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Fishing where the fish are is a solid strategy, and so using
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similar podcasts to promote your podcast is obviously a good idea, right?
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You bet!
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But like any marketing effort, what you put in, determines what you get out.
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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Cross-promotion has been a part of podcasting since there were two podcasts.
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From promo swaps to heartfelt recommendations to episode drops,
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there are myriad ways podcasters can grow their show by getting exposure
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to the audience of another podcast.
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There's little question as to the efficacy of these efforts, efforts that
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make up the backbone of growth plans for large podcast networks like Wondery and
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iHeart and promotional campaigns some of the biggest podcasters drop tens of
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thousands of dollars on each month to increase the size of their audience.
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So, quite naturally, the assumption has been that what works for the bigger
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networks and the bigger podcasts can work for smaller networks and much
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smaller shows, just scaled down a bit.
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And sure, I'd say that's very true.
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But humans are really, really bad at understanding scale, and scale is reality.
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So let's do some very easy math.
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Now, don't worry, there's not going to be a test at the end.
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For example, let's say that a successful podcaster has the means to spend $10,000
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a month on a paid cross-promotional campaign - a successful cross-promotional
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campaign as well, mind you.
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"How many new listeners is that?"
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you might be asking.
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And that's a very good question, but we actually really don't need to know
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the hard number for this exercise.
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All we need to understand is that a $10,000 investment - and honestly, I
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know podcasters spend way more than that every month - that investment
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gets them enough new listeners to make the investment worthwhile.
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But you may not have $10,000 per month to spend on a promotional campaign.
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You may not even have a thousand dollars.
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Maybe a hundred dollars a month is more your style.
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How successful will you be at spending $100 a month on a cross-promotional
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campaign, a campaign where your podcast is mentioned or read or something
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else inside of another podcast?
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How well will that work?
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Well, mathematically, it will work 100 times less successful than the
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person who dropped $10,000 per month.
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Or 1% as successful, if that helps.
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Now, still, that might mean successful enough for you, I suppose.
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Or even better, you might not need to use your wallet to fund the campaign.
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Plenty of podcasters engage in cross-promotional campaigns by
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setting up promo swaps or other quid pro quo relationships in
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several creative, fun ways.
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It's not the money that make cross-promotional campaigns successful,
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it's being on the right show with the right message delivered in the right way.
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And if you can achieve that by leveraging your personal relationships
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and creativity, well, that sounds like time well spent, right?
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Well, about that.
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Dave Zorhob, co-founder and CEO of Chartable - recently acquired by
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Spotify - shared some numbers at Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022
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recently that help answer the question, "How well do cross-promotional
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campaigns work for podcasters?"
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They have a product called SmartPromos that measures podcast to podcast
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attribution, meaning they can track how many listeners came to your podcast after
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hearing the promo on another podcast.
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Now, they've had this service for years and many podcasters
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and podcast networks use it.
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That means Chartable has a lot of data that shows the efficacy of this,
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data that Dave shared at Podcast Movement Evolutions just recently.
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And I gotta say, the data didn't surprise me, which means
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it'll probably disappoint you.
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Sorry.
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You see, what Dave showed was that the new listener acquisition rate
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for cross-promotions was 0.75%.
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Not 75%.
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Point-seven-five.
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Less than one percent.
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That means, if your cross-promotional campaign runs on a show that gets 1,000
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downloads, math says you'll get seven to eight new listeners to your show.
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Now, if you can get on a show that has maybe 10,000 downloads an
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episode, then that becomes 70 or 80.
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But if you get stuck on smaller shows that have maybe a hundred downloads per
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episode, that your cross-promotional efforts went into, well, you'll be
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lucky to get a single new listener.
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So why do people do this if it sucks so bad?
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Well look, at scale it doesn't suck so bad.
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Those 70 to 80 listeners can add up to about 1,500 downloads a month for a show
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that releases multiple times a week.
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That's 18,000 downloads per year.
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And that's more impressions that that podcaster can then turn around and
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sell to advertisers - impressions that were generated by listeners
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acquired for about three bucks each.
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Impressions that have a value of more like $7.50 per download over the course
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of the year, which more than doubles the investment over the course of that year.
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That is why the big shows and the networks spend big bucks on effective
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cross-promotional campaigns to increase their available inventory so they can make
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more money running ads for advertisers.
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So now, if that is you, then go for it!
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The math is in and it clearly works.
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Yeah, you'll still need to put in the time and effort to finding the
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right shows, ensuring that they do a great promotion for you and all
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the other headaches that come with managing effective, creative ad spends,
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but you already know that probably.
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And if that's not you, well, and you're on the smaller scale, look, I think you
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should still seek out cross-promotional opportunities when you can.
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There's no harm in that.
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Just understand the realities and don't expect your listener numbers to skyrocket.
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With that, I shall be back next week with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!
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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
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section of your podcast listening app.
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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
