The best part? They work. At Pacific Content, we’ve built internal tools to measure the effectiveness of Apple-specific podcast promotion, and websites with Podcast Smart Banners are one of the highest-performing channels we’ve ever tracked, with typical conversion rates between 10–15%.

One exceptionally successful client implemented a Smart Banner on their site, and has seen a 21% conversion rate. In other words, one in five taps to their Smart Banner resulted in a subscription. Remarkable.

How to implement an Apple Smart Banner on your podcast website

It’s surprisingly simple to add a Smart Banner to any website. Just add the following tag in your site’s <head> :

<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=XXXXXXXXXX">

Where XXXXXXXXXX is your show’s unique numerical ID.

Make it trackable

If you use Performance Horizon — and I suggest you do — you can make your Smart Banners trackable by adding your affiliate ID and a campaign tag:

<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=XXXXXXXXXX, affiliate-data=at=YYYYYYYY&ct=ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ">

Where XXXXXXXXXX is your show’s unique numerical ID, YYYYYYYY is your affiliate ID, and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ is a unique campaign tag.

Smart Banners only appear in mobile Safari (the default browser on iOS devices). All other browsers will safely ignore them.

Growing the denominator

Apple’s Smart Banners are great. But they’re just one tactical example of a much more important strategic way of thinking.

The real opportunity in podcasting isn’t about reaching the 26% of Americans who have listened to a podcast in the last month.

It’s about reaching the 66% of Americans who have never listened to a podcast, ever. It’s about reaching outside the US to global audiences. It’s about reaching well beyond who’s already listening.