Celebrate International Podcast Day With Headliner: Win $250 in Podcast Promo Credits

Today, September 30th, is International Podcast Day! It’s the one day a year when all of podcasting comes together to celebrate the awesome medium that is podcasting. 

This year, Headliner is celebrating by giving one lucky podcaster $250 in Podcast Promo credits to help get their show in front of eyes and ears who haven’t heard it yet. 

To enter this year’s giveaway, click here.

Below, you’ll learn a little more about how the giveaway works, what Podcast Promo is/does, and how to grow a podcast on any budget (whether you win this giveaway or choose to do your own thing).

Headliner’s Giveaway at a glance

Here’s everything you need to know about the giveaway. (Don’t worry, it isn’t much!)

If you are selected as the lucky winner, a member of the Headliner Team will contact you directly to help guide you through campaign setup. 

Why the giveaway? Helping solve the growth problem 

Starting a podcast has never been easier. You need an idea, a tool or two, and you’re on your way to having a podcast! But what no one ever really signs up for when making a podcast is the not-so-fun part: growing it. 

Growing a podcast is hard work, and it’s on top of all the hard work you already did to make it. Unless you get really, really, really lucky, you’re most likely going to have to do some type of thing to grow it. That thing is more commonly referred to as marketing a podcast. 

Traditionally, most podcasters turn to social media and YouTube as a first line of defense in podcast marketing. And it’s not without reason. A study by Sounds Profitable and JAR Podcast Solutions found that 61% of listeners discover new podcasts (shows they actually listen to) on YouTube and social media.

Obviously, social media and YouTube present massive opportunities for show discovery through sheer volume and user availability. At any given time, there are millions of eyes just scrolling. With the right clip or catchy post, those eyes can become ears. But getting users to take that action, leave their beloved social platform, and get into a podcast or listening app can be really challenging. 

And furthermore, growth via organic platforms like social media and YouTube compounds more slowly, making it feel like you’re just not where you want to be.

That’s where paid growth campaigns can step in. Paid growth is a way to elevate everything you’re already doing; it just takes it a step further, making the conversion from attention to listening easier. It essentially picks up the slack left by organic growth, helping bring podcast discovery full circle. 

To learn more about paid podcast growth and promotion, check out our full guide here.

At Headliner, we’re podcasters too, and we talk to a lot of podcasters every day. Trust us when we say we totally get the frustration surrounding growth. We also know what it means to be short on time and budget. So, that’s why the giveaway! While we wish we could wave a magic wand to just help every podcast grow, this campaign at least gives one lucky podcaster a little boost of guaranteed growth with Podcast Promo. 

Cool, but what is Podcast Promo

Podcast Promo is Headliner’s programmatic, click-to-play, web display (audio or video) podcast ad. In less jargony terms, Podcast Promo places clips of your podcast on and in relevant articles and webpages across the Headliner Publisher Network. It helps readers and web surfers discover your podcast alongside content they’re already consuming on a topic they care about (and that matches your podcast). 

Here’s a little more on how campaigns work:

1. Create clips from your RSS feed – Podcast Promo uses your RSS feed to generate real clips from your show as ad content. 
2. Add targeting – Headliner offers robust targeting options to help your podcast reach the right audience at the right time, in the right place. Choose from geotargeting, contextual, demographic, and categorical targeting options. 
3. Set your budget – You only pay for the listens you get, so no dollar is wasted. Campaigns start at $200. 
4. Track and grow – Podcast Promo populates listening data in the Headliner Dashboard, so you can track your growth in real time. And, for added peace of mind, all podcast ads are created using your RSS feed. This means any listening data garnered by Podcast Promo will be reported in your host analytics. Plus, for even more transparency, Headliner has integrations with five third-party tracking platforms. 

And, for our visual learners, this is what a Podcast Promo podcast ad looks and feels like in the real world:

Why this setup matters

Again, Podcast Promo is a click-to-play podcast ad. The click-to-play part is a really important distinction to understand, especially when shopping around for different podcast growth tools. 

Because Podcast Promo is click-to-play, that signals real interest. Not an accidental hover while scrolling or, even worse, an auto-play jump scare (we’ve all seen those before while frantically trying to turn down the volume or find the little ‘x’). Podcast Promo clips appear alongside content an audience is already actively consuming and engaged with. The beauty of Podcast Promo is that the ad looks and feels more native to the digital environment and offers something complementary to the audience. If they decide to press play, it’s just that — an active decision, not an accidental engagement.  

It’s also a format built for podcasts rather than adapted from something else. You aren’t squeezing your show into some other format and deciding how best to make it fit. The ad is your podcast.

How to make that $250 work harder

$250 is a lot of money to play with. Like anything else with your podcast, you want to be intentional and strategic. 

Here are a few best practices compiled by the Headliner Team to ensure your ad spend goes as far as possible to effectively grow your podcast. 

1. Pick an episode that serves as a good introduction to your podcast

This campaign will serve as a first impression of your show. So, promote an episode you’d want a stranger to hear, and that clearly answers “what is this show about?” And that is not always your newest or most listened-to episode. Look for a show that works well with limited context. It captures your format and tone, doesn’t lean on inside jokes or earlier episodes, and leaves a new listener knowing exactly what they’ll get if they follow.

Then choose a clip (don’t worry, Headliner can help you pick a clip if you don’t have one in mind!) from that episode that makes someone curious enough to press play: a strong opinion, a surprising fact, or a question they now need answered. The clip piques curiosity; your show holds the attention after that initial engagement. 

2. Be intentional with your targeting 

When engaging in any type of paid promotion, you want to ensure you’re spending intentionally. Sadly, your podcast is probably not for everyone. Consider who your ideal listener is. Think about who they are and what they really care about; this will help you better dial in on who you’re trying to reach.

A few questions help sharpen the picture:

• What else do they read, watch, or listen to? A show about personal finance might find its people among readers of business, career, or real estate coverage, not just “finance.”
• Where are they? If your show covers local news, a specific sports team, or a regional industry, geography matters as much as topic.
• What problem does your show solve for them? Whether it’s entertainment on a commute or advice for a new manager, the answer points to the kinds of content they’re already seeking out.

Podcast Promo lets you target by genre, geography, and demographics, so the clearer your answers, the more precisely your clip reaches the right audience.

Especially when starting out or working with a more limited budget, precision beats reach. It’s tempting to cast a wide net, but spreading $250 across everyone means reaching almost no one meaningfully. Start focused, see who responds, and broaden once you know what works. A tight first campaign also gives you cleaner data about who your listeners really are.

3. Give new listeners somewhere good to land

A great clip earns you one click. What a listener finds next decides whether they stay. Before your campaign runs, do a health check on your show to ensure the rest of your show speaks for itself…literally! 

4. Good things take time (but not a lot in this case!)

Paid podcast promos are a great way to grow your podcast, but if you’re looking for real growth, these can take some time. The great news is that paid often delivers results much faster than organic campaigns. Give any paid podcast tool a day or two to figure things out and find its stride (aka your audience).

After that initial introduction period, you’ll be able to segment your data more meaningfully to identify which placements drove the best results. This is especially helpful when running a longer-tail campaign, so you can shift budgets and placements, or when you’re looking for future growth opportunities, you can more easily identify what resonated and where. 

And remember that some results show up after a campaign ends. A listener who discovers you today might follow next week or binge your back catalog next month. Keep an eye on your analytics for a few weeks after a paid campaign to see the full picture.

More on the growth giveaway and International Podcast Day

You’ve already done the hard part: you made a show worth hearing. Let us help with the next part, getting it heard. It takes just two minutes to enter the Headliner International Podcast Day Giveaway.

With the other 1438 minutes, you can do even more to celebrate podcasts! 

• Listen to something new. Try a show outside your usual genre. Not sure where to start? We recommend checking out platforms like EarBuds Podcast Collective; they’ve got so many great recommendations!
• Leave a review. Ratings and reviews are one of the simplest ways to support the shows you love. So, spread the love a little and show some appreciation to your fellow podcasters out there. 🙂
• Recommend a show. Same-ish as above, but spread the love. Post or share a podcast that you love (yours included!). 
• Thank your listeners. Podcasts would be nothing without our beloved listeners. Send a quick shoutout via social media, your podcast, or newsletter to thank listeners for their time and trust. 

Whew, that was a lot! And we’re sure you’ve got more. Share what you’re doing to celebrate podcasts this International Podcast Day with the podcasting community and us on social media. We’re @headliner.app on most platforms. 🙂 

All of this sounds good and wonderful, but what if you are sadly not selected as the giveaway winner?  You can launch a campaign yourself through the self-serve dashboard, or email sarah@headliner.app for more bespoke options. 

This blog was written by a human at Headliner and was edited with the help of AI.