👋 Today, we’re comparing selling newsletter ads to podcast ads.

Battle of the Titans, let’s dive in! 🚀

Newsletter vs. Podcast Ads

We now sell across a variety of media formats, events, websites, sponsored content, YouTube, podcasts, and newsletters. But the two biggest by far, both in terms of volume and client interest, are newsletters and podcasts.

Most of you are newsletter creators (though I know some readers have successful podcasts), I wanted to break down the key differences in selling ads across these two formats.  

We’re focusing on direct-sold outbound deals, as that’s where the biggest differences lie. 

Inbound sales is just a lot more forgivable. If someone approaches you wanting to buy either, the consistent rule is: understand what they want, act in their best interest and don’t get in their way.

📣 Market Structure

Newsletter and podcast advertising may seem similar, but the market dynamics are totally different.

• Podcast advertising is much more consolidated, top dogs like Acast, Wondery, and Gimlet dominate. Plus the use of programmatic ad insertion is a lot more widespread.
  

• Newsletter advertising, by contrast, is 10x more fragmented centralized. Most of the deals we work on are directly sold, whether that’s a placement in a niche newsletter or in a larger media brand's weekly send.

🧠 Buyer Behavior & Budget Types

One of the biggest differences is where the budget comes from:

• Newsletter ads are mostly bought with direct response budget, inducing demand gen, lead gen, and acquisition/growth. They’re easier to test, measure, and optimize, but performance (and renewals) comes under a lot more scrutiny. This has unique pros and cons. 

• Podcast ads typically fall under brand budgets, bigger money, but harder to access, often requiring longer lead times and agency involvement. When the dust settles on a campaign, the renewal decision doesn’t rely on hitting a CAC or $X, which is nice, but more uncertain. 

Most newsletters dream of getting invited to that mysterious party where marketers are slinging out brand dollars to anyone with 7 relevant readers. Whilst there are sound reasons for this, the grass is always greener. There are no solutions, only trade-offs. 

👂 Ad Formats

Address the advertising elephant in the room, one is audio, and one is written. Obvious things aside, let’s look a little closer at the practical differences that create for salespeople.

• Newsletters: Terminology centres around CPMs, open rates, CPC, etc. Practice knowing your primary versus secondary placements, don’t forget about quick hits or dedicated sends! Ad copy is usually limited by image size or word count.

• Podcasts: Terminology similarities include CPMs, but that’s about it. Get ready to talk about pre/mid/post rolls, and ad length is limited by seconds/duration.

The sales principles are very similar. The learning curve between the two isn’t crazy steep, but it’s a hill that you ignore at your own peril.

⏱️ Speed to Close

• Newsletters: Fast-moving. We often go from first outreach to signed IO within days. On average, a deal cycle is 3 weeks.
  

• Podcasts: Timelines are longer, and decisions often align with quarterly or annual campaigns. The deal cycle varies hugely, but I’d say 2-3 months is average.

We often have podcast leads come back months later, ready to book, which rarely happens with newsletters. That’s not a bad thing, it just changes how you manage your pipeline.

📦 Inventory & Deal Sizes

The inventory models are different too:

• Podcasts tend to sell on a quarterly basis. There’s less inventory, but deals are higher value.

• Newsletters generally have more inventory because they’re more likely to be daily. 100 to 250+ ad slots per year is common, often sold in smaller bundles of 2-5.

More inventory in newsletters means more deals to close, but also more chances to test, learn, and optimize with a larger pool of brands. 

🤝 Who’s Buying?

• Podcast buyers are often at larger companies and come through media agencies. That has benefits (e.g., scale, recurring RFPs), but also adds complexity. Comms can be a nightmare.

• Newsletter buyers tend to be direct, usually smaller teams or larger businesses with effective buying machines which can make decisions quickly. The big media agencies generally aren’t in the newsletter media buying world as much. RFPs are rarer.

📈 Performance & Tracking

• Newsletters win on trackability: open rates, clicks, conversions. Easy to A/B test and optimize. Users read with thumbs and buy with thumbs.
  

• Podcasts are harder to measure, attribution is limited, usually via promo codes, pixel tracking or vanity URLs. Users listen with ears and buy with ears. Oh wait, no they don’t.

Because of this, and the type of budget you’re chomping into, campaign performance is a LOT more binary in newsletters. Great is it’s great. Not if it’s not.

🧠 Ad Brand Recall & Trust

This is where podcasts shine.

Even if a listener skips podcast ads, they still remember the brand. Ask someone who advertises on their favorite podcast—they’ll know. Ask the same about a newsletter or TV show, not so much.

A study showed that podcast ads have a 86% recall rate, which is insane.

That deep listener-podcast relationship drives trust and long-term brand affinity. It’s hard to beat.

🎯 TL;DR

P.S. Need help selling more sponsorships? My agency Ad Sales as a Service helps media companies do just that.