Case study
Growing a podcast audience with ad placements that maximize reach.
Here's how we grew Finding Founders' listener base on a tight budget by harnessing emerging media placements like YouTube Shorts.
By GoodboyPublished 2024
- Client
- Finding Founders
- Services
- Strategy · Paid Ads
- Industry
- Podcast
- Year
- 2024
In this case study, we worked with Finding Founders to expand the podcast's listener base inside a tight budget and accelerator-program window, where conventional podcast ads weren't going to move the needle fast enough — by leaning into emerging media placements like YouTube Shorts to find outsized reach for a podcast still building its audience.
Approach
We bet on where attention was cheapest — and where podcast discovery was actually happening.
Lean into emerging media placements
Instead of competing for expensive podcast ad inventory, we leaned heavily into YouTube Shorts and similar short-form placements where CPMs were still favorable and discovery was strong.
Run a data-driven optimization loop
Built a reporting cadence that tracked reach, cost-per-download, and engagement by placement weekly, then reweighted spend toward the highest-ROAS surfaces.
Own the full stack
Set up the ad platforms, developed creative concepts, produced the assets and copy, implemented the ads, and managed everything in flight.
Adjust in real time
Monitored ROAS throughout and reshaped the campaign as signals came in — keeping the client looped with analytics reports through the accelerator review.
Emerging placements unlocked the kind of reach a tight budget shouldn't have bought.
Key results
The campaign generated more than a million views and 1.6 million in reach, with a cost-per-episode-download of just seven cents, and the podcast successfully progressed through its accelerator program off the back of the demonstrated growth. The bigger takeaway: small podcasts don't need to compete inside saturated podcast-ad inventory — audience discovery has moved.
- 1m+
- Views
- 1.6m+
- Reach
- 7¢
- Avg. episode download
Frequently asked questions
Do you work with podcast creators and media properties?
Yes. Goodboy supports independent creators and media companies on audience growth through performance media — paid social, search, programmatic, and emerging placements.
Can you grow a podcast on a small budget?
Yes. We focus on where attention is cheapest right now, which often means short-form video placements (YouTube Shorts, Reels, TikTok) and tightly-targeted retargeting — not traditional podcast ad networks.
What if our show is still very early stage?
Smaller shows are often where these strategies hit the hardest, because there's no installed audience to mute the gains.
