Connecting professionals to advertisers

Role

Senior UX Designer

Skills

user research, user experience, ui design

This case study stems from research carried out in the Podcast Growth case study. If you want to understand how these top-level conclusions were reached, give that case study a read.

From our interviews with the professional archetype, we know that professional creators feel very overwhelmed when it comes to selling ads.

Common concerns raised in interviews include:

Creators feel very selective about the ads they choose to play on their podcasts
Creators feel overwhelmed by the complexity of ad tech. They are unfamiliar with terminology and workflows in modern advertising.
Creators feel that they lack “connections” to sponsorship opportunities, and do not have time to network with ad buyers.

Some creators manage their entire show with just 1-5 team members. These creators are extremely overburdened with the responsibility to record, edit, market and monetize the show.

Project Goal

Connect advertisers to creators directly in the app. Allow creators to receive requests directly from advertisers using SiriusXM’s Marketplace. Facilitate the review process in app, and dynamically insert the ad upon completion.

User goals

Notify users of new request from advertiser
Allow users to accept or reject an ad request
Allow users to upload audio file
Allow users to submit an ad, and communicate the state of a request after submission
Allow users to archive rejected or completed requests

Target Metrics

Release feature in Beta to ~30 podcasts
Reduce time spent outside of the app reviewing ad audio (E.G. Slack, Email)

Journey Map & Version 1

To thoroughly test this concept, I released a simple table-style 1.0 version. This prototype was made available to approximately 30 podcasts, allowing us to iterate rapidly.

After our initial beta launch, we created a google form sent to podcast creators to collect feedback and feature requests.

I conducted interviews with beta users. I created journey maps out of these interviews to target our opportunities.

2.0 Findings

Creators feel overwhelmed and confused seeing all requests in a list
They have difficulty finding new requests because they must sift through completed or rejected requests
Creators expressed anxiety about missing new requests
Creators expressed anxiety around sending a creative with a mistake

I wireframed several options for overall simplification:

We moved forward with the “tab” style, which automatically shows only requests that require attention, and matches the expected functionality of an messaging inbox. Requests are marked with the “submitted” status when sent, are automatically archived when accepted.

I also added a drawer to the table. This makes referencing information easier without moving attention away from the page. The drawer includes clear buttons to open & download the brief.

To easy anxieties around sending incorrect files, once an audio file is sent the creator can unsend the file if they’ve made a mistake.

The team implemented both email and in-app notifications for new and edited requests. Creators can opt-in to whichever type of notification fits their workflow.

Results

Qualitatively, interviews and feedback from our survey show that creators spend much less time sending audio files back and forth via email or slack.

Beyond these initial designs, we’re applying our knowledge in ad tech and continue to experiment with new ways to connect advertisers to podcasters. This is especially significant as our professional toolset grows. This project established the foundation for an entirely new experience for professional and enterprise podcasters.