Podcast advertising 'works way better than TV, print'

• Podcast advertising works better - with listeners 34% more likely to buy, according to a new white paper from data marketing company Claritas. That increase in 'conversion lift’ is just 2.6% for other advertising like print and live TV. The paper also says that coupon codes and “vanity URLs” miss the majority of actual conversions.

• Podcast descriptions are probably more important than you think. Our podcast pages already highlight short ones (and notes you should probably make them a little longer); Dan Misener from Pacific Content examines the art and science of podcast descriptions: how they look in different browsers, their average length, and what you ought to include.

• Bootleg Podcasts Are a New Frontier for Unlicensed Music on Spotify, claims music website Pitchfork.

• Those exciting plans from Apple to make their own podcasts? Bloomberg, who started the story in the first place, now say they’re just to promote their TV shows. (Last year, our Editor wrote some ideas for Apple: none of which were “make some content”).

• The news bulletins are taking over the rankers: Podtrac has published their top 20 podcasts for January. NPR News Now, a five-minute news bulletin mainly driven by smart speakers, is now at #2; Fox News Radio Newscast is a new entry at #20. Podnews reported on Feb 6 that Sky News’s News Bulletin, which is not available as a podcast at all, is #2 in the Australian Podcast Ranker. (Podnews is also available in your daily news briefing settings).

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
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• Spotify for Podcasters has added a method of highlighting a trailer for their new-look show pages: it appears to correctly choose the episode that is marked-up as a trailer for Apple Podcasts. (To set yours, go to Your Dashboard > Catalog > (Your Podcast) > Details)

• Libsyn’s Eric Shahinian and Bradley Tirpak were each awarded around $100,000 of Libsyn shares earlier this week.

• Apple are hiring - an intriguing role called Product Manager, Apple Podcasts, Personalization has appeared. You’ll be “responsible for building out our personalization strategy”. The role is based in Culver City CA, USA.

  
  Aug 21 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Podcast News

Podcast Insider includes an interview with Trevor Bell from The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove, a successful podcast from Brisbane, Australia. Trevor bought us a beer once.

Stuff You Should Know is also going to be a set of books. Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things is the first book we can expect: showing the long lead-time for publishing, it’s due on shelves on Sep 29. The AP also notes “The books … will be available in editions for young people.” (iHeartMedia)