Facebook Ads for Podcasts: Good Money After Bad Math

It’s said that money can’t buy happiness. Well...it can’t buy podcast listeners either, according to the data generated from a Facebook Ad experiment I funded for 76 days and have just terminated. 

Over the last 2.5 months, I spent $360 of my hard-earned cash on Facebook Ads to prove something I already knew: Facebook Ads are not a great choice for podcasters looking to grow the audience of their podcasts.

But to get my negativity and bias out of the mix, I contracted with a firm that specializes in running Facebook Ad campaigns for podcasters with the express purpose of attaining dramatic audience growth. 

Spoiler: It didn’t work.

My $360 bought me about 500 clicks. Does that mean 500 new listeners?

In a word—no. 

In four words—no, of course not.

Using the high-end of a standard conversion rate, 500 clicks might be as many as 10 new listeners.

10 new listeners for $360 dollars. An acquisition cost of $36 per new listener. That’s terribly expensive.

So after 76  days of ad spend with no indications anything would change for the better, I pulled the plug. 

So why did I spend $360 on a tactic I knew wouldn’t work? Mostly so that I could demonstrate to you, the serious podcaster, that it is highly unlikely that a Facebook Ad campaign will grow your podcast audience by any meaningful degree. Not if you look past clicks, one-time-download numbers, or any metric other than the one that matters: Is my show’s audience growing?

My advice. Don’t waste your money.

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Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• The experiment begins - https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/time-for-podcast-advertising-to-put-up-or-shut-up

• The dataset - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LzMvxhOH8UYKDIwhztaXPnBLCHtzIJYMhnq9j8pgvDE

• Give value for value for the show! - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/facebook-ads-for-podcasts-good-money-after-bad-math.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by Barefoot Communications on Unsplash

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans...

It’s said that money can’t buy happiness. Well...it can’t buy podcast listeners either, according to the data generated from a Facebook Ad experiment I funded for 76 days and have just terminated. 

Over the last 2.5 months, I spent $360 of my hard-earned cash on Facebook Ads to prove something I already knew: Facebook Ads are not a great choice for podcasters looking to grow the audience of their podcasts.

But to get my negativity and bias out of the mix, I contracted with a firm that specializes in running Facebook Ad campaigns for podcasters with the express purpose of attaining dramatic audience growth. 

Spoiler: It didn’t work.

My $360 bought me about 500 clicks. Does that mean 500 new listeners?

In a word—no. 

In four words—no, of course not.

Using the high-end of a standard conversion rate, 500 clicks might be as many as 10 new listeners.

10 new listeners for $360 dollars. An acquisition cost of $36 per new listener. That’s terribly expensive.

So after 76  days of ad spend with no indications anything would change for the better, I pulled the plug. 

So why did I spend $360 on a tactic I knew wouldn’t work? Mostly so that I could demonstrate to you, the serious podcaster, that it is highly unlikely that a Facebook Ad campaign will grow your podcast audience by any meaningful degree. Not if you look past clicks, one-time-download numbers, or any metric other than the one that matters: Is my show’s audience growing?

My advice. Don’t waste your money.

-----

Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• The experiment begins - https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/time-for-podcast-advertising-to-put-up-or-shut-up

• The dataset - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LzMvxhOH8UYKDIwhztaXPnBLCHtzIJYMhnq9j8pgvDE

• Give value for value for the show! - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

-----

A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/facebook-ads-for-podcasts-good-money-after-bad-math.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by Barefoot Communications on Unsplash

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions.

Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few.

You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com.

If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources:

1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion.
2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions.
3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics.
4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet.
5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more.

We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy