What you need to know about doing podcast host-read ads

Credit: Photo by Jeremy Enns on Unsplash

It seems that most news publications, politicians and personalities have a podcast of their own these days. And with popularity comes monetisation options.

Advertising is the main way to earn revenue with podcasts. Host reads - adverts read by the host themselves - are an emerging trend, but you will still come across the standard, programmatic ads.

Host-read ads: convincing or contrived?

Host reads can feel more natural and engaging, but run the risk of jarring with the listener.

You will notice them on shows like The Rest Is Football, where the show hosts Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards read out the adverts from the likes of Amazon Prime and Guinness.

David Bodycombe, producer of Lateral with Tom Scott, a popular quiz podcast, says that advertisers are happy to pay "significantly more" for an ad read by the show host. Typically, programmatic ads can fetch $20 (£15) for every 1000 ad impressions. But host-read ads could attract 50 per cent more revenue.

It is no wonder why there is a premium on host reads, if podcasts have amassed loyal audiences.

Carl Hartley, former broadcaster and current lecturer of journalism, the University of Leeds, said the trick to sounding natural is to know your audience well.

"I would bullet point the script reads for promotions on the station to allow the presenters to deliver them in their own style. That way the presenter would formulate the read, sound natural, and it would also make it different from other presenters," he says.

He also said that variation in delivery was important. If you have a trusted way of delivering your ad, try mixing it up. Delivering ads the same way every time can wear thin on the listener.

Producer-read ads: a simple alternative

There is a clear problem here for news podcasts in particular. Host reads can come across more as endorsement than advertising, which creates an ethical issue.

Chris Stone, executive producer at the New Statesman, says the journalist (the host) should be separate from the advertising. A simple workaround is to get other members of the team to do the ad reads for its podcasts.

His team does "producer-read" advertising instead, which is exactly as the name implies. The podcast producer reads the ad before handing over to the host. Stone believes that this is important in preserving their editorial integrity.

"Our hosts are active journalists and reporters – having them read the ads themselves make that line [between the journalist and the products being advertised] blurry.

"It’s understandable that a listener might ask how our journalists can hold large companies to account and in the next breath promote large companies."

Bundling up: overcoming a logistical headache

Host-read ads also suit smaller, independent podcasts like the Publisher Podcast from Media Voices, which is created by just three journalists.

One of the co-hosts and co-producers, Chris Sutcliffe, explained that the team initially considered programmatic ads, but found them difficult to secure and not as relevant to their audience.

Host reads by contrast allowed them to create more bespoke ads for commercial partners and be less intrusive to listeners, but still found this also to be a big strain on a small team to sustain.

Now, they are prioritising season-long sponsorships rather than one-off ads, bundling host reads into these bigger sponsorship packages. This is easier to manage as a small team and makes the flow of revenue from the podcast more stable and reliable.

"While we're basically following a script we try to vary how we talk about the sponsor to keep the listeners interested and to ensure they know we're not automating it, but tailoring it to them each time. It's more time-consuming but we believe the audience responds better to it," Sutcliffe explains.

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