Case Study: How Our B2B Tech Company Amplified Demand Gen with Podcast Advertising

Abbie Hosta
Associate Director, Marketing
Veeva Systems

HUG Agenda
12:05 PM ET
12:10 PM ET
1:00 PM ET
Introductions
Presentation begins
Q&A

About Your Host…
Kiwi Creative
We are a HubSpot Platinum
Solutions Partner for growing
B2B tech companies.
kiwicreative.net
Jen Lombardi
Head Honcho, Creative Genius

About Me
● 15 years in B2B tech marketing
● 6 years in startups
● Former Hubspot user and admin
● Marketing generalist
Abbie Hosta | Associate Director, Marketing | Veeva Systems

Reach a niche market or
hard to reach prospects
Stand out from
competitors
Do more with fewer
resources
Adapt to changing
trends and audience
preferences
Build trust and
credibility
Tried and true tactics
no longer effective
Photo credit: Vecteezy
Ever been here before?

Quick Overview
● One of the world’s most successful
cloud software companies
● Loyal customer base and established
market leader in many areas
● More than 30 successful products
● Public Benefit Corporation
#1 Goal: Increase awareness and establish
Veeva as a long-term, trusted partner among
clinical research sites.
Product A
Product B
Product C
Product D

Challenges & Goals
Entering a new, skeptical market
Veeva is a late entrant among established brands and
companies that overpromise and underdeliver.
Limited opportunities to reach prospects
Prospects have little time or money for events (e.g.
conferences, webinars) and their schedules are erratic.
Old habits return after pandemic boom
With less pressure to go digital, adoption slows and familiar
(and inefficient) ways of working resurface.
Establish trust and differentiate ourselves
Overcome suspicion about free pricing
Deliver knowledge and value (don’t be sales-y)
Don’t replicate what others do
Be more succinct and transparent
Showcase customer success

Jump into their social circles
When entering a new market…

Pick 2-4 podcasts to sponsor and connect with the host(s)
● Understand the “why” behind their show and try to align where possible
● Ensure podcasters understand - and support - our long-term vision
● Make it a win-win: Find ways to provide value to them beyond sponsorship dollars
Be authentic and radically transparent
● Forego perfection and some creative control
● Have an opinion and speak openly about customer concerns, objections, limitations
● Talk about things beyond your product/service
Get creative, think beyond a 60-second ads
● Look for opportunities to creative derivative content
● Leverage their presence on social channels and their email database
● Offer live demos or exclusive events just for their audience
Podcast Strategy

● Ask your customers, colleagues
● Find potential podcasts via Rephonic or keyword search in Apple Podcasts and Spotify
● Measure what you can via public data (Rephonic: How to See How Many Listeners a Podcast Has)
● Collect viewer data from Apple, spotify, youtube, Rephonic
● Include email database and social followers
Who should we sponsor?

● Pre- and mid-roll ads
● Product demo
● Customer interviews
● Sponsorship announcement
● Memes
● Email / social mentions
● Backlink to website
● YouTube and Linkedin w/mentions
● Repurpose content into snippets and post on other channels
● Testimonial or case study from show host
Activities

How much should we spend?
● Cost Per Mille (CPM or Cost per thousand listens - N/A (we were early sponsors)
● Estimate the reach ~ 200 unique listens/views per episode
● Compare a typical spend for a webinar or conference - ~$6,000
● How often will other ads/messages appear alongside ours? ~4 other sponsors
● Length of ad/message - 2-minutes
● Frequency delivered - 2X’s monthly
● How long will the ad/message will be available? - In perpetuity
● Any extras? - Backlinks on episode page, social tags, email to database
● Level of influence (based on segment, # of followers, engagement, audience
breakdown, etc.) - Medium to high
Example fee: $800 per episode /OR/ $2,000 per month for 6 months

Goal: Increase awareness and establish Veeva as a
long-term, trusted partner among clinical research sites.
➔ Increase in website visitors
➔ Increase awareness at conferences and events of key messages
➔ Increase signups and contact us requests
How will we measure success?

● Clinical Trials Guru - 0:30
● Note to File Podcast - 0:00
● Clinical Trial Podcast - 2:00
Example Pre-Roll Ads
The more authentic, the better!

The Results
● 1,600+ product demo views
Total views from 4 videos: 1 Linkedin live stream, 2
YouTube
● 255% increase in web visitors from social
Average unique monthly visitors between Jan 22 - Oct
22 compared to Nov 22 - Jun 23
● Increase in new customers from WOM
Anecdotal feedback from colleagues
We did NOT use unique tracking links
Promotion start date

The Results
● 61 Signups
31 new sign ups from podcast
25 sign ups from from social media (+108%)
● 42 New Customers
Live customers that indicated “podcast” or
“social media” as a referral source upon sign
up between Jan 22 - Aug 23
Captured via open text field on form
submission
Promotion start date

#1 Thing That Led to Success
Highly invested podcast hosts
● They are raving fans of our product and company
● They support our long-term vision
● They see it as a two-way investment

Creative Control
Benefits of ‘Letting Go’
● The hosts did things we didn’t consider or
ask for, and it was a success!
● They wouldn't have many followers if
they weren’t smart, creative, or had some
expertise in their niche - so trust them!
● They can pull out golden nuggets that
you may overlook
Considerations
● For customer interviews, consider how
much control you want over the story
● Track what is said and identify
mistakes/issues early
● Invest time to ensure they understand
your brand/product/company (offer
training, fact sheets, etc.)
Fewer restrictions lead to better performance

The Legal Stuff
● Who “owns” the content (intellectual property rights)? Can content be edited or removed?
● Who’d providing the ad content?
● How are fees payable? Per month, per episode, etc…
● Who else is sponsoring? Will you allow your ads to appear alongside a competitor?
● What if the host says something incorrect about your company/product/service?
● Does the podcaster monetize their videos in other ways?
● What happens if the host is caught in a controversy or subject to criminal indictment?

Keep an Episode Log
● Track activities and results
● Resolve errors
● Quickly access historical
content and comments

Other Lessons Learned
● Competitors started copying what we did immediately
● We overcommitted how much we could realistically do
● Creating derivative content is more work work than anticipated
● Customers were shy and hesitant to be interviewed podcast

Questions?
P.S. Save the date for our next HUG

Case Study: How Our B2B Tech Company Amplified Demand Gen with Podcast Advertising

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