Should I Really Use Dynamic Ads for Mid-roll Sponsors?
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Podcast Workflows. The show that provides insights into how to improve your podcast systems and workflows, allowing you to create and grow a high-quality podcast by showing you how to best spend your limited time. I'm your host, Joe Casaubona, and I wouldn't call myself an avid Jurassic Park fan.
I was a little shy of 8 when the movie came out, and being a young boy, I did enjoy dinosaurs. And, man, did those dinosaurs look real at the time? I saw a clip recently that they hold up really well. It's not like they were like, some weird CGI that got deleted, but they looked really real.
Now, there are a few scenes I vividly remember from the movie. One is the scene where everyone's in the car and the water is rippling as the T-Rex approaches. The other is commonly memed. Is that right? “memed”. The other is a commonly memed scene of Jeff Goldblum's character, Doctor Ian Malcolm, saying this. “But your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could. They didn't stop to think if they should.”
Now, what does this have to do with podcast ads? By the way, that's what we're talking about today. Should I really use dynamic ads for midroll sponsors?
Well, the main reason that I went to transistor.fm when I left Castos was because it had two important monetization features for me to leverage: private podcast feeds and “dynamic” ads. Dynamic is in quotes because they're not really dynamic. I need to upload the ad, create the campaign, then explicitly mark a time stamp for each mid-growth ad in the campaign. Oh, and I can't make changes to live campaigns, which means if I want to change the ads in an episode, I either need to disable the ads campaign or create a brand-new one to swap in.
Now, I can't speak to how other, let's say, dynamic content systems work. But that's not really dynamic ad insertion, which should require much less intervention to change ads once you mark the spots. The whole reason I liked the appeal of dynamic content in the first place was so I could insert an easily changeable pre-growth spot for whatever call to action I had. But I convinced myself I should do it for my mid-roll ads too.
And here's the kicker. I'm not even selling them as dynamic ads. They're sold as more flexible, baked-in ads. And I'm not selling my back catalog because I'd need to manually update campaigns for each and every episode. But to paraphrase Dr. Malcolm, I was so preoccupied with the fact that I could do it, I never really stopped to think if I should. But the truth is I should not be using Transistor's dynamic ads feature for my mid-roll ads. It's a clever way to create flexible content, but ultimately, it's inconvenient, adds extra steps to my process, and it caused problems over the summer when I didn't mark enough spots in the mid-roll for my ads. I thought that since Transistor knew the number of spots in a campaign, I could mark one mid-roll spot, and it would play all of the ads in the campaign. But it's really a 1-1. So I marked one spot in the episode, and Transistor played only the first ad in the campaign, which means that the people who paid me for the second and third spots didn't see the light of day. Their ads didn't see the light of day, and I ended up having to do make goods for them. I chose to “do” make goods for them.
If I truly want to sell dynamic ads and do dynamic ad insertion, there are other better services for me to do it. There might even be better hosting options, hosting options built around dynamic ad insertion, proper dynamic ad insertion if that were my primary goal, but it's not. Like I said or I've said before, I don't sell my ads based on time or impression limits. I sell them as baked-in ads. That just makes more financial sense for me.
So the real question is, is there a time for dynamic content if not for dynamic ad insertion? Well, I think so. Here's what I and you could use dynamic content for.
I think there are a few good appealing use cases for dynamic content outside of ads. But after reflecting on this for a week after I wrote this piece, there is one crucial way that I do use dynamic ads. I'll get to that in a minute. But I think the perfect example of dynamic content is my locally-focused podcast, Start Local, which you can find over at [startlocal.co]. We're doing a live in-person networking event, and we want to promote it on the show. So instead of having a baked-in pre-roll or mid-roll ad for people to register, one that will automatically be outdated as soon as the event is over, we're doing a dynamic ad or a dynamic call to action. One that will automatically end at the start of the networking event. That way, our calls to action are not outdated and our episodes are not immediately dated.
We're also using the dynamic content function to insert it into every episode in the back catalog, not just recent episodes. So if people come across it or come across an older episode of the show, they will hear a call to action for something that was conceived of well after the episode came out.
If you're promoting an event or a time-sensitive product, service, or enrollment period, dynamic content is a perfect solution. You can have start and end dates for campaigns, and the episodes with the promotion won't feel immediately dated after the promotion period ends. You could also use it to promote specific opt-ins, freebies, or products. But I think at some point, the easiest option is just mentioning it in the episode when you have these specific freebies or products.
Most downloads for an episode happen within the first 30 to 60 days. So unless you have a super active back catalog where people are routinely revisiting old episodes, Dynamic content for run-of-the-mill CTAs is probably overkill. But like I said, there's one more way I thought of after writing this piece, which, again, you can find the article in the description for this episode. But there's one more way I thought of after the fact. And I was reminded of it as I was looking for my next sponsors or specifically when a sponsor asked when I needed the stuff by.
You see, when I wrote this, I posed the headline as a question. Should I really use dynamic ads for midroll sponsors? And I just made the argument for you that I definitely shouldn't, falling in line with Betteridge's law of headlines that any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with no. However, as I was doing sponsor outreach, it dawned on me this crucial thing I've been building up now.
One crucial way that I use dynamic ads is to extend the sales cycle basically until the episode goes live. When sponsors asked me when I need their ads rolled on, they used to be at least 1 month in advance so I could get the ad into the edit. But now as long as I have 48 business hours to do the ad read, I can insert it any time before the episode goes live. That's not my preferred workflow, but it certainly can make up for some otherwise lost income or a second edit where I send everything back to my editor and have him edit it in. And strictly speaking, this could be a break glass in case of emergency situation. I could have my ads already inserted during the edit, and then if one comes along post-edit, I can insert it dynamically. And I think that's the way to go. Sell the ads ahead of time, bake them into the episode, but leave that door open in case someone comes along late or if they do want to sponsor something in the back catalog.
Ultimately, there is a time and place for dynamic ads and content. But the best thing for you to focus on is not whether or not you could do it, but whether or not you should do it.
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Podcast Workflows.
To find everything I talked about, including a written to-be-read article of this episode, you can find them in the description for this episode as well as over at [podcastworkflows.com]. Let me know. What do you think? Do you think we should use dynamic ads and dynamic content more? Let me know over at [podcastworkflows.com/feedback]. I'm also @jcasabona on basically every social network. But that's it for this episode.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, I'll see you out there.
Hey, before you go, I want to tell you about a free resource I have called my Podcast Process Templates. They are a set of Notion documents that give you a full podcast planner, a show planner, and even some AI prompts to help you get the creative juices flowing. You obviously want to improve your podcast workflows and save time and these templates will give you a basis for all of your other processes. Through my Notion and Airtable templates, I am able to automate a number of things as well as stay organized so that I am using my podcasting time more efficiently. If you wanna get your hands on these templates completely for free, you can head over to [podcastworkflows.com/templates]. That's [podcastworkflows.com/templates] to get your free podcasting process templates, today.
