6 Ways To Turbocharge Your Podcast Growth With LinkedIn Ads

Ever feel like your B2B podcast is the best-kept secret in your industry? You’re not alone. But we’ve got you covered – with LinkedIn Ads.

Your content is well-researched and informative.

You’re a natural behind the microphone (and on camera).

You’re doing video, and on YouTube your thumbnails are on point.

So why are your podcast listening figures so small? The fact is that the podcast marketplace is one of the most crowded out there. Great content is essential, but without an effective promotion strategy, your B2B podcast will just get lost in the noise.

Enter LinkedIn Ads. 

With over 930 million professionals scrolling through their feeds, LinkedIn is the ideal platform to get your podcast in front of your target audience.

What’s more, LinkedIn offers a range of advertising tools to reach them when they’re most eager for a game-changing new podcast. In particular, LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Ads option is an effective way to amplify your reach. 

In this article, I’ll share six ways you can harness LinkedIn ads to supercharge your podcast growth and reap the rewards.

1 – Find your ideal target audience

LinkedIn isn’t just another social network. It’s a hub for professionals in every industry across the globe, where users willingly share detailed information about their job titles, industries, companies, and more. This makes it an advertiser’s dream, especially if you’re seeking a specific audience for your podcast.

Imagine you host a podcast on sustainable supply chain management.

You can target an audience of supply chain directors at manufacturing companies with more than 500 employees in North America. It’s that precise.

LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager is easy to use, and often gives you free advertising credits to get started. 

Zero in on the right listeners who will love your podcast and watch your listener numbers rise with little wastage.

2 – Make waves with Thought Leader Ads

Thought Leader Ads are one of my favourite tools on LinkedIn – and a game-changer for podcasters. What’s great is that they maintain the authentic feel of a personal post, so it will resonate with your audience more than a traditional ad.

Let’s say you share a compelling clip from your latest podcast episode.

With Thought Leader Ads, you can boost this post, ensuring it reaches the people who will find it the most valuable. 

Here’s how:

• Decide whether your campaign goal is Brand Awareness or Engagement
• Select the content you want to promote
• Promote posts from your own profile (or request permission to promote posts from colleagues on your company’s LinkedIn page)
• Transform your post into a sponsored ad, amplifying its reach without losing that personal touch
• Monitor real-time analytics, including impressions, clicks and engagement, to gauge performance and tweak your strategy for the future

3 – Leverage personal and company pages

It’s easy to ignore your LinkedIn company page and focus on your personal profile, but when you’re trying to grow your podcast, it’s advisable to leverage both.

Use your personal profile to:

• Share content from your podcast and personal insights on life as a podcaster
• Engage with your network and build authentic connections
• Promote your podcast to your connections and beyond – LinkedIn’s algorithm tends to favour content from personal profiles over company pages

Then, use your company page to:

• Showcase your brand in a more professional environment
• Turn company posts into Sponsored Content
• Target decision-makers who may not be in your immediate network

But the real magic happens when you combine the two, creating multiple touchpoints.

For example, share a podcast clip on your personal profile and boost it with Thought Leader Ads, while simultaneously sharing the episode and promoting it as Sponsored Content on your company page.

This approach increases your chances of catching the attention of your target audience.

4 – Team up with guests to expand your reach

The people you interview on your podcast aren’t just content for your show; they’re allies in promotion. When someone comes on your podcast, ensure they share the episode on their LinkedIn profiles. I like to set this expectation early in the process, when I’m booking a guest. This removes any ambiguity or mixed signals when the episode goes live. 

This amplifies your reach, allows you to tap into new networks, and adds credibility to your podcast brand.

The best way to do this is to make it easy for your guests to share content.

If it’s hard for them to do, they probably won’t do it. Send them ready-made assets, including video clips, graphics, direct links to the episode, etc. Then, when they share, it’s a powerful testimonial to their followers.

You could even go one step further and promote their posts as Sponsored Content, but make sure you get their permission first.

5 – Promote your podcast

How do I know these strategies work? Because I’ve done it. Let me explain.

Recently, I was a guest on Rogue Startups, hosted by Castos CEO Craig Hewitt. I wanted to make the most of this opportunity and ensure the episode reached professionals who could benefit from both the podcast content and Linklo, my LinkedIn advertising management platform.

Straight after the episode aired, I started sharing the best clips on my personal LinkedIn profile. I made sure these snippets highlighted actionable insights and were tailored to catch my target audience’s eye. 

Then, to extend the reach beyond my network, I used Thought Leader Ads, targeting:

• LinkedIn advertisers
• Digital marketers
• SaaS founders

I made sure these ads maintained the authenticity of a personal post, which would resonate with the audience.

But I didn’t stop there. Using Linklo, I scheduled my ads to run at times when my target audience was most active. (The great thing about Linklo is that it allows advertisers to optimise ad timing by daypart for maximum impact.)

The results were really encouraging. Not only did I see a spike in engagement and new connections, I also received some direct enquiries about Linklo. It was clear that strategically promoting the podcast on LinkedIn had paid off.

6 – Track your success and refine your approach

Promoting your podcast is not a one-and-done job. You need to measure your results and use your findings to tweak your strategy.

Keep an eye on your key metrics, including:

• Engagement rate – How many people interact with your posts?
• Impressions – How many eyes are on your content?
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) – Is your content compelling enough to make your audience take action?
• Follower growth – Do you attract more listeners over time?

Other strategies you can try include retargeting. LinkedIn allows you to re-engage users who have previously interacted with your content. For example, if someone has seen a podcast ad but didn’t subscribe, you can serve them a follow-up ad.

Don’t forget to use Linklo to optimise your campaign. Timing your ads when your audience is most active boosts visibility and engagement. 

Remember, it’s an ongoing process. Use the data to tweak your content, targeting and ad forms. If video clips perform better than text posts, create more of them. If your audience is more engaged on certain days, focus your activity around those days. Stay flexible and responsive to your audience’s behaviour.

Ready to get started?

Promoting your B2B podcast shouldn’t feel like shouting into the void. By making the best use of LinkedIn’s powerful advertising tools and adopting a strategic approach, you can cut through the noise and connect with professionals who will value your content the most.