Podcast promotion services: what you're actually paying for

Search "podcast promotion services" and you'll find everything from $20 Fiverr gigs to five-figure agency retainers. The prices vary wildly because the deliverables do. Here's how to tell them apart.

The four things a service can actually do

Get you found by strangers. This means search articles, guest bookings on other shows, or paid placement in podcast apps and newsletters. It's the only category that brings people who didn't already know you.

Reach people who already follow you. Social clips, email newsletters, community posts. Useful, but it doesn't grow the top of the funnel.

Make the show better. Editing, titling, show notes, artwork. Necessary, but it isn't promotion.

Make you feel promoted. Directory submissions to 50 directories nobody uses, "featured" placements on sites with no traffic, follower packages. Skip these entirely.

Questions to ask before you pay

1. Where do the new listeners come from? If the answer is vague ("our network", "our audience"), ask for a number.
2. What will I be able to see? You should get a report with readers, clicks, rankings or downloads, not a screenshot of a social post.
3. Does the work keep paying after I stop? Articles and guest appearances do. Paid ads and social posts don't.
4. Who owns what's created? You should own or be free to republish any content made from your show.

What a fair deal looks like

For an independent educational show, a reasonable monthly service brings a defined number of new pages or placements, a dashboard, and a monthly report, for somewhere between one and four hundred dollars a month. Above that you should be getting guest booking, production, or ad spend included.

How PodAnswer fits

We do the first category: getting you found by strangers, through search. Every month we turn your episodes into a set number of articles that answer real Google questions, publish them in your hub on the network, and show you the readers and clicks. Pricing is here and there's a free listing if you want to see the network before committing.