$1000 podcast marketing experiment: who's worth the investment and who eats your cash?

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I splurged $1,000 on podcast marketing so you didn't have to. Oh, boy, some people are really not gonna like this episode. Let's do it.

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Podcast marketing is growing and it's no longer at all. That is only accessible by the big brands, the big name publishers with enterprise level tools. Now, everyday indie podcasters can invest money in advertising their podcast, but which platforms should you be using, if any? That was the point of this experiment that I ran on your behalf. Now, I'm privileged as founder of Podnows Podcasting to have access to some enterprise level tools which help me and my clients grow podcasts more quickly with the right kind of audiences, highly targeted, listening to shows.

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This isn't easy for the everyday podcaster. So I'm here to help you navigate through the tools that you need to be avoiding that will just chew your cash and which tools you should be using to get the biggest bang for your bug. The answer to this will probably surprise you, given what the podcast influences suggest.

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So let's start with the parameters. First of all, of this experiment, $1,000, that was what we splurged on this. It was done over a three month period and it was very tightly measured. Now, what I'm going to be very clear about from the start is I was dismissing out of hand any platforms that were not making it possible for everyday podcasters. And I'm not talking about budgets here, I'm talking about setups.

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Now, my guess is obviously some of the bigger podcasts are the exception to this rule, but my guess is that 95% of podcasters probably don't have their podcast registered as a legal business, as in in the UK. A limited company, or in the US, an LLC. Now, of course, I know there are a lot of podcasters that do have their podcast registered in this way, so they can charge for sponsorship and advertising and indeed invest in their own marketing. But that isn't the case for most. I would argue that most indie podcasters are probably dealing with beans when it comes to the investment of their podcast, and certainly when it comes to the revenue of their podcast.

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They're using things like Patreon or nowadays, Apple Podcasts premium subscriptions, perhaps. But for the most part, we're talking pennies and pounds, not thousands of dollars worth of investment in things like Spotify adverts. So we have to dismiss Spotify right off the bat because you cannot register for their advertising platform unless you are VAT registered in the UK.

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Done. Goodbye, Spotify. You're not for us. Let's now move on to the next tools in my list and bus sprout ads. Now, they launched this service with a massive fanfare.

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All the podcast, newsletters and industry podcasts covered this and it was seen as a really exciting opportunity. Or was it? Now, for you, if you've never used this? Buzzsprout ads gives you the opportunity to upload a trailer of your podcast, invest $100 or more if you want, and have your trailer played on other podcasts, and that's it. I wish I could tell you that there was more to it than that, but there isn't.

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You're literally at the mercy of other podcasters within the Buzzsprout directory deciding whether or not they're going to play your podcast trailer in their shows, and those podcasts are going to be random. There is no targeting option in this service whatsoever. So $100 later, I found 72 people had listened to the trailer for my podcast, but I had nothing to show for it. Certainly no more download numbers, certainly no more followers in Apple Podcasts, and certainly no way of tracking any kind of ROI on this investment. There's $100, but still, I want to get an idea of what's working and what isn't on this point.

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I think it's worth mentioning a couple of things here. There are different goals that different people have when they're advertising their podcast. Some want the download numbers, the vanity metrics. Some want chart rankings. And some people want to make sales.

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They want lead generation. They want to build mailing lists. Others still want to build their follow account in Apple Podcasts because that, for them, is the bigger picture, having their podcast surfacing more in search due to the numbers of followers on that podcast. And that was indeed my objective with this experiment. Certainly not chart rankings.

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And if you're wondering why I'm not interested in chart rankings, you need to go back and listen to my previous episode in which I exposed the myth around chart rankings. I am not naming this podcast for one very specific reason. I don't want to get it blacklisted. I am going to be following up this episode in the future with a follow up episode very similar, and we'll be tracking the progress of these platforms to see if they've improved at all. I don't want it getting blacklisted and not being able to get the data.

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Well, now that we've established that, let's move on with the experiment. And we're moving on now to acast. Acast a little bit more expensive than Buzzsprout ads for advertising your podcast, but there's a lot more to it. For instance, you can actually target your demographics in Acast ads. You can target the geographic location, the age, the gender, and some interests.

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So slightly more control over who hears your podcast, which you would probably think, well, that's fantastic, wouldn't you? However, again, I reiterate, my goal was to grow my follow account in Apple Podcasts for my unnamed show. And did Acast ads help me achieve this? No. No obvious return on investment.

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And I set up a specific landing page with a vanity URL, which told me whether or not anyone followed up on my call to action in the podcast episode advert. Not one click. I know what you might be thinking, well, maybe they looked for the podcast independently through the podcast app themselves. But again, here's my point. I didn't get any more followers in Apple Podcasts off the back of this campaign.

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I stopped all other marketing to ensure that I could track whether these campaigns were successful or not, and it certainly wasn't. So for that reason, I am calling Acast ads a bust, along with Spotify and Bus proud ads. Well, now let's move on to in-app paid advertising on some of the smaller platforms. Is this the new frontier? I'm talking about?

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Overcast, for instance. Now the ads on these sorts of platforms and there's also PocketCasts and CastBox and various other apps that offer this sort of service. The prices are quite expensive for what you get. So for example, an Overcast campaign might cost $180 to get 30 new followers. So the problem with that is that any increase in followers is exclusive to Overcast.

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And as I've mentioned previously, my goal was to increase my follower count in Apple Podcasts. Now, that might not be any good to me then. However, I'm not dismissing them out of hand for one very simple reason. Your goals and objectives might be not just to grow in Apple Podcasts, but to grow in other apps, in which case this will be absolutely fine for you. Also, I have to keep an open mind on this and offer what I've been told.

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I don't know if this is true or not. I've heard that Apple Podcasts actually tracks engagement in the apps that feed off of its feed. And we know that there are several podcast apps that feed off of the Apple Podcasts feed. So it might well be able to track through its API, and feedback that data to Apple Podcasts from apps like Overcast. If that's the case, then maybe Apple Podcasts is measuring followers through things like Overcast and then that would make it much more worthwhile.

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$180 for 30 followers in a very short space of time could be very valuable to some. Moving on now to agency ads, and I'm only going to skim the surface of advertised cast and other agencies like this, since it's likely to be beyond the budget of most podcasters listening to this episode. But if you're willing to invest a slightly larger sum and you're prepared to endure all the drudgery of negotiations with an agency more vested in the podcaster's interest than your results, we'll go for it. So we've talked about the platforms that perhaps don't necessarily work for me personally and my agency, Podnows. So let's get into what Podnow's weapon of choice might be.

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Well. Having traversed the podcasting landscape for years and seen the rise of Web 1.0 with the early days of having to create your own RSS feed. Also through Web 2.0, where things like Libsyn came around and helped with syndication of your RSS feed and now 3.0, where people are starting to let go a little bit now and opting for these walled gardens and for bespoke content held within brands like Spotify and YouTube. I've tested a vast array of strategies to make my voice heard. And nowadays, I do exactly the same for my clients.

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Rest assured, like you, I'm hunting for the most cost effective methods to reach as many targeted listeners as possible. And this is key. Targeted listeners. I'm not going for volume. I'm going for ideal listeners that will love and engage with my content.

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So here it comes for you and for most people listening to this episode, there's going to be a collective gasp. Facebook, for my money, is your best bet when it comes to growing and marketing your podcast. Yeah, I can hear your gasp. Facebook, infamous for its reach, plummeting right, due to Apple's privacy updates. Well, that's the narrative that the podcast influencers have been putting forward.

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And to those naysayers, I say you've been taking advice from the wrong people. You've been listening to those people that don't know their stuff. And I mean this with absolute love. I genuinely like the guy, but I'm going to call it out. Here some voices in the space, including recent hall of Famers that are now famously abandoning things like Twitter because they're not liking the way the space is going.

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They famously decry Facebook ads and say they don't aid podcasting growth. Evo Terra very famously called this out on Twitter, said it didn't work when he tried to do a little bit of Facebook ads campaigning. But much like many podcasting hall of famers who subscribe to their own version of the truth to sleep better at night, evo simply didn't understand how to effectively run Facebook ads. I'm sorry. It's the truth.

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Evo is fantastic at other things he does. But for me, if you're running a podcast marketing agency and you don't understand how things work, hire the expertise of those who do and get them to train you so you can better help your clients and better understand how these things work yourself. And that's exactly what I did. And my experiment aimed to increase a podcaster's follow account in Podknows Podcasting. Let me tell you this.

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Just two months into running a highly targeted Facebook ad, the follow account skyrocketed by a whopping 235%, achieved at just $5 per day with a CPA rate of $0.37. That's an accomplishment that none of the other strategies came close to. So am I suggesting you rely solely on Facebook ads to expand your podcast audience reach? Absolutely not. Facebook is merely one tool in the Podnos podcasting arsenal, and it constitutes around about 5% of what my company employs for audience growth.

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We also use an array of enterprise level options that run into the hundreds and in some cases, thousands of dollars per month. We use these sophisticated tools to grow shows for as little as $150 per month for some clients to $3,000 per month for other clients, all the way up to things like $10,000 per episode for our corporate clients. We're tailoring our approaches to our clients growth appetite. But let's get back to the point. The crux of this podcast episode is to relay the findings of my experiment keeping the spotlight on everyday indie podcasters who lack the support of major publishers and enterprise level podcast marketing agencies like my own.

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In a world where everyone and their grandma, starting a podcast standing out from that crowd is tougher than ever before. Yet I hope my experiment shed some light on the potential of different marketing strategies, helping you navigate the dynamic waters of podcast growth. That sea might be vast, but with the right compass Jim Lad, you'll chart your course to the shores of success. So let's dive into the lessons learned from my $1000 podcast marketing investment experiment. Firstly, it's clear targeting the right audience is crucial for your success.

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By understanding your ideal listeners and tailoring your content and marketing efforts accordingly, you can attract a more engaged audience and increase your chances of success organically. And that is key to ensuring that when you're investing in your content, it's landing using set it and forget it tools that these platforms are offering will just chew your cash if you're not measuring the KPIs. And you know what? In a lot of cases, even if you are measuring the KPIs. Secondly, again, before we even start talking about promotion, you need to make sure that your content quality is Chef's Kiss.

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Creating high quality episodes that provide value to your listeners is key to building a loyal fan base and attracting new ones. Don't skimp on production and always strive to deliver valuable and engaging content. And lastly, the platform you choose for your podcast advertising needs will make a significant difference. Most will be a bust, they just want your money. Some will perform better for you, but it depends on your goals.

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So what can you do to grow your podcast? Well, experimentation and data analysis are key to finding the perfect combination of platforms that yield the best results for your podcast marketing efforts. But I can help you with this. My team and I can help you grow your podcast to new levels that you would never dreamed of before and for prices that will surprise you. It's incredible what $100 can buy you using my methods.

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So if you're ready to take your podcast marketing to the next level, visit Podmastery.co/grow and book in for a chat with me on how we can unlock the tools and strategies you need to grow your podcast audience to levels you've only dreamed of before. Don't miss out on the opportunity to reach more listeners and make a lasting impact with your podcast by having the right ones listening.

00:17:37

Should we talk about episode artwork in podcasts? To be honest, it's one of those aspects of podcast publishing that many of us have been lazy with over the years, mostly because we've become programmed to believe that nobody is going to see our episode artwork. That despite the fact that it is displayed in a number of apps, including Spotify and podcast websites. If you opt to show episode artwork when you're publishing, that will be displayed on those corners of the internet. But most of us, we realize that 60% of the podcast listening market is listening through Apple Podcasts, and up until now, they've not been showing episode level artwork.

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Well, that's about to change. In the next update of Apple Podcasts, you will see your episode artwork featured alongside your new episodes. It might seem like a bit of work to go back and create new episode artwork for all your previous episodes, and to that end, I would say it's probably not worth the effort. However, do include episodic artwork in your workflow of your podcast publishing going forward. It is eventually going to fill the entire scroll if your podcast continues its life and it'll look good.

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So for the sake of an extra couple of minutes in Canva or another minute or two in Photoshop, create specific episodic artwork for your podcast future. You will thank you and so will your listeners.

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There you go. If you enjoyed this episode of The Podknows Podcasting, I'd really appreciate it if you gave us a follow in your favorite podcast app of choice. We happen to love Apple Podcasts. While you're in there, drop us a review, will you? Really appreciate that.

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And if you want to get in touch with us or get some free tips delivered to your inbox every now and again, we certainly don't email you every week and we're not going to share your details with anybody. But if you'd like some free insights delivered straight into your inbox the place. To find out more about us and what we can offer for you and your podcast, you'll get it all at podmastery.co

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The Podmaster is a Podnows Podcasting production. Find out more about us at podknowspodcasting.co.uk