For a long time, the question posed in this headline wouldn’t have even been a thing. Of course you should be advertising on podcasts -- how else are you supposed to make any money?

But the landscape has changed recently. Now, some podcasts are going a different route. They’re putting up paywalls, whether for the podcast in its entirety or additional exclusive content.

Both advertisements and subscriptions are viable options, but they provide entirely different listener experiences. However, the question of which way you should move forward with your own podcast is a little more complicated than simply which way sounds best.

✴ The traditional advertising route

There’s a reason that advertisements during commercial breaks are most podcasters’ chosen strategy. It’s tried and true, and advertisers are lining up to have podcast hosts feature their products. This is for a couple of reasons. Podcast listeners are much more likely than most audiences to actually sit through the entire ad. They’re also more likely to act on the ad, with significant sales conversions. One of the big reasons for this is that podcast listeners feel a connection to hosts in a way that other mediums fail to create.

For example, people who are fans of Shonda Rhimes and her TV series don’t feel connected to the commercials that run during episodes of her shows. That’s because we all know that she has no say in what ads are run. The show and the commercials are separate entities.

That’s not the case with podcasts, where hosts truly do have a say over which ads they record and air. It’s all done in-house, which tells audiences that the host endorses advertisements read out during a podcast episode. That gives the ads a word-of-mouth feel, as if your friend gave you a personal recommendation.

✴ The problem with traditional advertisements

There are some downsides to running traditional ads. First off, many users still skip over the commercials, regardless of how much they like the show or host. Most podcast players have an easy way to skip over 15-, 30-, or 60-second intervals. And if you’re not able to drive sales through the ads, then advertisers won’t return.

Which brings us to our second point: advertisers are never a guarantee. Of course, nothing is really a guarantee, but advertisers can be particularly flaky. You never know why they might drop out on a given month. It could because you’re not driving enough traffic. There could be internal company policies preventing them from spending money. Or, there could be a myriad of other factors.

And last but not least, advertisements take time. A lot of time. It’s not just the recording of the ad; that’s one of the least time-consuming parts. You also have to find the advertisers and make the sale. Then, you often have to script the ad, or at least part of it, to give it the personal feel that advertisers want on podcasts. And then, you have to edit after recording. All of these things add up to a lot of time you aren’t spending on your actual podcast content.

✴ The alternative route

So, what’s your option if you don’t want to run ads? Well, one popular alternative is the subscription model.

With a subscription, you are asking your listeners to pay for content. Now, there are two sub-categories here. You can ask for flat-out subscribers, who pay to listen to even a minute of your podcast.

Or, you can go with the freemium model (the most popular alternative route). With the freemium model, you still give people access to your main podcast for free, but then you ask them to pay for additional content. This can include anything from an archive of past episodes to transcripts of episodes to exclusive community access.

The subscription model works because of all the reasons that advertising also works. Mainly, listeners feel connected to hosts and want to support them.

But the bonus of this route? With subscribers, your income is a lot more predictable. You’re probably not going to lose a huge chunk of them one month (at least, not unless you give them a reason to leave). This also gives you the ability to spend more time on your podcast and content you genuinely care about, rather than dedicating a serious amount of time to securing advertisements.

✴ The final option: a bit of both

No one’s saying that you can’t do both. You can have advertising and also a subscription-based plan. In fact, one of the perks of paying could be that you run ads in the free version and take out commercials for the paying listeners.

The one catch here is that advertisers may not endorse that model. You’ll need a large audience so that the listeners who aren’t paying are still a large enough group that you're enticing companies to pay for ads.

✴ A final caveat

Making any kind of profit--let alone enough revenue to replace a full-time job--is hard. You’ll have to be pulling in tens of thousands of regular downloads, and that’s just at the low-end. Now, if you go with the subscription model, you may be able to capitalize much earlier than that point.

Either way, it’s still hard work, and you have to make sure you keep your focus on the main thing: creating a podcast worth listening to. Without that, it won’t matter whether you’re pursuing the advertising or subscribing route.

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Should You Be Advertising on Podcasts?