Getting a client's podcast listed on Spotify is easy. Getting it noticed? That's the billion-dollar question every podcast agency is trying to answer. With millions of shows vying for attention, just being available isn't a strategy—it's the bare minimum. Your clients aren't paying for presence; they're paying for progress. They want to see their audience grow, their authority build, and their investment turn into tangible results.
The hard truth is that the old playbook of "share it on social and hope for the best" no longer cuts it. Organic reach is a gamble, and discovery within Spotify itself is notoriously difficult. To keep clients happy and prove your value, you need a smarter, more reliable approach to promotion.
This checklist is your guide to moving beyond hope-based marketing. We'll cover the essential basics you need to have in place, but more importantly, we'll dive into the advanced strategies that turn a podcast from a "failed vanity project" into a strategic growth engine for your clients.
The Foundational Checklist: Mastering the Spotify Basics
Before you can build a skyscraper, you need a solid foundation. These are the non-negotiable first steps. While they won't guarantee explosive growth on their own, neglecting them is like trying to run a race with your shoelaces tied together.
✅ Optimize Your Spotify Listing for Maximum Impact
Think of your podcast's page on Spotify as its digital storefront. First impressions matter immensely.
- Show Title & Description: Your title should be memorable and your description stuffed with relevant keywords that your ideal listener would search for. Clearly state who the show is for and what problem it solves.
- Cover Art: Your artwork needs to be professional, eye-catching, and legible even as a tiny thumbnail on a mobile device. It’s a primary factor in a potential listener's decision to click.
- Episode Titles & Show Notes: Write compelling, benefit-driven episode titles. Use the show notes to summarize key points, link to resources, and include a clear call-to-action.
✅ Leverage Spotify for Podcasters Features
Spotify provides tools to increase engagement with your existing listeners. Higher engagement can signal to the algorithm that your content is valuable, which may help with visibility.
- Polls and Q&As: Use these interactive features within the Spotify app to create a two-way conversation with your audience.
- Video Podcasts: If your client has a video component, make sure you're publishing it to Spotify. Video podcasts are heavily favored by the platform and can dramatically increase engagement.
✅ Pitch for Editorial Playlist Inclusion
Getting featured on one of Spotify's curated playlists (like "New & Noteworthy" or topic-specific lists) can provide a massive, temporary boost in visibility. You can submit your show for consideration through your Spotify for Podcasters dashboard. However, treat this as a lottery ticket—it’s great if it happens, but it’s an unreliable and unpredictable growth strategy to build a client's plan around.
The Growth Dilemma: Why Organic Isn't Enough for Your Clients
You've checked all the foundational boxes. Your client's show looks professional and is optimized for discovery. So why are the download numbers still flat?
This is the reality most agencies face. The levers for organic growth are weak and getting weaker. Social media platforms actively suppress posts that link out to other platforms like Spotify. The algorithms are designed to keep users on-site, not send them away.
This creates a critical business problem for you as an agency. Your clients have to go into budget meetings and justify their podcast spend to leadership who speak the language of performance marketing. They want to see numbers, data, and a clear return on investment. Telling a VP of Marketing that "500 downloads is good for our niche" or "organic growth takes time" is a losing argument when they’re used to seeing millions of impressions and clear conversion data from other channels.
Relying on unpredictable organic growth puts your client relationships at risk. To secure long-term funding and prevent churn, you need to speak their language. You need a promotional strategy that is predictable, targeted, and measurable.
The Advanced Promotion Checklist: Driving Targeted Listeners
This is where you shift from a production-focused agency to a strategic growth partner. It's about taking control of your client's audience growth instead of leaving it to chance.
✅ Run Paid Campaigns… The Right Way
The phrase "paid ads for podcasts" often makes agencies and their clients nervous, and for good reason. Most paid media is sold on impressions (CPM) or clicks (CPC), forcing you to gamble with your client's budget. You pay for the ad, cross your fingers, and hope it leads to actual listeners, but there's no guarantee.
The right way to approach paid promotion is with a performance-based model. Instead of paying for clicks, you should only pay for a guaranteed result: a download. This completely changes the dynamic. It removes the risk and ensures every dollar spent contributes directly to a measurable outcome. By partnering with a specialized podcast growth service, you can run hyper-targeted campaigns on networks like Google Display and LinkedIn to put your client's show in front of their exact Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
✅ Guarantee Your Reach with Precision Targeting
Imagine being able to tell your B2B tech client you can guarantee their podcast will be downloaded by engineering managers at aerospace companies. Or telling your finance client you can reach C-level executives with a specific career length.
This level of precision is the key to unlocking real ROI. It’s the difference between shouting into the void and whispering directly into the ear of a future customer. True promotion isn't about reaching more people; it's about reaching the right people. By leveraging the deep targeting capabilities of platforms like LinkedIn, you can move beyond vague demographic data and connect with listeners based on their job title, industry, company size, and more. Tying this targeting to a performance model delivers predictable reach to an audience that actually matters to your client's business. See the results for yourself in our case studies.
✅ Transform Anonymous Downloads into Audience Intelligence
Standard podcast analytics are notoriously weak. You get some basic geographic and platform data, but you can’t answer the most critical question: “Who is actually listening?”
This is another area where modern, tech-enabled promotion flips the script. By using an ad-to-download tracking system, you can pull rich, business-class data directly from the ad networks. You suddenly have insights into:
- Audience Interests: What other topics and content categories do your listeners engage with?
- Demographics: Verified age, gender, and even household income data.
- Firmographics (LinkedIn): The industries, job functions, and seniority levels of your listeners.
This data is gold. It transforms the podcast from an isolated content piece into a powerful strategic intelligence tool that can inform your client’s entire marketing strategy, from content creation to sales outreach.
✅ Create a Multi-Touchpoint Promotion System
Growth isn't about a single interaction; it's about building a relationship over time. A sophisticated promotion strategy uses technology to create multiple touchpoints with potential listeners.
When someone engages with an ad for one episode, they should be automatically retargeted with promotion for the next. This builds familiarity and dramatically increases the chances of converting a one-time download into a loyal subscriber. The right system can also drive secondary actions, like prompting an engaged listener to follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, helping to build a durable, long-term audience.
From Vanity Project to Strategic Asset
To truly promote a podcast on Spotify and beyond, agencies must evolve. Success is no longer solely defined by production quality; it’s defined by the ability to build, engage, and understand a targeted audience in a way that directly supports a client's business goals.
By moving away from unpredictable organic tactics and embracing a strategic, performance-based promotional model, you can stop the cycle of client churn. You can walk into meetings armed with data that speaks the language of business leaders, proving that the podcast isn't just a passion project—it's a high-performing asset delivering guaranteed reach, deep audience relevance, and a demonstrable return on investment. This is the future of podcast growth services.
Ready to stop gambling with your clients' promotional budgets and start delivering guaranteed, targeted growth that secures buy-in and proves your agency's value?
Schedule a free strategy call with Listen Network today and let’s talk about how to transform your clients' podcasts into undeniable strategic assets.
