Generally speaking, both male and female voices will work for any company. However, when you’re considering all aspects of your project, it’s important to consider which voice will work best to help you achieve your goals. 

To help you choose a male or female voice over actor, we’ve created these two simple questions:

1. What’s the audience for the product, or service you’re promoting?

Whether you’re creating brand awareness content, advertising, or consumer product information, the first step to deciding the gender of your voice over actor is to think about exactly what it is you’re trying to sell, and who you’re selling it to.

For some products, this will help you make your decision. For example, farming equipment is a male-dominated industry, and so a male voice is the more obvious choice. Beauty products will probably work best with a female voice, unless it’s a product specific to men’s beauty.

Interestingly, a study in the Journal of Advertising looked at the impact of male and female voices in commercials. They discovered that although a female voice was equally effective as a male voice in traditionally “male” audiences, such as tools and cars and weapons, a female voice was vital for successful commercials with traditionally female audiences, such as health and beauty.

If the product is more gender-neutral (for example, a chocolate bar), this doesn’t provide any clues, so you need to move on to the next question.

What tone do you want to set for the commercial?

Another study from the University of Glasgow presented recordings of the word “hello” to 300 different people. They found that male voices with a low pitch were considered least trustworthy, while female voices with a higher pitch were the most trusted. This is because, in general, female voices sound softer and less aggressive.

When thinking about your project and the type of tone you want to portray, choose the gender who’ll best match that tone. If you already have a script, study the characters and decide who it is you want the audience to trust. Should you consider making them female?

In the end, the decision of whether you choose a male or female voice over actor isn’t as important as making sure you hire a professional who can deliver a solid performance in a tone that fits your brand. That’s where we can help. If you need a voiceover actor for your next project, browse the BigMouth voices now.