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Podcast Growth

Growth is a system, not a posting schedule.

Positioning, data-driven topic strategy, search and AI optimization, and paid distribution behind your best moments — measured against downloads, leads and revenue.

31Mviews in a month for one show we run

Good shows plateau for boring reasons

Discovery inside podcast apps barely exists. Search barely indexes audio. So a show that's genuinely good stalls at whatever audience its host's network can supply — and the host concludes the show isn't working. It is working. It just has no distribution. Growth means building the distribution the podcast ecosystem doesn't give you.

What’s included

Every engagement ships with this.

  • Market positioning and target audience profile
  • Data-driven topic strategy: brand keywords, top searched questions, trending content and competitor analysis
  • Episode topic and interview question recommendations
  • Podcast SEO and AEO — episode pages written to be found in search and cited in AI answers
  • Paid social distribution: custom audience creation and 6 ads per episode across 3 platforms
  • Email growth campaigns to your show's ideal audience
  • Content repurposing: one recording atomized into blogs, clips, social and newsletter
  • Monthly KPI reporting across downloads, reach, traffic, leads and cost per result

How it works

The actual process, not a diagram.

  1. 01

    Benchmark

    We establish where your show actually sits. Podcasts with 231+ downloads in the first seven days are already in the top 10% — most hosts have no idea whether they're there.

  2. 02

    Position and plan

    Audience profile, positioning, and a topic strategy built from what your buyers actually search — not from what you feel like talking about.

  3. 03

    Make it findable

    Episode pages, titles and descriptions optimized for search and for AI answer engines, so back-catalogue episodes keep earning.

  4. 04

    Distribute

    Clips go behind paid social against a custom audience. Email sequences drive your ideal listener to the show. One recording becomes ten pieces of content.

  5. 05

    Report and compound

    Monthly reporting on downloads, reach, traffic, leads, SQLs and cost per result — so growth spend is judged like every other channel.

Proof

What this has produced.

Opolis · Unemployable · Fintech / future of work

32% membership growth

Booked the co-founder on ICP-matched shows, cut every appearance into social clips, and repurposed transcripts into blog content and paid social.

audience engagement, season two
325%
audience engagement, season two
increase in podcast page traffic
100%
increase in podcast page traffic
more qualified leads
68%
more qualified leads
reduction in cost per lead
$70
reduction in cost per lead

My Divorce Solution · Financial services

$70K in new MRR within 90 days

Took over full production and turned the show into the category's authority asset — editing, show notes, episode art, clips and repurposing that added $70K in monthly recurring revenue within 90 days.

monthly recurring revenue added in 90 days
$70K
monthly recurring revenue added in 90 days
increase in website traffic
150%
increase in website traffic
growth in podcast subscribers
70%
growth in podcast subscribers
and still a client
5 yrs
and still a client

Hell Has an Exit · Health & recovery media

74% download growth in 4 months

Full growth engagement for the show itself — video episodes, clips, high-profile guest booking, and paid promotion on YouTube and Facebook to put the best moments in front of new listeners.

more downloads in four months
74%
more downloads in four months
listeners grown to
4,000
listeners grown to
increase in reviews, at a 4.9★ rating
250%
increase in reviews, at a 4.9★ rating
Lamar Odom and Jordan Belfort booked onto the show — both episodes still live
Odom
Lamar Odom and Jordan Belfort booked onto the show — both episodes still live

Fruits of Motherhood · Parenting / creator

14× audience growth in 3 months

Created, branded and launched the show, then grew it with clips and full videocasts and monetized it with aligned brand partners.

audience growth in three months
14×
audience growth in three months
monthly advertising revenue
$10k+
monthly advertising revenue
in partner sales in a single week
$18k
in partner sales in a single week
deal secured off the back of the show
Book
deal secured off the back of the show
Podlink helped us triple our audio streams in less than 90 days. It's been a game-changer for our growth strategy.
Christian Paul Meadows, Producer · Go With Elmo Podcast

Pricing

Real numbers, not “contact us”.

Starting points based on what this work actually costs to do well. Scope moves the number; we’ll tell you which way on the call.

Growth campaign

$750

per campaign

  • Email campaign to 1,000 targeted contacts
  • 5-email sequence, 5,000 touchpoints
  • Or paid social campaign + ad spend
Most common

Paid distribution

$1,500

per month + ad spend

  • Custom target audience creation
  • 6 paid ads per episode across 3 platforms
  • Clips promoted to a new audience
  • Monthly optimization

Full growth engagement

$6,750

per month + one-time setup

  • Positioning and audience profile
  • Data-driven topic and keyword strategy
  • SEO and AEO across the catalogue
  • Video podcast + content repurposing
  • Paid distribution and monthly KPI reporting

Full engagements carry a one-time strategy and setup fee and typically run six months, which is the shortest window where compounding is visible.

Questions

The things people ask before signing.

How do I know if my show is actually underperforming?
By percentile, not vanity numbers. In the first seven days: 26+ downloads is the top 50%, 72+ is the top 25%, 231+ is the top 10%, 539+ is the top 5%, and 3,062+ is the top 1%. Most hosts are doing better than they think and distributing worse than they think.
How long does growth take?
Paid distribution moves numbers inside a month. Positioning, topic strategy and search compound over quarters. We scope six months because that's the shortest honest window.
What's AEO and why does it matter for a podcast?
Answer engine optimization — writing episode pages so AI assistants surface and cite them. A growing share of the people looking for what your show covers now ask a model instead of a search box. Podcast back-catalogues are almost entirely invisible to those systems, which makes it cheap ground to take.
Do I need to be on video?
It's the single highest-leverage change most shows can make, and we've watched the split happen inside our own numbers. On a show we run, audio downloads are down roughly 40% from their 2024 peak while video views on the same episodes crossed 30 million in a month. The audience didn't leave — it moved. Judging a show by downloads alone now measures the shrinking half.
What do you report on?
Downloads, YouTube views, website visits, reach by platform, marketing contacts, leads, SQLs, customers, and cost per each. Growth work should be judged the way you judge every other channel.

Ready to talk about podcast growth?

A 20-minute call. We'll tell you what we'd do, what it costs, and whether it's the right first move for where your show actually is.