and consistent with the rest of your marketing content. This builds credibility and consumer trust.
Step 2: Harnessing Your Product
Did you know that the average human now has a shorter attention span than a goldfish? Most people think that product knowledge is being able to spit out facts and figures. The truth is, knowing your product means understanding how its benefits can compellingly resonate with the needs of your audience. It will help you portray your product in the best light that can set you apart from your competitors.
As a true marketing guru, it’s time to think: what makes your audio ad stand out?
Your Product Strengths
Understanding your product’s best features means being able to sell them persuasively and accurately. In the world of audio advertising, time is of the essence, and you need to prioritize content that quickly sinks hooks into your listener. To do so, be concise and keep sentences short.
Your Product Weaknesses
Identifying your product’s weaknesses positions you in the marketplace. Knowing where your product might be inferior, you can avoid mentioning those aspects and steer the conversation more towards your strengths. As every marketer knows, the first step towards improvement is knowing where you need to improve.
Your Product Benefits
Here’s where you translate your product’s strengths into your advantage. Express how your product can make your consumer’s life better. Talk about problems it can solve. The best creative ideas always stem from the benefits you sell and how it fills the gap in peoples’ lives.
Your Differentiation
Set yourself apart from your competitors by identifying your unique selling features. For example, if you are the only one in the market providing free delivery services, highlighting that in the ad would be crucial. Be entertaining and engaging! Build a bold dream of grandeur and make yourself memorable by injecting unique and quirky expressions.
Your Offer
Keep in mind your ad’s objective. Whether it is to increase brand awareness or selling your product at a promotional price, the content of your ad should steer the audience to achieve your goal. Once you have piqued the interest of your audience give them explicit call-to-action instruction. For example, direct them to visit your online store, and make sure your URL is catchy enough to remember.
Step 3: Positioning Yourself
You need to reach your potential consumers. Selling blindly without segmentation translates to ineffective ROIs. Knowing your position in the marketplace helps you to determine how you can best communicate with your target consumers despite competitive pressures through carefully crafted key messages.
Your Audience
Market segmentation means knowing your target audience’s demographics and identifying with their wants, needs, and struggles. Creating a persona helps you craft a tailored message that resonates with your potential consumer’s mindset, selling them an ideal solution that can end all their struggles.
Your Competition
Recognize where you stand in comparison with your competitors. This means understanding their products, the promotions they offer, the recurrence with which they advertise, and the key factors showcased on their product. Only by knowing your competitors can you gain a creative edge with your unique perspective instead of butting with them heads on.
Step 4: Deciding on Distribution
Now that you’ve done the groundwork research, its time to consider aspects of the execution. Such include making decisions on where you should place your audio ad and what formats you should adopt.
Often referred to as “Placement” in the Marketing Mix by McCarthy, this aspect can make or break your marketing audio ad campaign.
Your Ad Time
Some say that less might be more. Choosing between 30 seconds and a 1-minute-long ad can be quite a dilemma. However, a study done to compare the effectiveness based on the recall rate of both durations showed that in general, the proven recall of a 1-minute commercial is significantly higher than a 30-second ad. Although, with a 30-second ad, you can accommodate more frequency with your budget as they are cheaper to produce and cost less to air.
Your Ad Format
Determine what your objective is and how you would like for your audience to react. Jingles, announcer-read, situational or live ads, the benefit of your product can help you decide the most suitable format. For example, if you are running a limited-time promotion, choosing to go with a live ad can engage a sense of urgency in your listeners to attain your product.
In comparison, if you are only looking to promote brand awareness, a situational format that includes a conversational skit would be great in outlining your product’s benefits. In all cases, be creative to avoid clichés in your script!
<For a detailed comparison between Radio Ads and Audio Ads, go here>
Your Platform
Here’s where knowing your targeted audience comes into play. Unlike traditional radio ads, audio ads are a fantastic tool as they can be targeted at specific demographics. You can then craft your script to be unique to the listeners you want to reach and speak directly to them.
Dominating the audio scape are Spotify with a monthly report of 191 million active users, and Pandora with approximately 69 million. They reign supreme in the advertising industry with their capabilities to provide targeted and segmented marketing.
Undecided? Here’s where they differentiate. Spotify offers only 30-second slots and is unable to target listeners based on interests and zip code, whereas Pandora provides a 10, 15 or 30-second slot that can segment in both.
If you are looking to cast a wider net, radio ads might be the way to go. They allow you to target locations where the audience listens in to a specific channel and allows for more interaction with the possibility of live ads.
Step 5: Let’s Produce!
If you are reading this now, the chances are that you either are an entrepreneur or a marketer. And, this means having a lot on your plate. Not everyone is born with flair, interest, or capabilities to create an audio ad. If you aren’t, fret not.
In-House or Outsource?
Statistics show that half of the marketers believe that programmatic advertising is effective, and 43% outsource the scope to someone else. Truth is, audio ads can come across bothersome if not done right.
are unsure about your capabilities, it’s best not to skimp, or you might end up building a negative connotation around your brand.
Full Stack Outsourcing or Partial Outsourcing?
With so many components in producing an audio ad, you have first to determine the in-house skillset, bandwidth, and time you possess before deciding what you should outsource. For example, you might be able to write a killer script but lack the expertise for everything else.
So you decide to hire a freelance talent artist for recording and an editor to stitch them all together. It would be a great option if you are looking only to outsource a few components. Bear in mind, however, that although it might be a cost-effective option, coordination and management of too many freelancers might become tiresome and confusing. It could also end up compromising the overall quality of your audio ad.
If you lack a big chunk of expertise to produce an audio ad, full-stack outsourcing might be the best option. This means hiring a creative producer to take care of the entire project from start to finish. Although this gives you peace of mind and ensures a high-quality audio ad, it might be costlier to produce.
Your Partners
So you’ve decided to take the zen path to outsource. How can you ensure that you get the best out of what you pay? Trust is valuable but rare to come by. Here are some factors to help you decide:
Their Reputation
Find out if your vendor has a track record of happy clients with an abundant supply of positive testimonials and high ranking reviews. Do they have reputable clients on their list? Do some research or start a conversation in a forum to find out more about their quality and work ethic.
Their Quality
Request for a portfolio that showcases the best work they have done and match their audio quality to your expectations. You will be able to get a feel by now on how responsive or detail-oriented they can be from your communication.
Their Voice Talents
Do you have a specific voice or accent that you need for your ad? Can your vendor provide what you are looking for? Voice talents know how to make use of pauses effectively to create an impact and should be accurate in enunciation.
Their Cost
Work with a vendor who is transparent about their capabilities and price. An upfront quote for your project should include the time frame and scope of work. Signing a detailed contract would cover both parties and ensure the work’s delivery to meet your set deadline.
Step 6: You’re Good to Go!
If you have completed these steps, you know everything you need to produce and to market your audio ad. Especially since you’ve gone through this audio ad creation process with a marketer’s mindset, meaning that your audio ad will likely be an effective one.
So the question is: How can you translate all of this into an awesome script? Well, no worries, the answer is in another post, click here to go there.
Now go forth and conquer the audio realm! Bunny Studio is the place to start.
