Creating A Facebook Video Ad For A New Podcast

I've launched a podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene with Becky Scarcello and Jag called The D Brief. In this column, I am sharing the lessons I learn from it for other radio broadcasters who want to do the same.

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Without a doubt, the first big challenge most podcasters face is trying to grow their audience. "What's the best way to promote my new podcast?" is a common refrain in online communities like the Podcast Movement Facebook group.

One of the best ways to grow a podcast is to tap into a pre-existing audience. When Adam Carolla launched his podcast, he already had a fanbase from his previous radio and television shows. When Marc Maron began recording his WTF podcast, he was able to tap into the fanbases of his famous guests. The hit podcast Serial was created by the team behind the massive public radio show This American Life, and it leveraged one show to promote the other. This is why radio is so well-positioned to take advantage of the podcasting medium: because radio stations already have fanbases that they can tap into.

I, on the other hand, do not have a pre-existing fanbase that I can tap into. However, the city of Detroit does have fans. The reason we decided to frame the podcast as a show about Detroit (as opposed to something like "The Seth Resler Show") is because it provides us with a fanbase to tap into.

But piggy-backing on the city of Detroit is not the same thing as having an organization that already has an email list and a strong social media following. We would have to find Detroit fans and let them know about our podcast.

One possible way to do this involves Facebook ads. The truth is, I have never heard a podcaster attribute their success to Facebook ads, but I had been looking for an excuse to experiment with the social network's video ads, so I decided to give it a shot. The nice thing about Facebook ad campaigns is that you can spend a small amount of money to see if they produce results before committing to larger sums.

Some online research turned up a number of tips for Facebook video ads, including:

1. Shorter is better: The ideal length of an ad is less than 15 seconds, and it's best to get your main message across in the first two or three seconds.
2. The ads should make sense without sound: Because Facebook's video ads are muted until the user turns on the sound, you don't want to create an ad that depends upon the audio to get its message across.
3. Square ads work best on mobile devices: Square video ads work best on smartphones because they take up more on-screen real estate than typical 16:9 or 4:3 ads, which have to be shrunk to fit.

With these points in mind, I created the short video you see above. It uses no voiceover read, just music, so it makes sense even if the sound is muted. A the very beginning, it calls out its target audience by name with the word "Detroit" superimposed over footage of one of the city's most recognizable landmarks, the Renaissance Center. Very quickly, it gets to the point: "Meet your new podcast." From there on out, it's just a series of intercut photos of the city's arts and entertainment landmarks: Tigers Stadium, the Motown Museum, Corktown, etc. The video ends with a specific call to action: "Subscribe on Apple Podcasts."

I set up an ad campaign to show this video to a specific audience: Detroiters who are on iPhones and have expressed an interest in podcasts. I targeted iPhone users because podcasting is largely an iPhone medium: roughly two thirds of all podcast listening happens on iOS devices. So this ad was designed to get people to click a link to our podcast in the Apple Podcasts app.

I ran a campaign with a small budget - only $50 - as an initial test. To be honest, I was disappointed in the results. There were few clicks and the cost-per-click was much higher than I anticipated. Few people were watching more than 3 seconds of the video. The ad did not seem to be connecting with people.

After this initial experiment, I decided to wait on spending more money until we had more episodes under our belt. Seven months later, we still have not returned to paid Facebook ads. When we do, I am inclined to experiment with ads that use static images, not video.

LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.

More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:

1. How We Learned That Our Listeners Hate Music Beds
2. I Paid Strangers for Feedback on My Podcast. Here's What They Said.
3. How to Get Actionable Feedback on Your Podcast
4. Why You Should Create a Teaser Before You Launch Your Podcast
5. Creating Benchmark Features for Your Podcast