The Ugly Math Of Podcast Cross-Promotion

Fishing where the fish are is a solid strategy, so using similar podcasts to promote your podcast is obviously a good idea, right? You bet! But like any marketing effort, what you put in determines what you get out. Cross-promotion has been a part of podcasting since there were two podcasts. Cross-promo campaigns make up the backbone of growth plans for large podcast networks and are used by some of the biggest podcasters to increase the size of their audience.  Let's start with a successful podcaster who spends $10,000/month on a successful cross-promotional campaign. But maybe you only have $1000 in your budget. Or $100. Will it still work for you? Yes, but about 100 times less well.  According to http://dzohrob (Dave Zorhob), co-founder and CEO of Chartable, the new listener acquisition rate for cross-promotions was 0.75%. Not 75%. Point-seven-five. Less than one percent.  With 10,000 impressions of your promotion, that's 70–80 new listeners. With 1000 impressions, it's seven to eight new listeners. And with only 100 impressions, you'll be lucky to get one new listener. So why do podcasters do this if the math sucks so bad? At scale, that math works fine and it doesn't suck at all.  Acquiring a lot of new listeners for $3 each makes sense if the impressions they generate over the course of a year are worth $7.50 or more. And that is precisely why big shows and big networks spend big bucks on effective cross-promotional campaigns. To increase their available and saleable inventory If your show is on the smaller scale, or if you're not selling ads or have another hard outcome with your podcast that you can directly trace back to increased listenership, then the scale problem is real and probably out of balance for you. But that doesn't mean that you should give up on running a podcast cross-promotion! A new listener or two is a new listener or two. Just understand the realities. And don't expect your listener numbers to skyrocket unless you've got big bucks to spend. (Links and such are now integrated into Captivate, Allie. Unsure what makes sense to add for you where you use this, but I'm thinking none of it in favor of what I add at the very bottom?) ----- Sponsored by: https://evoterra.link/captivate (Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast hosting company) ----- Links ----- Any Links Mentioned (and then the standard links and credits will follow: Got a podcasting service? https://podcastpontifications.com/about/sponsorship-information (Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications). Serious about podcasting? Join the https://evoterra.link/app (Advancing Podcasting Community) today! ----- https://podcastpontifications. (Podcast Pontifications) is a production of https://simpler.media (Simpler Media). New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about. It's created and hosted byhttps://twitter.com/evoterra ( Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter) for more podcasting insights as they come. http://alliepress.ne (Allie Press) assists with the production and transcription of the show. If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it https://PodcastPontifications.com/support (value-for-value) and there are many ways to show your support. Mentioned in this episode: Captivate.fm Whether you’re a new or veteran podcaster, if you’re serious about audience growth then Captivate unique feature set and proven, deep-dive education should be the next thing you try. Get a 7-day free trial and access to Captivate’s Podcast Growth Labs at Captivate.fm. https://podcast-pontifications.captivate.fm/captivate (Captivate.fm) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy