I’ve always enjoyed the ads done by Leo and TWIT hosts of the podcasts, where they just make them seem like part of the show. Then, a few weeks ago, started getting ads for CLUB TWIT, which are obviously recorded and inserted into podcast. Then, today, listening to Tech Guy 1813, actually got a NAB (National Australia Bank) ad. I subscribe to Club TWIT, but continue listening to the “normal” podcast because I enjoy Leo’s ads (content and presentation).
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The bank ad was probably from Megaphone, which is inserting ads into content that wouldn’t have ads otherwise. (Ad spots that TWiT doesn’t sell are available to be filled via Megaphone.)
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The Club TWiT Promos are also served by Megaphone.
Direct insertion of ads is coming on strong in podcasting. We only use it if we aren’t able to sell the slot ourselves. It’s incremental income but better than nothing.
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Please sell your ad space then 
I am also very much in the camp of “personally read ads”, it just feels like the “OK” way of having ads in the first place, and many ads (in SN) are actually quite relevant or at least interesting to me.
They are selling the ad-space, but nobody wants it. TWiT has shown that they have very good conversion rates over the years (I’ve bought more from advertisers on TWiT than from any “targeted” advertising), but the advertisers don’t care about those conversion rates, if they aren’t backed up with targeted personal data scraped from the audience.
No data = no deal, for them, which is a real shame, and a reason why I join Club TWiT as soon as it was announced.
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The traditional podcast advertisers, B2C companies like Casper and Audible, have pretty much fled the market (or gone out of business). Fortunately we have an excellent B2B audience especially for security products, so they make up the bulk of our direct ad sales now. That’s why Security Now is almost always sold out.
But Sunday’s TWiT had only two out of five ads, MacBreak had only one.
We’ve been giving the remnant inventory to Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast for sale. Those are the annoying, intrusive, inserted ads you’re hearing. Unfortunately they’re also a fraction of the revenue of direct sales. But we desparately need the additional revenue.
Our studio costs roughtly $1000 per hour to run and we pay our hosts for their work, so when MacBreak runs with one ad we’re under water by several thousand dollars. Even with the additional inserted ads we run at a deficit. That’s why I push the club so hard.
Unfortunately fewer than 1 in 20 listeners joins the club, so it currently covers only about half our payroll.
When you put it all together we break even most months. But break even means Lisa and I (the owners) don’t get paid.
We’re trying to keep TWiT afloat as best we can. We don’t have any alternatives to ad inserts at the moment.
We’ll be closing the studio in a couple of months and that will save us some (we’re still on the hook for the lease until July 2026 - I was a little over-optimistic when I signed a 10-year lease). And I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to grow ad sales in the B2B space - we have a bunch of new advertisers coming on.
Look I’m no business man but even I realize I can’t operate TWiT in the red. I want you to know we’re doing our best to stay alive and keep our team employed. Thanks for your support!
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