x Podcast Growth Edition

https://searchnstuff.co.uk/

#SearchnStuff
#SearchAndStuff

Search ‘n Stuff is a networking project that connects people in digital marketing and technology. It brings
together individuals with shared interests in digital culture through various events.
Today’s Agenda
18:30 - 19:00: Welcome Drinks, Snacks & Networking

19:00 - 19:20: How I grew my podcast from 200 to 800 monthly

downloads – and generated money
Sarah McDowell

19:20 - 19:40: Beyond The Usual Suspects: Deciding On Your

Podcast KPIs
Emina Demiri-Watson

19:40 - 20:00: Drinks, Snacks & Networking

20:00 - 20:20: Real Lessons from Creating a Search Marketing

Podcast
Jo Cameron

20:20 - 20:40: Why Podcast Marketing Works & How I Built a

Powerful Platform
Emre Onar

20:40 - 22:00: Drinks & Networking https://searchnstuff.co.uk/

https://linktr.ee/searchstuff
How did I
grow and
monetise my
podcast
(quadrupling
my 200
downloads)?
6
 How many
downloads in the
first 7 days to be in
the top 50% of all
podcasts?

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 7

 Place your bets…

300+ 180+ 90+ 30+

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 8

 Answer…

The Podcast Host

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 9

 How did I grow my
podcast?

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 10

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 11
@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 12
 Know your audience
e.g. podcast avatar

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 13

 You’ve got to be
different!

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 14

 Be smart with
guests & appear on
other podcasts

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 15

 Ask people to help
spread the word

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 16

 Collaborate with
others

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 17

 Take opportunities
e.g. live podcast

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 18

 Find ways to get
external mentions

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 19

 How did I monetise
my podcast?

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 20

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 21
 Do listeners mind
podcast adverts?

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 22

 “
Of the 1,011 podcast listeners surveyed less than 10%
found adverts ‘disruptive’ or ‘intolerable.’

- Signal Hill Insights

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 23

 Don’t I need a sh*t
ton of downloads
for sponsors?

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 24

 Find brands who are
aligned

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 25

 Create a
sponsorship pack

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 26

 Reach out (be
proactive)

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 27

 Get them excited

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 28

 Get out there and
make connections

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 29

 There’s also
donations and
memberships

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 30

 01 - Take opportunities and don’t
be afraid to be different

02 - Know your audiences

(listeners, collaborators, and
Key sponsors)

takeaways 03 - Keep a close eye on your

dream guests

04 - Only 30+ downloads to be in

the top 50% 👀

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 31

 Check out my podcast…

Shout out to Billie Geena (ranksuite.io)

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 32

 Need help with your podcast?

sarahmcdowell.co.uk

@SarahMcDUK | Search ‘n’ Stuff 33

Thank You!
@SarahMcDUK
(Instagram/Twitter)

Sarah McDowell (SEO)

LinkedIn

sarahmcdowell.co.uk

34
 Beyond the Usual Suspects:
Deciding on Your Podcast KPIs
Emina Demiri-Watson
A bit about me

- Head of DM at a Brighton
based agency, Vixen Digital
- Over 10 years of experience
- Too curious to specialise!
- Mum to a 9 year old
powerhouse of a daughter,
crazy cat lady that loves
fishing
SEOs Getting Coffee
How it’s going…
Top Performing in terms of the usual suspects on YouTube…
And over on Spotify…
 But for us our KPIs and
motivations were different…
How it’s ACTUALLY going…
Small team with limited time to
write content!
KPI 1: Podcast is used to enrich
content and accelerate content
production across platforms.
It may just be 1 podcast episode but it should also be…
 c.4 social posts YouTube Video -
(per platform) Full Episode

1 Podcast Episode An average of

A Blog
4 YouTube Shorts

Used to enrich Monthly

existing content Newsletter
(embedded videos Content
and internal links)
Got a blog about a related topic? Add a relevant clip to enrich your content!
Our SEO blog content accounts for 5% of overall site
traffic for the past 12 months.
Reels featuring podcast clips and
previews accounted for 5 of the 15
top performing posts, in terms of
reach, for our Instagram posts over
the past 90 days.
Over 38% of posts on LI are
podcast related. It accounts for
36.8% in our follower growth and
drives roughly 50% of our total LI
results
 KPI 2: At least 20% of podcast
related traffic goes onto key pages
Testing: Are podcast related assets
an important part of the user
journey?
The set up - GA4
 60.5% of users who visit our
podcast asset pages, go on to
visit other key pages on our
site.
Let’s look at user’s who visit our podcast landing page…

User explores pages across the

site before coming back to get
in contact again at a later step
and submitting enquiry form.

User visits SEO

case study User downloads our Meta Ads Audit and is
added to our CRM database

User visits two

SEO case User visits
User visits case studies multiple case
study and studies
submits a
service enquiry
And the same applies to podcast blog pages…

User heads to contact page via

author profile

User visits SEO IT case

study

User visits SEO User downloads our Meta Ads Audit

service page and is added to our CRM database

User visits SEO

service page and
explores the site
before going on
to get in contact
at later step.
 KPI 3: Podcast is driving ICP
contacts - at least 10% of contacts
is ICP
 Testing: is the audience we are
reaching is the right one - quality
over quantity
20% of contacts who visit our
podcast asset pages, fall into
our ICP
Unexpected bonus…
Our little podcast gaining
traction…
Moz list
Thanks ChatGPT!
Fav cross-over
And we didn’t even have to pay!
Finally, it’s impacting revenue!

SEO retainer
clients who Projected
knew about the retainer revenue
podcast 12 months
£36000
+2
Things we learned along the way…
 What worked

● Focus on quality over quantity to attract the right audience.

● Maximise engagement with content enrichment and cross platform use.
● High-quality interactions matter more than just downloads or listens.
● Podcast contributed to unexpected revenue increases.
● Testing revealed the importance of podcast assets in user journeys.

What didn’t

● YouTube ads extend reach but the targeting is pants. Save your money!
● An episode every week was too much! An episode every month turns out to be too
little.
Thank You

vixendigital.com

emina@vixendigital.com

01273 513 345

MozPod Podcast Pitfalls
Real Lessons from Creating a
Search Marketing Podcast
(And What I’d Do Differently)

Jo Cameron
MOZ, HEAD OF CONTENT

@jocameroo
The Journey
And the mistakes we make

- What we wanted to achieve

- What went well
- What didn’t go so well (and how I’d do it differently)

@jocameroo
Safe space
Caveat caveat caveat

@jocameroo
Gaming
Is a mistake making
sandbox

@jocameroo
Tell interesting stories

Reach a new audience

Reintroduce Moz

@jocameroo
 ✅

Tell interesting stories

@jocameroo
High quality
content
Talk show style
interviews

@jocameroo
We had reach
● Published posts: 196
● Impressions: 190,252
● Engagements: 3,595 ✅
● Engagement Rate: 1.9%
● Post link clicks: 850
Spotify
● 30-100 downloads/per ep
YouTube
● 250-2k views/per ep

Reach a new audience

@jocameroo
Long form to
social pipeline
Lending itself to the kinds
of content that we know
performs well

@jocameroo
@jocameroo
YouTube Links and Ad
Placement
● Keyword Explore Freemium tool 10
● Moz Pro Free trial 5

(when we release an episode)

❌

Reintroduce Moz

@jocameroo
So what could we
have done
To achieve our goals?

@jocameroo
Batch cooking
episodes
Was a strength and a weakness

@jocameroo
We achieved
100% attendance
#humblebrag

@jocameroo
@jocameroo
Why was this a problem?
We couldn’t respond to timely topics
Lag between guest recording and release
Absorbed majority of budget

@jocameroo
@jocameroo
New Plan
Plan for recording impromptu episodes
Ensure that it is included in the budget

@jocameroo
Promotion &
Distribution Resources
Spent 20k budget on production

@jocameroo
 £$

I spent 20k on content production

??

@jocameroo
Why was this a problem?
Relied heavily on guests and our platform to promote
Limited ability to syndicate content (can cost £$5k)

@jocameroo
New plan
40/60 split
Or reassess expectations & goals of project
(most podcasts grow in their 3rd or 4th
year)

@jocameroo
Ad Placement
We didn’t mix evergreen ads with timely promos -
in the right places!

@jocameroo
Why was this a problem?
Baked in the wrong kind of adverts reduces ROI of
the content over time

@jocameroo
This is more complex with
YouTube video ads

- More evergreen youtube ads

- Easier to update and refresh YouTube links but still
requires additional work.

@jocameroo
New plan
Dynamic ad placement and tagging using
Captivate (Thanks Sarah)
Evergreen adverts in YouTube content

@jocameroo
Maximising Organic
Reach
We missed a lot of opportunities to create episode
landing pages and optimize titles

@jocameroo
Why was this a problem?
Limited organic research, impacted topical
authority, presence in AI Overviews and
growing backlinks etc

@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
@jocameroo
New plan
Use Keyword Questions in Moz Keyword
Explorer to guide questions and titles
Create dedicated episode landing pages

@jocameroo
My 2025 to-do list:
- Create dedicated episode pages
- Add dynamic ads and tag them in Captivate
- Continuing to create and releasing more clips
(shorts, reels etc)

@jocameroo
@jocameroo
 Jo Cameron
MOZ, HEAD OF CONTENT

@jocameroo
Why Podcast Marketing
Works & How I Built
A Powerful Platform
Emre Onar
 Podcast advertising is a powerful way
to reach engaged, loyal audiences with
authenticity and trust.
Why Podcasts Matter in Digital Advertising?

● Fast-growing, highly engaging media channel ● Personal, engaging, and memorable

● 75% of podcast listeners take action after ● Host-read ads: a personal endorsement
hearing ads effect
● Unique, trusted connection with listeners ● Minimal ad-skipping behavior
Building My Audience: Start with a Niche

● Consistency
● Interactive storytelling
● Valuable takeaways
 The Power of Audience Engagement & Community

● Social media posts

● Guest collaborations and influencer endorsements
● Cross promotions with other podcasts
● Q&A sessions on live stream
● Recurring themes or questions
Types of Podcast Ads & Finding the Best Fit

● Look for brand-compatible themes and host

● Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll options personas
● Host read vs. produced ads ● Authentic storytelling drives results
● Select based on campaign objectives ● Find podcasts where your brand voice fits
● Niche podcasts offer specific audience
segments
● High engagement from devoted listeners
● Builds strong brand affinity
● Recurring sponsorships build trust
Types of Podcast Ads & Finding the Best Fit

● Look for brand-compatible themes and host

● Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll options personas
● Host read vs. produced ads ● Authentic storytelling drives results
● Select based on campaign objectives ● Find podcasts where your brand voice fits
● Niche podcasts offer specific audience
segments
● High engagement from devoted listeners
● Builds strong brand affinity
● Recurring sponsorships build trust
Types of Podcast Ads & Finding the Best Fit

● Look for brand-compatible themes and host

● Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll options personas
● Host read vs. produced ads ● Authentic storytelling drives results
● Select based on campaign objectives ● Find podcasts where your brand voice fits
● Niche podcasts offer specific audience
segments
● High engagement from devoted listeners
● Builds strong brand affinity
● Recurring sponsorships build trust
Podcast marketing is authentic,
engaging, and here to stay
Podcast marketing is authentic,
engaging, and here to stay