What are Buzzsprout Ads and How to Use Them

Step aside Facebook Ads. Move over Instagram Sponsored posts. Buzzsprout just blew the freaking lid off podcast advertising!

In today's episode, I'm breaking down Buzzsprout's newest (amazing!) feature that we've all been waiting for: Buzzsprout Ads.

This new feature allows two things that have been seemingly impossible for a lot of podcasters: 

1.  A way to monetize your podcast easily (while also shedding light on other excellent podcasts)
2. AND a way to promote your show to a captive audience of podcast listeners.

I'm breaking down why this is important for you as a podcast host -- and how you can start running ads immediately. We're also covering requirements for running promotional ads and what that looks like as a show host.

Today's episode is super juicy and full of details that'll make your mind expand and explode in the best way possible. So, join me for a download of everything you need to know about Buzzsprout Ads.

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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Intro: 0:00

Hello, hello, today, this is one of those episodes where you're gonna want to take notes, you're gonna want to listen back. And I hope you are as excited about this as I am. Because Buzzsprout has a brand new feature that we have to talk about because I think it is a game changer. Okay, we're going to approach this from several different ways. Today, we're going to talk about it as someone who is a podcaster that wants to promote their show and get more downloads more listeners. And then we're also going to take the angle of someone who's a podcast host that wants to monetize their show. So you probably just perked up as like for both of those, because I'm super, super excited to talk about them. But we're talking about buzz sprouts brand new feature buzz sprout ads. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we?

Why Buzzsprout Ads are a Game Changer: 1:33

So like I said, In the beginning, this is going to be a super juicy, meaty episode. And it all revolves around Buzzsprout ads. Now, if you did not know about this brand new feature, it's because it's something that's been slowly rolled out over the last few weeks, I was, you know, contacted by the Buzzsprout team, because I'm a creator. And I've worked closely with them for several years. And I got to see and hear all about the beta project. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is going to be a game changer for podcasters. So let's talk about the requirements first, because I know that if you're like, Well, I'm not on Buzzsprout, then this may not apply to you. But it may be a reason to switch. Okay, I'm just gonna throw that out there. Because you all know, if you've listened to the podcast before, I have used Buzzsprout. Since day one, I advocate for them. I'm one of the biggest brand ambassadors of all the amazing things that they do. I've met the founders of the company, like had dinner with them, like they are so incredible. And I'm just really excited to share about the amazing things that they're doing. And so we're gonna approach this today, from the assumption that if you're listening to this, you have a Buzzsprout podcast, or you have plans to have like host your show on Buzzsprout. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, we're going to first cover all the things that you need to know about creating ads as a promoter for your podcast, like what this looks like and the process. And then we're going to cover the monetization side. For those of you if you're like, I have no no desire to promote my podcast or spend money like advertising dollars on promotions. Right now, I want to make money on my podcast. We're going to cover both today. So let's dive in.

Creating Ads as a Promoter: 3:30

First, for creating ads as a promoter. And what I think doing ads on other people's podcast is way more effective than running ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google ads, for your podcast, okay, I'm not against using these other platforms for your launches, and your promotions and your live events and all those other things. But when it comes to ads for your podcast, I think the best place to invest your dollars is on platforms where people are going to hear it on someone else's podcast, like if you already have someone you have a captive audience that they are proving to you they already listened to a podcast, then the percentage of them transitioning over to your show is so much higher than you running ads to let's say an Instagram audience and you're like shooting in the dark as to whether or not they even listen to podcasts on a regular basis. Right? You don't know that you have no idea they could be you know, they only consume content on YouTube or on Tik Tok. And all of a sudden you're like, I just wasted a bunch of money on ads, and they're not converting. Whereas with Buzzsprout ads, I see the ability to create ads and you're playing them on other Buzzsprout podcast. This is what is so stinking cool. So I have a lot of resources and Really cool stuff that I'm going to share in the show notes. So KrystalProffitt.com/episode358 is where you're gonna find all the Buzzsprout articles that they have. And they have some really awesome YouTube content that I'm gonna link to, as well as some of my own YouTube demonstration videos that I've created. They're not out yet, but they will be coming out over the next few weeks. So once those are live, I'll link to those in the show notes as well. But let's dive into why they did this. So if you go to buzzsprout.com, forward slash ads, you're going to see all the information that I'm going over today, but I know a lot of you were like, Krystal, give me the highlights give me the important stuff I need to know. So one of the things that they have as soon as you land on this page is a quote that says 45% of weekly listeners learn about new podcast from other podcast. This is from the Westwood, Westwood one podcast report. And I think it's so interesting if you take a pause for a second and ask yourself, Where do I learn about other podcast? It's probably from another show. Like if you listen to this show, and you heard Aubrey Malik's recent episode, maybe you wouldn't listen to her show. Or maybe you've heard someone previously here that you've never heard of anywhere else. And now you're like, oh, you know what I think gonna go check out their podcast. It's how I learned about other podcasts. I hear it from other people, or people that are on other shows that I listen to like that is where I learned about other podcast. So the idea here is you're creating creating ads that are going to be placed on other podcasts distributed on Buzzsprout.

Optimized MidRoll Placement: 6:47

And so what Buzzsprout did is they created this technology that allows for an optimized mid roll placement. So what this does, and I'm just reading this

Find Listeners Interested in YOUR Topic: 9:02

So what Buzzsprout ads does is it connects you with shows in your podcast categories to make sure you get in front of the right listeners. So it reaches audiences interested in your specific category. So for instance, and I'm going to go through exactly which categories the profit podcast is listed. But I wouldn't want my show listed in a football or sports category. That doesn't make any sense. Why would someone who has a football podcast want to air an advertisement for something about my show? I mean, I guess it could work, right? Like maybe there would be a few people. But I think that my show would be better suited for entrepreneurship, marketing, education, how to because those are the categories where my podcast already lives. And then another thing that I want to make very, very clear I'm gonna throw out some disclaimers here, because maybe there's some of you that are listening and you're like, wait, I have a Buzzsprout podcast? Does this mean that they're just going to start shoving ads like other players do, I'm not going to name names. But come on, you know, I'm talking about there's other places out there that will throw ads in front of your content, whether it's a podcast, or it's a video, like, we've all seen this, where you see something that's monetized. And you're like, Wait, I don't think that that person even knows that that ad is there, because it does not align with the messaging that they have. Like, it's one of those where I will never forget my mom telling me this because she's really into gardening. And she was saying, you know, it's all organic. She uses all organic, like, sprays and oils, and different stuff like that, that is natural for her garden. But then she started seeing on some of her videos or videos related to her like organic way of gardening. There were roundup and all these, like really highly toxic chemicals that were being promoted on herself. And she was like, What the hell, like, seriously, this is getting promoted on my stuff like, This is so not incongruent. Or wait, it is incongruent with what what I'm all about. And so this is your disclaimer that Buzzsprout won't do this, they won't put anything on your show that you haven't previously said yes to. So I wanted to make that very abundantly clear. verbatim what Buzzsprout has on their site, it says mid rolls are the most valuable ad placements and account for 76% of podcast ad revenue. Every ad on the Buzzsprout ads network

Privacy Focused: 11:35

But one of the things that they also emphasize is privacy focused. So they talk about listening to a podcast shouldn't trigger any kind of invasive privacy tracking. So y'all know, we all been there, you start talking about something in a room with your friends. And then two seconds later, you get on your phone, and you have like 17 ads for that thing that you were talking about? And you're like, how do will benefit from this premium placement. I get asked all the they know? Like, what was happening? How like, I didn't even Google search this, why is this popping up. And it's not something that I talk about all the time. So this is weird, it's creepy. We've all been there, and it happens. So Buzzsprout wants you to know, they don't do any kind of creepy stuff like that. They want you to have the tools that you need to target your ad campaign effectively, without stepping on the rights of listeners. And this is really important to them. And again, it's why I love this organization so much because of the way they have carefully thought about all this, like they could do all the creepy things that happen behind the scenes with like, you know, Instagram and Facebook ads, if you don't know, there's a whole world of you know, Google, is that right? Like a lot of that stuff is going on behind the scenes. And so just just know, the Buzzsprout is not doing any of that stuff, and they have no plans to in the future. time, y'all when I started talking about the dynamic

Ad Requirements for a Promoter: 12:56

But now let's get into what it looks like to actually run an ad on Buzzsprout. I do have a YouTube video coming out about this as me recording this. It's not out but it is coming out soon, where I'm showing you step by step, what I did to create my second ad for them, because when the beta launch happened, I did send them like my audio file and the texts that I wanted. I didn't love it, y'all. There's some really good examples of how you can create a really good ad on the main page. Mine wasn't on there. And I think it's because I didn't love what I did. They probably didn't love what I did. So it's okay, it's no harm, no harm done, no hurt feelings, but I'm just like, he really wasn't that good. So now that I've created one I learned from it. What you have to do in order to run an ad on Buzzsprout ads is step one. And again, all this is going to be listed in the show notes. So again, KrystalProffitt.com/episode358. But what you have to do is, number one, create a 40 second promotional ad. And it has to be 40 seconds. I like tried to squeeze in 42 seconds and a 45 second clip, Nope, it's got to be 40 seconds or less. I think it's between 12 and 40 seconds. And you're like Krystal that sounds really short. It is really short. It's meant to be a very quick call to action, something that will compel someone to go check out your podcast. And here's my recommendation and I talk about this more in depth and actually show you what my the whole ad is in my YouTube video. But what I did, too, because I'm just like, well, what am I supposed to say, you know, if you've never done an ad before, and you're totally lost, you're like I have no idea of where do I even start? Start with the information that you have in your podcast description in your Buzzsprout settings. So navigate it Were to your settings in or your podcast info. And then look at your description. This is typically where you'll say, what your show is about who your audience is for, start with something like that, but have an intentional call to action that says, if you're this type of listener, then you would really enjoy the profit podcast. So make sure you click the link in the show notes to go listen today. That's a very simple call to action, but it is part of what I included in my ad. And again, just be on the lookout for the YouTube video that's going to show you all the things that I did to create my 42nd promotional ad. So after that's done, you will need to create some ad text. So this is what's going to show in other Buzzsprout podcast and if you're listening to this today, there may be podcasts that are being advertised. As you're listening, maybe you maybe you just heard one, maybe you're about to hear one, but you will see that the podcast artwork changes. So if you're listening on Apple podcast, or Spotify, you will see when one of these ads happen, the artwork changes. It goes from the profit podcast, to the podcast that is running an ad on this show. And it's going to have an headline, as well as a link that's like a text that's in the episode description where you're listening, I'm not talking about in the show notes I'm talking about in the episode description on your phone on your device where you're listening, it's gonna say at the bottom, like under the description that I typically write for my show. It's it's like an episode description of everything we're going to talk about here today. And then underneath that, it is going to be in there, there's going to be a title of the show and a link describing what that podcast is about. It's also going to have some subscribe links to the directories where someone could click on that. And immediately go listen, all of this is laid out in the link that I'm going to share with you for you to go learn more about Buzzsprout ads. So you don't have to like memorize everything I just said they're all going to be in the show notes too. But I just wanted to share a little bit about what to expect for you to have ready before you ever go and create an ad like these are some of the things that you should think about, maybe brainstorm some of the best ways that you can have a quick call to action or information that you can share. Think about it in a Google Doc or somewhere else, maybe you have someone that you can brainstorm this with. But once that's done, you'll actually go through the process of creating an ad. And you'll have to upload your audio, you'll have to put in all the information that we just talked about. And then you'll have to choose your target audience. Now when it comes to your target audience, this means you're going to be selecting the age range. So it's like the demographic information about who your podcast is targeting. Right? Who are you trying to reach? Who's your ideal audience? So for me, I put all ages so mine isn't restricted to just 24 to 45 year olds, right? Anybody could listen to this podcast and find value, and then all sexes. So there might be some podcast and yours can be included in that where it's mostly a male audience, or mostly a female audience for my content. It's not gender specific at all, like you could, you know, be anything and listen to this podcast. And then also the categories. Oh, wait, hang on. Sorry, I skipped over one. That's an important one. And the next one is profanity. This one was a good choice, I think on their part simply because you could listen to a podcast, and then hear a promotion on there. And then all of a sudden, there's a ton of profanity, please don't put a bunch of profanity in your ad. I don't care if you cuss on your podcast, but don't put a bunch of profanity on your ad because it's less likely that someone will select that unless that they're totally open to it, it's fine. But I would just go with the default of not having a bunch of profanity in the 42nd ad that you're gonna run. And then just letting people know, like, Hey, this is typically explicit, because you can mark that as your target audience, people that don't care if your show is explicit. Okay, then the next thing to talk about. So for my show, I put occasional right because we're not totally clean around here. But we're also not an explicit podcast. So I put the occasional profanity is what you will find on this show. And then for categories, we talked a little bit about this earlier, but you want to make sure that you are selecting something that is going to align with your target audience. You're my target audience isn't a football, like maybe I'll do love football, but that's not what you listen to this show. You are likely interested in how to stuff marketing, entrepreneurship business. These are the reasons why you listen to this podcast. And so therefore, those are the podcast, I am trying to target the How to category, the entrepreneurship, the business and marketing. Those are the ones where I would love for those shows to play my ad. All right. And then the last thing is you have to choose your promotional plan. Now, this is the big disclaimer. And this is the big thing that I really want to make sure you pay attention to here. Because on the website, when you're signing up for ads, it will say, you can buy 5000 downloads for $100. What does that mean? This does not mean that you are buying downloads for your podcast, I just want to make this like abundantly clear that you are not buying downloads. So if I pay them $100, I'm not going to see 5000 downloads show up in my stats on the profit podcast. That is not what is happening. What is happening is when you pay for 5000 downloads, it means that you are paying for every time someone plays an ad for your podcast. Does this mean that I'm reaching 5000? individual people? No, no, because on my show, you'll hear an ad maybe. Let's say you binge listen to three episodes, you might hear an ad for the same podcast. And those are three different episodes or three different downloads, where you are hearing that ad, those are three different downloads. All right, that's not just one person. And then that digit only counts once because it's one IP address, it counts forever single download. But for those of you that are brand new to advertising or to marketing, especially you know paid advertising, then what it's doing is you will see multiple ads, if you're running Instagram ads, or maybe you're like you're on your Facebook, and you see the same year on cash. I've seen this, I see this ad all the time. There's a reason for that y'all, it takes more than someone hearing something or seeing something one time for some things to really click, maybe someone needs to hear your like your ad three times in a row for the Nabil Kido Ed, I liked the sound of her voice or I like her vibe, I liked the things that she's covering on her podcast, maybe I should go check it out. So I am completely fine that this is based on per downloads, and not per person. So I just wanted to do some clarification on that. So what I did, and I'm actually I'm really excited because I'm going to run like a debrief of what happened after I started running ads. So what I opted to do, and this is what I show you in my YouTube video, I signed up for the 10,000 Download plan, which right now all of their ads are discounted as it's like the roll out because they're launching it. I don't know when they're gonna change that. Let me throw that out as a disclaimer, like, Don't come at me and say You said it was this price, but it was this now, what I did is I bought 10,000 downloads for $140. It is typically $200. But it's at a discount. It's 30% off right now, again, I don't know how long it's gonna last. If you're listening to this a few years from now, I have no idea what the price is going to be. But that's what it is right now in 2022 when I'm recording this episode, so the price is stagger from 5000 downloads for $100 or 70 bucks right now, like if you want to get started with ads, you could pay $70. And your ad would be downloaded 5000 times. Amazing, right? Like super, super cool. Or you could scale all the way up to 50,000 for $1,000 or $700 right now. And y'all just to be clear, I don't get paid for promoting this. They're not paying me to promote this. I'm just really excited because this is super cheap. This is very, very cheap. Have you ever run ads on Facebook and Instagram? It's kind of a crapshoot on whether you're really going to get like the most bang for your buck. This is on average two cents per download. So that's, that could potentially be two cents per lead of people that are coming to your podcast to listen. And who knows, maybe they won't all turn into long like lifelong Subscribers are people that stick around for months and months and months. But again, you could get started for $70 for 5000 downloads as an experiment. So maybe you need to save up to make this happen. But I recommend everybody listening to this to try it, I think if you are willing, and that's sometimes what paid advertising is, it's a gamble. Your $70 is way, way cheaper than it is to gamble on other paid advertising platforms where you're not sure if you're ever going to see a return or your copy could be terrible on Instagram, or it could get rejected 1000 times on Facebook as you're trying to run an ad or it's not shown to the right audience like you are going to be advertising to podcast listeners, to other people that already listen to podcast. So the percentages of you having a good marketing outcome are so much higher, starting with ads this way. Okay, now we're gonna flip the script. I know this is going to be a super long episode. Today. I warn y'all at the beginning, because we're at you know, we're almost at 30 minutes here, and we're just halfway through. So that was the idea of creating ads to run as a promotion, right, you're trying to promote your podcast. content on Buzzsprout, which was released last January. So January 2021, is when I believe this was made public to all Buzzsprout users dynamic content I get asked about all the time, should I put it at the pre roll or the post roll. And honestly, I'm always like, I wish there was an option number three to have a mid roll placement because it really is the most effective. It's the one that I listen to. On other podcast, I'll fast forward through the beginning. On some shows, I will stop listening, if I know it's just a bunch of ads at the end. But the ones in the middle. I don't always fast forward through those I typically listen to them, especially if they're not super long. So I agree here it is a premium placement and your ad that you create will be played in this premium placement. Now I don't know that technological like how they

Monetizing Podcast by Running Buzzsprout Ads: 26:08

Now let's talk about monetizing your podcast by running ads as a podcast host. Now, again, I'm going to read a lot of this language that is straight from bus sprouts website. And I'm going to link to it again, the show notes, KrystalProffitt.com/episode358. I'm gonna link to all this information. But I'm just going to start from the top. So Buzzsprout states get paid with Buzzsprout ads, and they let you know that this is the beta version. This is what you're going to see if you navigate over your in your Buzzsprout account. And you go over to podcast monetization. This is what you're going to see everything that I'm reading here today is going to be what you see there. So it says make money by promoting other podcasts on your show. Buzzsprout ads allow you to run advertisements for other podcast within your episodes. It's easy, you have full control. I said that weird, full control, and you get paid. So what they're talking about here is you are monetizing your podcast through Buzzsprout. So you don't have to go out and find sponsors, find people that will pay you to play ads on your show like you are complete control of how this works. So as new ads enter the system, you'll be given an opportunity to review the ad before deciding to approve or decline. So if you approve the ad, the system will begin inserting the ad into your episodes, you can change your mind at any point and the system will remove the ad. And as I've started adding, and declining ads, there's something that you should know. So before you like anything gets played on your show, you get to listen to it, you can see the title and you can see the descriptions. So we talked about that earlier, when someone's creating ad, you have to have your title, your headline, and a description, you get to see all of that. So if at any point, you listen to audio, and you're like, Ah, this audio is terrible, you can put that because there's actually a place for feedback. When you declined something it will say it's not a good fit, you're not interested, it was poor audio quality. Or another reason that you just they're trying to learn as much as they can as this rolls out. But typically what happens for me is my podcast, monetization will be full of all these new ads. And I'll listen to them. And for the most part, I go with my gut feeling. And I'm like, that's just not a good fit for my audience. Or oh my gosh, the audio quality is terrible on this, I would never want to run this on my show. Or I read just the top headline, I don't even listen to it. And I'm like this, no, this is not a good fit for my audience. So you have all the control, which I think is amazing. But then you click you know, add this ad and then it goes to another section. But if at any point, you're like, you know what? I thought about it, I slept on it. I don't really want that out on my show, take it off, you just hit this button and it removes it. Very, very cool, super intuitive, easy to use. So let's keep going. So it says all ads are from like minded podcasters. So Buzzsprout ads, look for podcasts in similar categories to find the best matches. This ensures that the content will be interesting to your audience and effective for the advertiser. Again, you don't want to be on a football podcast if your show is about cooking, and you're like this. This doesn't you know, The Art of French Cooking. I just Julia Child just popped into my head. I'm just like, I don't know that that would translate super well to like a fantasy football podcast, but I'm just throwing it out there. Like you want to make sure that everything aligns In a really good way, let's go on to the next point that they have. choose where this goes. And we'll get into some of the more details about you know how long the episode has to be before it's placed on, you know, an ad is placed within an episode. But I think it's just amazing, because I've heard some of

The Simplest Way to Get Paid with a Podcast: 30:04

So it says the simplest way to get paid for your podcast. So all ads pay the same. It's 1.4 cents USD per monetized download. So when the beta, I just said 1.4 cents. Yeah, that's right. Okay. I was like, wait, I think I read that was wrong, but no, it's good. It says when the beta concludes, will provide options for you to click Collect your earnings. So this is actually a question that I asked, we have like a chat setup for all the Buzzsprout creators, and I sent this to them today, actually. And I was like, Hey, I see that I have a balance already have like $24, that's like hanging out in my balance. And I said, How is this going to be paid out? In, they were like we're working on that it's going to happen, they're gonna have some sort of Buzzsprout wallet set up, I don't know all the details about how this is all going to work. But you're going to have a way to collect your earnings, I don't know if that's going to be a Pay Pal system that they set up to where they pay you via PayPal once a month, or as you reach a certain thresholds, those are some of the details that haven't completely been worked out. But again, this just rolled out. So they are still fine tuning some of the things that they need to figure out before everything is working like a well oiled machine. But again, I'm just excited that this money is going to cover some of my expenses. That's what I'm really excited about. I'm like, Oh, I have like three software's that I need to cover every single month that are pretty pricey. And I'm like, You know what, this might be the thing that covers these, it's probably not going to make me millions of dollars, or even 1000s of dollars having these ads on my podcast, but it will improve the idea of having sponsors on my show. And also, we're lifting each other up in the community. So yeah, I love it for those reasons. Now. Let's keep going. these, if you've listened to my podcast recently, maybe the one you're listening to today, it's going to have an ad placed in

Automatic MidRoll Insertions: 32:06

So automatic mid roll insertions, we talked about this earlier. But Buzzsprout uses smart insertion technology to automatically find the correct number and the best location for ad breaks in your episodes. So you don't have to worry about labor intensive manual ad breaks, they do that for you. So what you'll do is you'll select if you want to have like an audio clip that plays right there, and it is placed at a really awesome place on the before someone else's, like their ad plays, it could be music, it could be someone saying, let's take a quick break, they have all these pre loaded into the podcast monetization, like when you go into Buzzsprout ads, you can change what happens right before an ad is played and right after. So if you want to have music, or you want to have a female voice that says let's take a quick break, or a male voice that says we'll be right back, they have a lot of those ads, and they also give you the flexibility to upload your own. So if you want to have a mid roll insertion, it's like, Hey, guys, we're gonna hear from another Buzzsprout podcast in this community, then you can add that in that way, it's not such a jarring experience for your audience if you've never run ads on your show before. And again, I was like saying all that and episode. I think if we were doing a drinking game, I would that's actually our next point here. But it says beautiful transitions and appropriate durations. So when an ad is about to begin, Buzzsprout will insert a musical audio cue for your listeners this let your audience know that an ad will be starting soon and serves as a nice transition between various audio styles. All ads are 40 seconds or less. So think about this kind of like if you've ever watched a YouTube video and it'll say ad start in 5432. Like it counts down before there's a mid roll ad on a YouTube video. So it's just letting you know like, Hey, this is coming that way you're not so like, Wait, what just happened? Did it go to a totally different video. And the same thing for podcasts you'll hear? I'm thinking of the Smartlist podcast where they say and we'll be right back, and then it goes into their ads. And then at the end when all the ads have had a drink so many times for the word place, place or are done playing it'll say okay, now back to the show. That's exactly what they're talking about here that transition from AD to your regular podcast episode.

Automatic Ad Removal: 34:30

And then the last point that they have here is automatic ad renewal. So when the ad by is fulfilled Buzzsprout ads will automatically remove the ads and your episodes will be returned to the ad free state they were in when you first published. So if you put out an ad, and I'm thinking of from the marketers perspective, right from the from what we were talking about the very beginning if you put out an ad and then you hit that threshold of have 5000 or 10,000 downloads? Well, at that point, like you're done, that ad has run its course. And you will either have to renew and buy another package. Or you could just be done for a while. And this is one of those things like, I'm curious to see how placement. I said it like five times in a row. And I heard it long like how much I get for I guess not how much because I know exactly how much I'm gonna get 10,000 downloads for what I purchased. But I'll be curious to see how long that lasts, is that going to be you know, a month is it going to be two weeks is going to be week and a half, I have no idea at this point, because this is my first time to do it. But what will happen is, once it's done, the ads that I created will be removed from all the podcast where that ad was running. I like this simply because if I wanted to, I could reuse that same ad or I could create something new. So in this is probably what I'm going to do that way podcasters that have chosen to run my ad to monetize their show. They're not like, oh, my gosh, I've run the same ad for two months for this one podcast. And it's the same thing. My audience is sick of hearing it. I'm going to skip over it this month, and I'm every single time. I'm like, wow, I just said place. A lot of going to decide to run other ads. No, no, no, I don't want that to happen. So I'm going to keep things fresh. I'm going to keep things moving forward in a way, that is a pleasant experience for my show, right for to hopefully get people to come listen to my podcast. But it's also good for the podcast host that want to run ads on their show. Now, for the finale, because I know you're wondering, and I probably should have started with this information. But for some reason it's at the bottom.

Eligibility Requirements for Buzzsprout Ads: 36:42

And I'm thank you so much for listening to this point, because now we're going to cover the eligibility requirements because not all podcast will be able to monetize with Buzzsprout ads. I know it's the unfortunate, like, I guess I saved the worst part of it for last instead of saying I saved the best for last, because some of you are gonna come at me and say Krystal, I don't have that. I can't do it yet. But that's the thing is the word yet. Maybe you don't have these eligibility requirements yet. But at the same time, these are totally doable. They are absolutely not unreasonable for Buzzsprout to have these qualifications, not like you have to have 10,000 subscribers on Instagram, like you used to to have the swipe up feature that nobody was happy about. Yeah, I still don't have 10,000 people on YouTube, YouTube, y'all I said, subscribers, you know what I meant followers on Instagram. Y'all Y'all know what I'm talking about? Right? We used to have to have 10,000 followers on Instagram to get the swipe up feature. That's not cool. Come on. Like that's, that's not fun for anybody. Now they have the link feature, and anybody can put a link on their stories, which is incredible. Amazing. So what's going on here is you have to have this is step number one, step number one, you have to have five published episodes. So if you're just getting started, you got to have at least five episodes. The second requirement is you have to have 1000 downloads in the last 30 days. Now some of you are like Krystal, I'm not there, I am not there yet. Again, let's use the word yet, because you can get there. Because the more downloads or the more you keep podcasting, the more downloads you will have, because most of my downloads today aren't necessarily from the episode that are recently published, like this episode won't get 1000 downloads in the next 30 days. But the other episodes, the backlog of episodes, those are still getting found. So let's pretend that someone hears an ad on someone else's show, they find my show. They're gonna go back and listen to the backlog of episodes. They're not just going to listen to the latest episode, they're going to say, What else does she have on here? Because this is what I do. When I find a new podcast, I scroll through their backlog and I'm like, Oh my gosh, they had that guest. This is what they talk about. Of course, I'm gonna go listen to it. So just keep that in mind. If you're not there yet. If you don't have 1000 downloads in the last 30 days, don't sweat it, you can absolutely get there. And then number three, the third eligibility requirement is your episodes have to be at least 23 minutes long. This is one of those like wall wall because it won't apply to everybody because if you're like well Krystal, my episodes are only 15 minutes long. Well then you can't monetize Buzzsprout ads. I don't know like I can't go and plead to the team and say but please just let this one podcast like there's no budging on this. It has to do with the tool that allows for the mid roll insertion. from the technical standpoint, that's all I know, I don't know anything else because my other podcast, the potty report isn't eligible. If you've listened to it, it's five minutes or less? Why would it make sense to have a 42nd ad on a five minute or less podcast. So if there's a three minute episode, you're gonna take up like, seconds, 40 seconds to play an ad on a three minute episode, it doesn't make sense. So I get it from that standpoint in the How to draw a line somewhere, and apparently, it was at 23 minutes. So that's what I know about that. Then the fourth requirement is you have to have a verified email, this shouldn't be an issue. If you are an active Buzzsprout user, I'm sure you've already verified your email. And that's not a problem. But it's something that they have to put out there that you must have a verified email address. Number five, your show has to be in three podcast categories. Now, the reason for this, and this is my assumption. So I guess I shouldn't say the reason my assumption for why they did this is because they want you to have the most options possible. And you can't really do that if you only have one category. So if you are only in one category for your podcast, I highly recommend you going back and opting in to have at least three categories related to what your podcast is about. So go into your settings and choose three categories for your podcast. And then the sixth and final requirement that you have to have is you have to be on a paid plan for Buzzsprout. So unfortunately, if you're on a free plan, you can't monetize your podcast, I understand that I get why this is happening, because they don't want you just making money. And you're not even paying to use their platform, like monetize your podcast, and then that could pay for your podcast hosting, because like I said, I've already hit I think it was like $24 When I checked it before I started recording this episode, that would pay for the most expensive plan on Buzzsprout. Right there. And it's only been I think, like a week that I started monetizing. So it's absolutely doable to make some cash and have it pay for your Buzzsprout plan at the at the bare minimum. Y'all My throat hurts from speaking for 40 something minutes at this point, we covered so so much. And there's just so much more to talk about. I am running ads. Now as a podcast host, I created my first ads. I started running them this week when I'm recording this. So I'm excited to tell you all the things that I learned. I'm experimenting and playing around with the tool. And I just can't wait to see I can't wait to share what happens. I feel very positive. That's going to be all good news. Whenever we figure out what's happening, how this impacted the podcast, how it grew, and all the things so stay tuned. Like I said, Be on the lookout for some YouTube videos related to Buzzsprout ads. They're going to be coming out in the next few weeks. And I'll be sure to add them to the show notes here once they are out. But reach out if you have any other questions like send me a DM on Instagram, shoot me an email, I would love to know if you have anything specific that you want to see in an upcoming podcast episode or YouTube video because I'm learning right along with you. And I'm excited to share all the things that I figured out through this process. times there did I said it again? Place place place. Okay, there we go. I'm done, I promise. Now, let's talk about finding listeners interested in your topic.

Outro: 43:31

But that's all I have for you today. So go to the show notes, KrystalProffitt.com/episode358 To see all the things that we talked about here today, I'm gonna link to where you can start running your first podcast add what the requirements are like all the things that we talked about. They're all going to be in the show notes. So go check those out. Make sure that you are subscribed or following the podcast wherever you are listening. And I would love it if you would take a screenshot wherever you're listening. Share it on Instagram in your stories tag me and tell me your number one takeaway. I'm on Instagram@KrystalProffittTx, Krystal with the K. Proffitt has two F's and two T's and then a TX like Texas on the very end. But again, that's all I have for you today. So as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.