138. How I Used Paid Podcasting Tactics to Reach Thousands Without Burning Out

Tired of hustling week after week to promote your podcast... and still feeling stuck? In this episode, I’m sharing how I used two simple paid podcasting tactics to get my show in front of thousands of new listeners, without burning out. You’ll learn the strategy most podcasters completely overlook, how to make paid visibility work even on a small budget, and why this could be the shortcut your online marketing plan has been missing.

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This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

If you're tired of hustling every week to grow your podcast but your downloads have plateaued, this could be the shortcut that you've been waiting for. Today, I'm sharing two paid strategies that help me get my podcast in front of thousands of new listeners without spending hours promoting it on social media. And here's the kicker. Most podcasters never even consider these strategies. Hey there, I'm Julia Levine, AKA the Podcast Teacher, and you're listening to Podcasting for solopreneurs, the show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads and sales. Today, we're diving into something that I don't talk about as often, but it is is a strategy that can create a real shortcut to visibility when you use it intentionally. And that strategy is paid podcast marketing. Now, I know paid marketing is not the right step for everyone, which is why I don't talk about it a whole lot on here.

And that is a okay. But if you are ready to pour a little fuel on the fire and reach more listeners without having to hustle quite so hard every week, this episode is going to give you a clear path forward. Because when you stop spending hours posting on social or begging for guest swaps, you free up time for the parts of your business you actually love, like coaching, creating, and connecting with your audience. So there are two paid strategies that I have personally used to grow my own podcast. The first strategy is using banner ads inside podcast listening apps, and the second is meta ads like on Facebook and Instagram. So let's talk about each one, starting with the podcast player. Banner ads. Now, of course, you have heard of Apple and Spotify as places where people listen to podcasts, but you may or may not know that there are a ton of smaller, independent apps out there.

Some of those apps allow you to purchase a banner ad that appears at the top or bottom of the screen while someone is listening to an episode of another podcast. The idea behind these ads is pretty simple. The person seeing the banner is already a podcast listener. They're in their podcast app listening to something. So if your show appears on a banner and it looks interesting, it's very, very easy for them to just click and go check it out. You're not trying to convince them to become a podcast listener or to switch apps when they are reading their email or they're scrolling on Instagram. Therefore, they can be extremely effective. You can run these kinds of banner ads in apps like Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, podbean, and Podbay.

And just to be clear, the only thing that you can advertise in this ad is your podcast. You can't drive people to a lead magnet or to your website or anything. It's just to your podcast. Each platform has its own pricing and duration. You can pay anywhere from $25 to several thousand dollars for a single ad. Some ads run for a day, others for a month. Some let you choose the podcast category where your ad appears, others assign it for you. All of that just depends on the app.

I recently purchased an ad in one of the apps for $290 and I got 74 new subscribers in just one month. So that works out to be $3.90 per new listener. I will take that CPA all day long. After running ads for the next six months with similar results, I have gained thousands of new subscribers with very little effort. If you want to learn more about how to choose the right platform for ads and avoid the most common mistakes, join me inside the Podcast Growth Collective. You can check it out@thepodcastteacher.com collective. Now, as I mentioned, the only thing that you can advertise with these podcast player banner ads is your podcast, and therefore your podcast's cover art becomes the visual element. And you usually get a line or two of text to describe your show.

So that means you don't need to worry about creating custom graphics or writing a bunch of copy. Therefore, this is a very easy strategy to implement, though it can require a significant financial investment. Podcast player banner ads are a great way to drive traffic to your show overall. But of course, like everything, they're not without limitations. Analytics within these platforms are often minimal for the ads, there's no option for retargeting, and you cannot fine tune who sees your ad beyond being able to choose your category. And that's only an option in some of the apps. So an alternative or a complement to these banner ads is running meta ads in Facebook and Instagram to also promote your podcast. Now, let me be clear.

I am by no means a Facebook ads expert, especially because it changes every five minutes. I have my own coach for this. Everything that I have learned about running ads has come from Megan Shields over at Chime House Media. She is an absolute genius when it comes to this stuff, and I highly recommend her. But what I like about Facebook ads is that they offer a lot more control than banner ads. So that means you can target very specific segments of your audience. You can retarget people who have engaged with you previously, and you can choose exactly where to send the traffic if you have individual episode pages on your website. You can send people there instead of straight to Apple podcasts or to having them just click within whatever app they're currently listening in, like they do for the banner ads.

You can also test different images, different headlines, and different copy to figure out what grabs people's attention. That being said, Facebook and Instagram users are often scrolling in a totally different headspace. They're not there looking for a podcast. They're usually catching up on life updates or seeking entertainment. So your ad has to interrupt that pattern and give them a compelling reason to leave the platform and go check out your show. Therefore, that takes strategy and often a bit of trial and error. But once you dial in the messaging, it can work really well. The other thing that I like about Facebook ads is that you can promote specific episodes instead of just sending people to your overall show.

And that makes it easier to hook someone because you can give a clear benefit or topic that they care about. If you're thinking about trying out one of these paid visibility strategies, your next step is to determine a budget. What are you willing to spend per day, per week, or per month? Then, based on that number, explore the pricing options for the different banner ads or meta ads and see what fits your goals and capacity. Right now, you can always start small, test just one platform, and then expand from there. Finally, bringing in new listeners is only part of the puzzle. You may have hear me mention my podcast ARC framework before, which stands for Attraction, Retention, and Conversion. While your ads will attract new listeners, they're not going to retain them or convert them into clients and customers. You'll need to implement other techniques to achieve those goals.

But if your goal is to grow your listenership for faster without burning out, paid podcast marketing can help to give you that edge. You can then use all of your spare time to focus on retention and conversion strategies. If you want more proven growth strategies like this, join me inside the Podcast growth collective@thepodcastteacher.com collective. That's where I share everything I'm learning and testing so so that you don't have to figure it out all alone. Until next time, Happy podcasting.