prizes4pennies

I decided to advertise my sale campaign on a podcast. Sales have been slow through AM and I wanted to see if this could work. I wanted to pick a podcast that I was familiar with, targeted the right general demographic, and one that had a loyal fanbase. When the podcaster is someone who isn't working for a big corp and relies on listener support, the loyalty of the listeners, and their willingness to support the podcast, are high.

The podcast I chose is a weekly show that averages about 60K listeners. The price was $500 for 1 "live read". My product sells for $9.99, but I offered a bonus where they could buy 3 for $8.99/ea and get free shipping.

Profit breakdown:

1-unit pack = $6.20 profit
3-unit pack = $11.50 profit

So to recoup my investment I would need to have 80 "1 unit" sales, or 40-something "3 unit" sales, or a mix of those two would get back my $500.

I sent the show 2 samples of my product so they could see it and hold it while they did the read. I gave them 5 bullet points to hit, and the rest they sort of riffed, which is what I wanted. I wanted it to sound natural. The host is very good at just talking in a non-rambling fashion.

So how did it go?

The spot ran for about 2:13, longer than the :60 that they had promised, which was good. The two hosts highlighted the points I had listed, and generally described the product fairly well. If I were to do this again, I would highlight the main selling points, which the host hit but didn't focus on. Some of the lesser selling points were highlighted instead. He also missed one of the selling points, 'Made in USA'. He read my URL twice, the first time he fucked it up and left off the ending, although when he read it at the end he corrected it (plus my banner was placed on the podcast's website, so this probably wasn't too big of a problem). Even though I wanted the riffing and talking off-the-cuff, I feel like they didn't highlight the right points to the extent that they should've. Perhaps that was my fault, I probably should've made it clearer which points were the most important.

Sales:
The podcast "aired" on Saturday the 14th. Sales starting coming in immediately on Saturday morning. The 3-unit special offer was the more popular of the two packages. However, at the end of the first day, I had only sold 5 3-unit packages and 2 1-unit packages, below my expectations. The second day only got me 10 units in total, and throughout the week sales dribbled at the rate of 1-3/day. Right now I'm sitting at 52 total units sold, 16 3-unit packs and 6 1-unit packs. I would guess that a few more sales might come in, but I would be surprised if my total units sold reaches 60.

16 3-unit packs: $198 profit
6 1-unit pack: $37.20 profit
Net loss: $264.80

Data:
On the plus side, I do have a few emails from confirmed buyers, plus a bunch of people who entered their email but didn't complete the purchase that I can retarget. In terms of total hits on the site, I only had about 300 for the week.

So, I came out with a loss. Considering the large listener base, I figured I could've come up with the sales I needed to at least break even, so that was a disappointment. I don't think I'll do it again (especially since the podcast refused to do a revshare agreement), but having done it I know what I did wrong and how it could be improved. The spot itself should've been more specifically focused, and the right bullet points should've been hammered home. Plus, a story or specific instance about how the host could've used this product or would use this product would've been helpful. If anyone's interested or plans to do this, PM me and I can give you more specific details about my experience.

Hav3n

Good idea. Thanks for sharing.

I'm not a big podcast guy but i would figure that most podcasts would be listened to away from the desktop and/or the typical buyer's 'purchasing environment'.

Do you know what % of your traffic was mobile?
Were the majority of purchases done on a mobile device?

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PHPGator

I am a podcast guy and I think Haven is partially right. I find myself listening to podcasts the most while away from the computer. At times while doing tedious work I'll listen to podcasts, but for the most part i'm not in the mood to buy. I think it partially may have to do with the product you are selling too. Great information though, thanks! +rep

Jay.s

In my opinion something like podcasts would be more effective for branding. As PHPGator said, most people listen to podcasts when they're away from the computer, or listening while only paying half attention; alot of times I'll have a podcast running while doing some work but am barely paying attention.

It does get your product "out there" though, and as people start to here more about it they'll start creating more buzz, and in time sales.

prizes4pennies

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have something to add. Even though the show with my ad "aired" over a month ago, I'm still getting a pretty decent amount of traffic to my site from that show, and I'm even getting a few orders here and there, I just got one today. So it's worth noting that an ad on a good podcast can have decent value over time.