A fast-turnaround, 3-day paid podcast promotion campaign resulted in +2k new podcast listeners at a $0.50 CPL (Cost per Listen).
| Metric | Result |
| Budget | $1,000 |
| Duration | 3 days |
| Viewable Impressions | 36.2k |
| CTR | 5.56% |
| Listeners | 2,013 |
| CPL | $0.50 |
Objective
Headliner partnered with The Podglomerate to run a paid audience-growth test for a chart-topping medical/technology podcast, using Podcast Promo to drive show awareness and grow listenership.
Goals:
- Validate paid growth outside of pure podcast channels as a viable solution within the podcast marketing mix for audience growth and show awareness.
- Identify which episodes, topics, and creative approaches resonate most with a health/tech-interested audience.
- Establish a Cost-per-Listen benchmark for future Podcast Promo campaigns.
Challenges
The renowned medical technology podcast relied primarily on organic and owned marketing channels to raise show awareness and grow podcast listenership. While these channels remained effective in terms of engagement and retention, they were always looking for new growth levers.
Key challenges ahead of campaign set-up included:
- Limited data on which episode topics or creative formats would convert unfamiliar listeners, since existing channels only reached people who already knew the show.
- Finite reach and awareness beyond owned audience.
Solution
Together, Headliner and The Podglomerate built a targeted paid podcast promotional strategy to increase audience awareness and exposure for the health tech podcast, drawing on learnings from previous Headliner campaigns.
Previously, Headliner worked on a number of campaigns for medical shows, covering topics ranging from expert biomedical research on antimicrobial resistance to public health awareness of obesity and smoking. Using insights from those campaigns, Headliner successfully created a customized targeting plan for The Podglomerate to deliver guaranteed growth for the med tech podcast.
In addition to ongoing marketing activities, The Podglomerate added Headliner’s Podcast Promo as a paid, growth-focused layer. Podcast Promo is a click-to-play ad unit that surfaces relevant podcast clips to qualified, high-intent listeners across the Headliner Publisher Network.
Campaign Setup
Headliner and The Podglomerate ran a $1,000 test campaign across three pre-selected episodes.
| Parameter | Targeting Metric |
| Budget | $1,000 |
| Duration | 3 days |
| Guaranteed Listeners | 2,000 |
| Geographic Targeting | United States |
| Categorical Targeting | Health & Fitness, Science & Technology, News |
| Additional Targeting | Contextual (article-level, based on keyword matching) |
Together, using existing performance data, Headliner and The Podglomerate selected three episodes to promote that had already performed well organically and addressed distinctly different topics.
Results
The campaign exceeded expected results, delivering +2k listeners in just three days.
- 36.2k viewable impressions
- 5.56% CTR (+178% higher than expected returns)
- 2,013 listeners delivered
- $0.50 CPL (cost per listen)
The Podglomerate and Headliner were able to extract actionable insights beyond raw delivery numbers:
- Episode-level testing – Engagement varied meaningfully by topic. Within the health-focused show, one episode outperformed the campaign’s average CTR by +7% (resulting in a 10.88% CTR). The budget was optimized for delivery of that episode to maximize overall engagement and drive CPL down.
- Creative testing – Applying Headliner’s creative recommendations (below), combined with strong episode-audience fit, creative was identified as a primary driver behind the campaign’s +178% CTR lift over expected baseline. Headliner also optimized click-based delivery in real time during this run, contributing to successful targeting and efficient delivery.
“Headliner’s episode-level testing, paired with clear creative guidance, gave us a scalable growth strategy to complement our podcast marketing campaign efforts.” – Joni Deutsch, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Audience Development at The Podglomerate.
Creative recommendations:
- Artwork featuring one or more close-up faces
- Short explainer text (podcast tagline, host name, etc.)
- High-contrast visual elements
- Prominent, easily recognizable logo placement
Takeaways
Through collaboration and highlighting what audiences already love about this show, Headliner’s Podcast Promo converted +2k new podcast listeners in just three days. This test demonstrates that a paid acquisition layer, like Headliner’s Podcast Promo, can meaningfully extend reach and listenership beyond a podcast’s owned channels.
Headliner also provided insights and recommendations to aid in the development and testing of future editorial angles, based on audience engagement within this targeting environment.
Recommended next steps:
- Prioritize high-resonance, attention-grabbing episode topics in delivery, using external episode-level performance data to guide selection.
- Scale budget while holding the same contextual and categorical targeting to drive volume and awareness.
- Continue applying Headliner’s creative recommendations (close-up faces, short explainer text, high contrast, prominent logo placement) but generate variations to push creative testing and further campaign optimization.
This case study demonstrates how paid podcast promotion can effectively aid in scaling audience growth and listenership.
Want to learn more about paid growth and how Headliner’s Podcast Promo provides guaranteed growth? Email us at sarah@headliner.app.
