How to Market, Promote & Grow Your Podcast Audience to Increase Listeners

“How do I promote my podcast to get thousands of downloads per episode?” is one question I often get asked in my work with Content Allies. Through the work I do advising podcast agencies, and through the podcast ads company I run, Listen Network, I am spending most of my days helping companies grow their podcast audience.

My answer is building an audience for your podcast can seem daunting, but with the right strategies, you can attract new listeners and grow your following over time. Effective podcast promotion is key to reaching your target audience and increasing downloads and engagement.

Podcast Promotion

Knowing Your Podcast Content and Audience

Podcast Growth Starts with a Great Podcast

Paid Strategies to Grow Your Podcast Audience

• Using Paid Ads to Grow Your Podcast

• Podcast Promotion Agencies

• Podcast Sponsorships - Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, & Post-Roll Promotion

Unpaid Strategies to Grow Your Podcast Audience

• The Power of Podcast Syndication

• Podcast SEO

• Marketing Your Podcast on Social Media

• Newsletters / Email

• SEO Articles

• Podcast Episodes Schedule

Other Strategies

• Content Syndication

• Guest Integration for Wider Exposure

• Mutual Benefits of Cross-Promotion

• Utilizing Reviews and Ratings

How NOT to promote your podcast

Summary of Growth Tactics

Conclusion: Unified Strategies for Podcast Growth

Podcast Promotion

Podcast promotion encompasses all the tactics and channels you can use to market your show and reach potential new listeners. From social media to guest appearances, there are many ways to get your podcast in front of more ears.

Some of the core promotion strategies include:

• Social media marketing across platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.

• Getting listed and promoted on podcast apps/directories

• Guest appearances on other podcasts in your niche

• Having an email list to promote new episodes

• Publishing blogs/articles around your podcast topics

• Leveraging video platforms like YouTube

• Running paid advertising campaigns

The most successful podcasts use a varied promotional mix across multiple channels. Growing an audience requires consistent effort across many fronts. It's important to understand your target listeners and where they can be reached effectively.

With a tailored, persistent promotion plan, you can gradually build awareness, discoverability, and listenership for your podcast over time. The following sections will dive deeper into specific paid and unpaid podcast growth strategies to consider.

Knowing Your Podcast Content and Audience

Understanding your podcast's content and defining your target audience are crucial first steps before implementing any promotion strategies. You need to intimately know what your show is about and who you are trying to reach.

Your podcast's content should be focused on a specific niche or expertise that you can cover in-depth. Don't try to be too broad or generalized. Identify a well-defined lane that you can own and establish yourself as an authority figure within that arena. Nail down the clear angle and perspective that makes your podcast unique.

Once you have mastered your content strategy, you can start researching and pinpointing the characteristics of your ideal listener avatar. Some key questions to answer about your target audience:

• What are their demographics like age, location, and interests?

• What level of knowledge or expertise do they have about your topic?

• What are their pain points, needs, and motivations related to your content?

• Where do they consume content and media?

• What other podcasts, influencers, or brands do they follow in this space?

The more vividly you can define your listener persona, the easier it will be to create content that resonates with them and promote your show through channels and messaging that grabs their attention. With a focused content strategy and targeted audience in mind, you can execute your growth promotions much more effectively.

Podcast Growth Starts with a Great Podcast

Effective podcast marketing starts with the podcast itself. Before you dive into promotion, make sure your podcast delivers real value. 

Ask yourself: What promise are you making to your audience with each episode? Is your content engaging and meeting their expectations right from the start?

Remember, sophisticated marketing can't fix a lackluster podcast. Listeners have plenty of choices, so you need to give them a strong reason to pick and stick with your show.

Critically listen to your own podcast. Does it sound professional? Is it engaging? Does it draw you in? Be honest in assessing what could be better.

As your podcast evolves, keep tuning into your audience's needs. What are they really into? How can you make your episodes resonate more? Focus on content that educates, entertains, or inspires, and stands out.

Start with a high-quality podcast—one that builds strong connections and offers genuine value. That's the foundation for effective marketing and growing a dedicated audience.

Paid Strategies to Grow Your Podcast Audience

While unpaid tactics are valuable, investing in paid podcast promotion lets you get your show in front of your ideal target listeners on a much larger scale. There are two main approaches to paid promotion:

Using Paid Ads to Grow Your Podcast

Yes, you can use paid ads to grow your podcast. My company Listen Network has extensive experience providing podcast growth through a variety of paid ad networks. 

Paid ads for podcasting promotes your podcast outside of the actual listening experience through channels like display ads, social media ads, content promotion, and more. This type of promotion casts a wide net to drive awareness and new audience members to your show.

Paid ad campaigns identify listeners based on specific interests, demographics, behavioral data, etc. The ads promote your podcast trailer, episodes, or show overview to pique curiosity and convince them to hit subscribe.

Podcast Promotion Agencies

With the growth of outstream podcast promotion, agencies and platforms have sprung up to tap into this burgeoning market. The most advanced among them being Listen Network, an audience growth agency built by podcasters for marketers. They help get your podcast heard by the people who matter to your business, using proprietary AdTech designed to target your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). With innovative podcast promotion, Listen Network enables you to hit your podcast audience metrics like downloads, followers and views.

Listen Network helps global B2B and B2C brands achieve impactful podcast growth targets through their comprehensive suite of audience growth services. Their solutions are designed to grow your podcast, reach your most niche audience, and drive better content consumption over time.

• Podcast Display Ads

Reach your online audiences with strategically placed podcast display ads. Listen Network's proprietary ad placements ensure your podcast episodes are seen by listeners who actively care about your content. Their extensive premium media network is tightly aligned with your target audience's interests.

• LinkedIn Sponsored Content

Engage professionals and influencers on LinkedIn with highly targeted podcast promotion campaigns. Listen Network's reporting gives you visibility into the podcast traffic and downloads generated from your LinkedIn activity, allowing you to optimize your investment.

• YouTube Podcast Ads

Leverage the power of YouTube to grow your podcast audience. Listen Network's YouTube outstream podcast ads help increase 30-second IAB video views on your full-length podcast episodes, reaching listeners when they're consuming related content.

• Meta Sponsored Podcasts

For direct-to-consumer brands, the Meta Sponsored Podcasts solution offers a great way to connect with your ideal audience and build community engagement on Facebook and Instagram. Listen Network's outstream podcast ads on users' feeds drive real downloads at the host level.

• Podcast Follower Growth

Alongside driving downloads and consumption, Listen Network helps you grow a branded community of loyal podcast listeners. Their YouTube Subscription Ads and Spotify Followers Ads solutions make it easy to convert casual listeners into dedicated subscribers and followers.

• Advanced Podcast Attribution

Listen Network provides business-class data and reporting to measure the true impact of your podcast promotion efforts. Their proprietary audience intelligence allows you to analyze intent signals, demographics, firmographics, job functions, and more of your highest-converting listeners.

By combining their expert-level podcast strategy, world-class customer service, and unparalleled reporting capabilities, Listen Network delivers predictable, sustainable podcast audience growth without any traffic-backed shortcuts.

Podcast Sponsorships - Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, & Post-Roll Promotion

Another paid podcast promotion approach is inserting your ad into an existing podcast. These ads show up as either pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll meaning the beginning, middle, or end of an episode. 

The way podcast ad promotion works is your podcast trailer or ad will play before, during, or after another show's episode that has a relevant and engaged audience. The idea is to reach prospective new listeners while they are already in a podcasting mindset.

Podcast sponsorship ads allow you to get your content in front of audiences already tuning into podcasts in your niche or category. This can drive awareness of your show to potentially interested listeners.

There are a few ways Podcast Promotion ads are sold:

• CPM Model - You pay based on every 1,000 ad impressions/listens your promotion receives.

• CPL Model - You pay per new listener acquired from the Instream campaign.

• Baked-In Ads - You pay a flat fee to the podcast host to have your pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ad baked into their show's episodes.

While podcast sponsorships can be an effective tactic, it generally isn't as scalable for quickly growing your podcast audience compared to other direct podcast promotion tactics. 

However, podcast sponsorships through top podcasts in your category can be a good complementary tactic to drive awareness and new subscriber growth when utilized alongside broader outstream campaigns.

Unpaid Strategies to Grow Your Podcast Audience

While paid advertising can give a boost, there are plenty of free and low-cost tactics you can employ to grow your podcast's audience organically. Unpaid strategies allow you to get scrappy with your promotions and can pay big dividends over time with consistent effort. Some of the most effective unpaid approaches include:

The Power of Podcast Syndication

Having your show listed and available on all the major podcast apps and directories is key for discoverability. Make sure your podcast is syndicated across platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more. Submitting to podcast aggregators gets your show indexed everywhere listeners search for new content. Update all your show's metadata like artwork, descriptions, and categories as well.

Podcast SEO

Optimizing your podcasts name, author, show description, episode title, and show notes are all factors that can help increase your podcasts organic ranking within Apple & Spotify. These factors combined with 5-Star ratings and a growing organic audience are all factors that help your podcast rank better in the major directories. 

Marketing Your Podcast on Social Media

Maintaining an active presence on social platforms that align with your audience allows you to build a community, share updates, drive engagement, and promote each new episode. Focus on just a few core networks rather than spreading too thin. Leverage shareable audio clips, quotes, and video snippets from episodes as promotions.

Newsletters / Email

Having an email list enables you to promote content directly to loyal subscribers. Send consistent newsletters or email updates whenever you publish a new podcast episode. You can also share exclusive content and build closer relationships with your biggest fans through email marketing.

SEO Articles

In addition to podcasts, publishing regular articles and blog content around your topic and show can drive more search traffic. Optimize each piece for relevant keywords and strategically link back to drive listeners to your podcast's website or episode pages.

Podcast Episodes Schedule

Establishing a reliable publishing cadence for new episodes helps build habits with listeners over time. Sticking to a consistent release schedule allows fans to know when to expect fresh content, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Link to an article on the ideal publishing frequency for more insights.

Other Strategies

Content Syndication

Content syndication is a powerful strategy to extend the reach of your podcast by distributing it across various platforms and networks. By syndicating your content, you can tap into new audiences and increase your podcast's visibility. Here's how you can leverage content syndication for your podcast:

• Identify Syndication Platforms: Look for platforms that specialize in distributing podcasts to a wide range of channels. Services like Anchor or Libsyn can automatically distribute your episodes to popular podcast directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more.

• Repurpose Content: Repackage your podcast episodes into other formats such as blog posts, articles, or video snippets. You can then distribute these across different content platforms like Medium, LinkedIn Articles, or YouTube, reaching audiences who may prefer consuming content in different formats.

• Partner with Aggregators: Collaborate with content aggregators or media outlets that curate and distribute podcasts to their audiences. By partnering with these platforms, you can amplify your podcast's reach and attract new listeners who may discover your content through these channels.

Guest Integration for Wider Exposure

Inviting guests onto your podcast can significantly expand your audience reach and provide valuable insights and perspectives for your listeners. Here's how guest integration can benefit your podcast:

• Diversify Content: Guests bring unique expertise, experiences, and perspectives to your podcast, enriching the content and making it more engaging for your audience.

• Cross-Promotion Opportunities: When you feature guests on your podcast, they are likely to promote the episode to their audience, introducing your podcast to new listeners who share similar interests.

• Networking and Collaboration: Building relationships with industry experts, influencers, or thought leaders through guest appearances can open doors to future collaborations, partnerships, and opportunities for your podcast.

Mutual Benefits of Cross-Promotion

Cross-promotion involves partnering with other podcasters or content creators to promote each other's podcasts. This collaborative approach can be mutually beneficial and help both parties reach a wider audience. Here are some ways to leverage cross-promotion:

• Guest Exchanges: Exchange guest appearances with other podcasters in your niche. By appearing on each other's podcasts, you can introduce your content to a new audience and vice versa.

• Promotional Swaps: Partner with fellow podcasters to cross-promote episodes on your respective platforms. This can involve sharing trailers, episode snippets, or promotional graphics on social media or through email newsletters.

• Community Building: Collaborate with other podcasters to organize joint events, webinars, or virtual summits. By pooling resources and audiences, you can create engaging content and foster a sense of community within your niche.

Utilizing Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings play a crucial role in building credibility, trust, and visibility for your podcast. Positive reviews and high ratings can attract new listeners and improve your podcast's ranking on platforms like Apple Podcasts. Here's how you can utilize reviews and ratings effectively:

• Encourage Listeners to Leave Reviews: Prompt your listeners to leave reviews and ratings after listening to your episodes. You can include a call-to-action at the end of each episode or mention it during your podcast's introduction.

• Engage with Your Audience: Respond to reviews and ratings to show appreciation for your listeners' feedback. Engaging with your audience demonstrates that you value their opinions and encourages them to continue supporting your podcast.

• Highlight Positive Feedback: Showcase positive reviews and testimonials on your podcast's website, social media profiles, or promotional materials. Positive feedback acts as social proof and can persuade new listeners to give your podcast a try.

How NOT to promote your podcast

Make sure to avoid ad providers who are using mobile game incentivized traffic. It does not attract high quality listeners.

In a quest to grow their podcast, some companies will no doubt venture into the realm of paid advertising. While we would love to say all advertising platforms are created equal, that is not quite the case. 

There is unfortunately a large number of podcast ad agencies who are utilizing tactics such as incentivizing downloads and followers via mobile games. This approach involves incentivizing listeners to follow a podcast through external rewards, such as offering in-game currency in mobile apps. This strategy can indeed lead to a spike in follower counts, as users are motivated to subscribe in exchange for the promised benefits. However, this fundamentally misunderstands the nature of authentic audience growth.

True engagement is built on a genuine interest in the podcast's content and a sense of connection with the host. Listeners who are drawn in solely by extrinsic rewards are unlikely to remain loyal or engaged over time. This can result in inflated metrics that fail to represent the podcast's actual reach and impact accurately.

At my company Listen Network, we have aimed to build a podcast ads product with integrity. We actively ensure that our ads are never showing up in mobile games, and consistently aim to improve our targeting and reporting we provide to clients. Our objective is to drive real listeners and follower growth.  

Summary of Growth Tactics

Throughout this guide, we've explored a wide range of tactics and strategies to help you effectively market, promote, and grow your podcast audience. To summarize the key approaches covered:

Paid Strategies:

• Leveraging outstream advertising to target new potential listeners

• Utilizing instream ads to reach engaged audiences on other shows

• Partnering with specialized podcast promotion platforms like Listen Network for advanced targeting and optimization

Unpaid Strategies:

• Podcast syndication across all major directories

• Optimizing your podcast website and episode content for SEO

• Actively engaging your audience on social media

• Building an email list to directly reach loyal listeners

• Publishing supplementary content like blog posts and videos

• Maintaining a consistent publishing cadence

Other Tactics:

• Syndicating your podcast content across various platforms

• Inviting relevant guests to appear on your show

• Cross-promoting with other creators in your space

• Encouraging listeners to leave positive reviews and ratings

Conclusion: Unified Strategies for Podcast Growth

Successful podcast audience growth requires a multipronged approach that leverages a mix of unpaid and paid tactics. By mastering your content strategy, precisely defining your target listeners, and executing a well-rounded promotional plan, you can steadily attract new fans and build a thriving, engaged community around your show.

The key is to remain adaptable, continuously analyze your performance, and be willing to experiment with new growth strategies. With persistence, creativity, and a data-driven mindset, you can maximize your podcast's reach and maximize your audience over time.

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Looking for a paid channel to grow your podcast?

Reach out to Listen Network to learn more.