We want to start this article with a typical phrase of many Colombian moms: "If you don't know where you are going, any bus will do". That's why, The first thing we need to keep in mind is what is the objective we want to achieve with our podcasts: reach a very specific or concrete community, position ourselves as experts on a subject (as in the case of our podcast Bancolombia Innovation), foster a massive conversation as part of a branding strategy or even strengthen personal brands (for example, the podcast Popularlyby Vanessa Rosales).
Understanding your objectives
You may be wondering why it is important to be clear about the objective if, ultimately, the marketing is still going to sell the show "and that's it". Of course, you can advertise without thinking about it, but thinking about it beforehand will allow you to know what things are more important for each of those objectives.
For example, if you want to position yourself as an expert in your niche, the quality of the guests and the conversation may be more important than the number of plays, or downloads, of the show. While if, for example, you want to generate massive content, then the budget should be more focused on capturing new listeners and not so much on the search of host.
In other words, and to return to Colombian moms: If you know what your objective is, you know what bus to get on and where to put your marketing budget to invest less, but invest better.
Thinking your marketing strategy over time
On the other hand, the second variable to the dream budget response is: time, it's all a matter of time.
And, in this regard, there is another starting point that is vital to keep in mind: podcasts take time to achieve objectives, they are a format that is cooked slowly but steadily. That's why having two or more contents on the air -beyond the why- does not necessarily guarantee that you will get where you want to go. It's a race of endurance, rather than speed: just as no YouTube channel became famous with two or three videos, you're not going to be a star podcaster with two episodes.
However, this does not mean that this growth curve cannot be boosted or made more and more exponential. That is precisely the magic of marketing: to be able to accelerate and strengthen results.
The point, before talking about how much is the recommended budget for marketing my podcast, is when to invest in marketing: we recommend doing it only when you are sure that the content is being liked, that it has an established and engaged audience, that listens, shares and interacts with the episodes on air.
If the podcast is not yet at that level of maturity, it would be best not to invest in marketing yet because the show does not yet have a good engagement and has not yet found or created its ideal community. And although, obviously, you could invest at that point, we don't recommend it so much because this is more a moment of organic growth, of voice to voice, of genuine liking of a community that, later, once it has been consolidated, can be made to grow even more through marketing.
Eagerness is not a friend of this format, so the most strategic thing to do when investing in podcast advertising is to wait until you have a show with a moderately established community.
Once that ideal scenario has been consolidated in which the content already has its own audience, then there are three scenarios where the marketing budget can be deposited to further boost those results.
Preproduction
Every marketing strategy needs a plan, and your plan may -or may not- include showing and sharing the creation of the podcast from minute 0 and not only in the final result: you can start showing what flour you choose to make the pizza that finally is the final product that you are going to share. And if you decide to do so, then it is important that you ask yourself several questions:
- Are you going to record audio only or video as well? The range of options and answers here is really large. For example, if you are starting out, you could very well work with the video quality of a video call set up very well technically or work with a single camera that captures you and other guests or host. But if, on the contrary, what you want is to create a very high quality video, then your pre-production budget should include scenery, cameras and the payment of a crew to monitor all the equipment.
Of course, the equipment may also need its own budget, which could range from the most basic to more complete ones: in today's market you could perfectly well record from a good cell phone, very well configured in technical terms, and good $100 microphones, to more professional cameras or recording studios.
What does this have to do with the marketing budget? We really recommend you: follow our advice here. If podcasting with big brands in Latin America has taught us anything, it's that no marketing budget can solve a bad sound, an insufferable echo, background noise or a blurry image.
Powerful marketing is based on having guaranteed these minimum viable standards. If this is not the case, there is a risk of having a very good guideline, whose content scares off any listener.
Production
Once the minimum viable content is ready, comes the next part, the main course: the creation of the content as such. Here we are not only talking about the podcast or the episode as such, but the universe of content we want to deploy from the show: episode cover, network pieces, infographics, articles, reels, audiograms, quotes, etcetera.
And, of course, each of these additional promotional contents to the podcast as such represents a cost and, for that reason, is linked to some economic budget. Although in general terms static pieces are usually more accessible than reels or other more dynamic or complex ones, technology can play in our favor in that sense through tools for non-designers, which can be free or cost from two dollars a month, such as Headliner and Canva.
Precisely because of the variety of options in this spectrum, the budget here can vary as much as you and your specific needs want it to. Although we don't have a maximum range, because you can do as much as your budget and time allow, we can recommend a minimum: you should have, at least, one promotional piece for each episode on the air.
Again, make a budget tailored to your needs: that single piece could be costing around $20 to $30 while if your production volume is already so high that you need an in-house team, then we could be talking about $1,500 to $2,000.
Advertising, pure and simple promotion
Last but not least, there is the budget, which, as such, should be understood in what we traditionally think of as marketing.
To think about investing in advertising, a good start is to think about which channels you would like to advertise in. Generally speaking, there are four places to do this: social networks, cross-promotion with other podcasters, influencer advertising and media advertising.
What does it depend on which one to advertise in? On everything we have talked about so far: objectives, time, equipment, contacts, promotional pieces and, mainly, the budget you have because each of these advertising channels is usually more expensive than the previous one.
And although there are no prefabricated laws that apply to all cases equally, in general terms we could talk about minimum ranges when it comes to advertising our podcast. Again: we are talking about the minimum viable because the maximum is as much as the conditions allow, always bearing in mind that the higher the budget, the greater the reach.
- If you have $50, we recommend: advertise on social networks such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, depending on your target audience.
- If you have $2,000, we recommend: Pair with other podcasters. Look for a podcast with an audience, objectives or tones similar to your own to recommend each other and organically within their content. This is always a good idea.
- If you have $2,500, we recommend: advertising with influencers or PR teams that are aligned with your content, your audience and your value proposition.
Although in general terms the budget will depend on the specific negotiation made with each channel, according to the industry standard, the best advertising budget is a three to one investment: invest three times the value of the investment in production to the marketing strategy, this at least is the standard used by large podcast companies such as Acast. However, we often recommend at least a one-to-one investment ratio.
Still doesn't seem feasible? Again: don't worry, eagerness is no friend of podcasts. You can start with just $50 in social media, adding the value of a static promotional piece and guaranteeing to have the minimum viable pre-production and production in the show. In total, adding all this in the same item, including from equipment to social media advertising, we could have a balance of at least $150 for the marketing of your podcast.