Paid podcast growth - scam, or smart marketing?

Today we're talking about the big fat elephant in the podcasting room, paid podcast promotion.

Is it a growth hack or is it, as Jeremy ends and Justin Jackson called it, a massive, gaping money pit?

Let's find out.

Hey, it's Neil Velio, the podmaster here, helping brands and individuals like you to get the most out of their podcast.

I want to talk today about an episode of another podcast I heard called Podcast Marketing Trends Explained.

Now, I really enjoy listening to this podcast.

It gives me quite a lot of perspective about how the other half lives in terms of the fact that it's structured towards organic growth.

People that want to grow their shows through things like SEO and other kinds of strategy that are really quite scrappy.

By Jeremy's own admission, he's very scrappy, very bootstrap.

And like I say, I normally enjoy that podcast and it does give me some insight.

However, this particular episode titled Paid Podcast Promotion, Growth Hack or Money Pit got me triggered.

Not gonna lie.

Now listen, I've got a lot of respect for those two, but I also need to set the record straight here because some of the sweeping statements flying around are frankly misleading as hell.

If you've ever been burned by someone promising you podcast growth or you've wondered whether you should even bother spending any money on podcast promotion, this episode is going to be for you.

So, first of all, the scammy side of the industry, let's start with the bad actors.

You know the ones, there's some guy from Bangladesh who's sliding into your DMs all the time, promising you 10,000 chart topping downloads by Tuesday.

So what's really going on here?

Can they actually achieve this?

Well, yeah, technically they can get your show into the charts.

They're using click farms, which is rows of iPhones, tapping play on your podcast over and over and over and over, clicking follow on your show page over and over and over.

And you know what that actually gets you?

Other than maybe getting yourself to about 30 or 40 or 50 in the charts, Absolutely nothing.

No engagement, no real humans, Just empty vanity metrics.

Potentially a screen grab for your social media.

But then most people are going to look at that and go, hmm, a chart.

Screenshot.

Amongst a lot of other shows that people have heard of.

Wonder how you achieve that.

People are going to judge you.

And if you're someone who's so brazen with your ego that that doesn't bother you, go right ahead, have at it.

I've seen so many LinkedIn influencers who have used this strategy themselves in the past.

A Quick.

Oh, I made it to number three in the business chart.

Post on LinkedIn can sometimes make them feel good, especially when they get lots of likes and comments that validate their position.

Now, Jeremy is definitely right to call these practitioners out.

That's not marketing.

That's just setting fire to your credibility.

And I'm not blaming the people that actually subscribe to these services here.

I'm certainly not.

Some people go into this and they have no idea what they're doing.

It seems like a good idea at the time.

They Click on the PayPal account, they send some money and then they get excited because their show is in the chart.

I am not blaming them.

The podcaster.

I am certainly throwing shade at these practitioners who usually have the name Muhammad and will reach out to you through your DMs in LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever else you're hanging out on social media and offer you the world.

They promise you the world and deliver nothing.

So now let's talk about how we're different at podnos.

Let me explain how things are done differently here on the other end of the spectrum, how we approach it.

At my company, podnos, when I say we guarantee ideal listeners, I mean real people, not bots.

We don't use any click farms.

These are going to be people who actually care about what you talk about, People who binge your back catalog, people who buy from you.

We don't mess around with vanity metrics.

We're just not interested in entering that arena of bumping up the egos of LinkedIn influencers or snake oil marketers who are selling courses on Instagram.

That's not what floats my boat, doesn't fill my cup.

I'm not leaping out of bed every Monday morning going, oh yes, I get to get another LinkedIn influencer to number 16 in the charts.

Instead, we use a combination of paid placements, podcast directory promos, niche content partnerships, and yep, sometimes some good old fashioned ppc, which we use to get your show in front of the exact people who we think should be hearing it.

And the funny thing is, once you start getting the results from that, you agree these are the people that should have been hearing it.

Let's give you an example.

Are you a flying school podcast?

We would get you embedded on blogs and search pages where people are actively learning how to fly.

That's not wishful thinking, that's strategic targeting.

Why waste your time on promoting your show to a bunch of people that are never ever gonna listen to it when you can actually reach the very community that are looking for A show like yours in the first place.

If someone wants 10,000 impressions, we aim for 30.

We're always under promising and always over delivering.

I really don't want this episode sounding like some sort of product placement ad Amazing Discoveries 1am on some 90s cable channel overnight shows.

So let's get into the nitty gritty with the listener journey and why ideal listeners binge.

Here's exactly why our process works.

Because great podcasts pull people in.

When your show is structured around the listener's journey, they're going to want to go back to earlier episodes.

Let's take one of my clients for an example.

If you're teaching website building and your latest episode is about squeeze pages, a brand new listener might think, wait, how do these squeeze pages even fit into the bigger picture of web design?

And boom, now they're going back to episode one.

Learning everything you've taught that they've missed so far.

And that's what I help podcasters do.

Create shows that are worth binging, not just sampling.

So let's address the Money Pit myth.

Okay, going back to that Money Pit claim of Jeremy's again.

Jeremy and Justin aren't totally wrong here.

Most podcasters do waste money on ads.

Why?

Because they're promoting a podcast that's not yet ready to be promoted.

How do we know when it's ready?

Well, that's what we do at podnos.

No one gets paid promotion with us without passing our stringent checks first.

We start with an audit.

And I don't mean some flim flam checklist.

I mean a proper, brutal, honest analysis of your show.

If it's boring, bloated, or wider the mark.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to tell you, you're not paying me to be nice.

You're paying me to help you get results.

If you pass that audit process, we'll then run a test campaign to check your conversion rate.

Because I don't want to spend your money and not get full results from that investment.

If people aren't sticking around to listen to your episode, we're not going to be able to scale it.

Simple as that.

Not one podcast that we help market becomes a money pit because we don't let ego drive the bus.

We let the data do that.

And if you're listening to this going, hmm, it sounds good in theory.

Look, if you've been burned before by some fiverr fraudster or self appointed LinkedIn podcast guru, I empathize.

I hear you.

It's frustrating.

It frustrates me that these People exist.

But here we are.

So here's what I'm going to say to you.

Do your homework on me.

Google me, stalk my LinkedIn.

Read my case studies.

Better yet, reach out to some of my clients.

I'm even going to tag them in the episode description.

Ask them if I deliver.

And if you do, on the inside scoop on whether your podcast is ready for promotion, book yourself in for a podcast improvement audit.

It's £400, and trust me, it'll either save you a fortune or make you a return ten times that.

Every decent podcast's success journey begins with professional advice on what they're doing right and where they can improve.

Look, paid podcast promotion is not a magic pill.

But with the right show, the right strategy, and the right partner, it's the most powerful way to accelerate your audience growth.

Don't settle for fake listeners and don't let these charlatans win.

And for Christ's sake, stop believing that.

If your show's great, people are just gonna find it.

They won't.

You have to put it in front of them.

And anyway, how do you know how great your show is?

Did someone tell you that as their professional opinion?

Or are you relying on a member of your team whom it's in their interest to say yes to you all the time?

This has been podcasting insights with the Podmaster.

And if you're ready to finally get your podcast in front of the right people, you know where to find me.

It all starts with an audit, and it only gets more exciting from there.

If you enjoyed this episode and you found it useful, please, by all means do share it with another podcaster you know of, who might also find some podcasting insights to be gleaned from it.

Until the next episode, which you can look out for in your library soon.

This has been Neil Velio, the Podmaster, giving you podcasting insights.

The Podmaster is a Podnos production.

Find out more about us@podnos.co.uk podnos.