Hire The Best Podcast Voice Actors and Podcast Narrators

A podcast is an audio series that revolves around a topic or theme. Podcasts can be streamed online or downloaded onto a device for listening on the go.

A podcast host is the voice of the podcast. They typically interview guests, share stories, and introduce segments on the show.

Starting a podcast takes planning! After coming up with your initial concept, the next step is to plan out your podcast in depth what the themes of each episode will be, who the guests are, and what will be discussed. Once those important details have been thoroughly planned out and you have found the voice for your podcast, it’s time to record. From there, it’s on to audio editing, publishing and promotion.

Approximately two-thirds of listeners aged 18 to 49 have acted on ads they heard in a podcast, either by researching a product or service or by actually purchasing something they first heard about in an episode. According to a comScore study, podcast ads are considered to be the least intrusive form of digital advertising, while additional research discovered that podcast ads are incredibly effective. A Midroll study revealed that 80% of listeners could name at least one brand advertised on a podcast episode.

Look for a voice over and/or voice actor that has the following qualities:
You find the read engaging the whole way through:
This may seem obvious, but if you’re losing interest after hearing an audition, then chances are, you won’t be able to hold your attention for the duration of an entire podcast.

They have experience in podcasting:
Being the voice of a podcast requires the voice actor being able to talk casually about various subject matters. Hiring a voice actor who has experience in this area, means they will be able to captivate your audience for the entirety of the show.

They connect with your audience:
Your listening audience may enjoy a certain style of voicing or expects words to be pronounced in a particular way or is accustomed to hearing a specific voice type. Knowing this about your audience will help you to decide who should be the voice of your podcast or podcast ads.

In general, aim to create a podcast ad longer than 15 seconds, but ideally 60 to 90 seconds long for midroll ads, and 15-30 seconds for preroll. People tend to skip podcast content in 15 second increments, so making your ad longer can increase the chance that the listener will hear at least a portion of your ad as they’re skipping through the content.

There are many options for podcast advertising and your approach depends on your product, and your audience. Host voiced podcast ads can help to lend trust and credibility, however, they may also come across as an endorsement and this can dissuade hosts from reading your ad. Voice actor read ads can add a new, interesting element to the advertisement, including music and other audio cues. You can also have the podcast host introduce the advertiser, and then lead into the voice actor read copy – this is known as a hybrid ad.

You can track your podcast ad’s effectiveness in the following ways:
1. Tracking episode downloads and spins on streaming platforms for impression
2. Embedding unique promo codes to track direct sales from the podcast ads.
3. Using custom URLs that lead listeners to a dedicated landing page for your podcast ad offer.
4. Surveying your customers to learn how they heard of your services/products.
5. Asking for survey data from the podcast provider (if provided/possible) on listener ad recall.

The best length for an ad campaign is at least 4-5 advertisements. Ads that appear on five or more podcast episodes result in 39% more listener recall. While spots that run on four podcast episodes improve unaided brand recall by 27%.

1. Connects With Your Audience
Podcasts associated to your brand may not be reaching a mass audience, however, they are reaching the exact audience who is interested in the topics you are discussing. Unlike a radio medium that tends to span across an assortment of topics throughout the show, podcasts are pointedly themed to correspond with an overarching subject matter. Which means you can talk about what you want, when you want.

2. Supplements Your Other Strategies
It’s important to think of podcasts as supplementary material to your other content. Chances are, you have a blog and video strategy for your brand, and podcasting could be the next natural step. Tapping into an audience that already believes in your message is a smart way to build listenership for you podcast. You can create complementary content around the same subject matter you will be discussing on your podcast and then release them all at the same time.

3. Podcasts Are On-Demand
In a world where society is used to on-demand content, the days of having only a small window to view or listen to content (when it’s live) are long behind us. Because of this, podcasts are flourishing. They’re available in the exact moments when listeners want to tune in and your content will be forever available for all to access.

4. Podcasts Make a Play for Audio Attention
The majority of your audience is preoccupied with screen time throughout most of their day. By providing your audience with audio content, rather than visual content, you are allowing your listeners to take a break and absorb content in a new way. Think of all the times throughout the day that people may be unable to watch to read content (eg. when driving, in the shower etc). This is not the case for audio content, which can be consumed wherever your listeners want.

You should consider the following points when advertising in podcasts:
Choose the Right Demographic
Investing in brand placement with the right demographic is key. You want to make sure that every dollar you invest into podcast advertising goes a long way. The way to do this is to do your research, and ensure that your ads are strategically placed in a podcast that fits within the demographics of your brand in order to have the most impact and interest.

Here are a few key stats about podcast fans that might help you better target your podcast advertisements:

26% of Americans tune into podcasts monthly, 17% listen weekly
Weekly listeners tune in for over 6 hours each week, on average
51% of listeners earn a salary between $75K and $150K
18% of Americans have a Google Home or Alexa, among podcast fans that statistic rises to 30%
Select the Best Podcast Ad Format
1. Host-voiced podcast ads: these are the ads that are read out by your podcast host.
2. Fully produced adsThese can be ads read by your podcast host or another voice actor that also include music and other sound effects and audio cues.