25.9M Impressions and 553K YouTube Views for a B2B Podcast

At a glance

• 25.9M impressions across YouTube, Google Display, LinkedIn and Meta in nine months
• 553K YouTube views, with quarterly views nearly tripling from the first quarter to the third
• 620K clicks at a 2.4% blended click-through rate, including 566K on Google at $0.10 per click
• CPMs from $1.48 to $6: Google Display $1.48, LinkedIn $3.84, Meta $5.01, YouTube $6
• Up to 70% higher engagement from partner audience lists deployed across platforms
• Every channel beat its CTR goal: Google 2.7% vs. 1%, Meta 2.3% vs. 1.5%, LinkedIn 0.72% vs. 0.56%

The client

The client is a B2B media company. It has built an audience of supply chain, operations and logistics professionals through podcasts, livestreams and webinars.

The content was strong. The job was getting it in front of more of the right people.

The problem

• Great episodes don't find an audience on their own.
• Organic reach alone wasn't enough to grow viewers and listeners.
• Awareness campaigns get expensive fast when targeting is loose.

The goal: put the client's shows in front of supply chain professionals at scale, without overpaying for reach.

A brand awareness play, measured like one

Not every campaign should be judged on leads.

This one was about reach and attention. So we measured what awareness actually looks like:

• Impressions: how many times the right people saw the brand
• Views: how many people actually watched
• Click-through rate against a goal: whether the creative earned attention on each platform
• Cost to reach: what we paid per thousand impressions (CPM) and per click (CPC)

Each platform got its own CTR goal, because benchmarks differ. A strong LinkedIn CTR looks nothing like a strong Meta CTR.

Every channel had a job

YouTube: the workhorse

On most platforms, an ad points to the content. On YouTube, the ad can be the content.

Targeted video ads put episodes directly in front of supply chain audiences. A view isn't a step toward the podcast. It is the podcast.

Google Display: low-cost reach

Google Display kept the brand visible across the sites supply chain professionals read, at just $1.48 per thousand impressions.

LinkedIn: professional precision

LinkedIn put the brand in front of supply chain professionals by role and industry, where they already think about their work. It did it at a $3.84 CPM and $0.58 per click.

Meta: efficient reach

Meta added reach and frequency at a $5.01 CPM and $0.19 per click, keeping the shows top of mind between episodes.

The secret ingredient: partner audiences

The client's partners already know exactly who their buyers are.

So we worked with the client to source target audience lists from its partners. Then we deployed those lists across YouTube, LinkedIn and Meta.

The result: engagement up by as much as 70%.

Better targeting beats bigger budgets. When the audience is right, the creative works harder.

Why YouTube shined

YouTube has been the best value per impression, and the most targeted way to win new listeners.

Its $6 CPM isn't the cheapest on the plan. But on other platforms, an impression is an ad pointing somewhere else. On YouTube, every impression is the show itself.

Six dollars put an episode in front of 1,000 targeted supply chain viewers.

Quarterly views grew 2.9× from the first quarter to the third.

The results

What it cost

Ten cents a click on Google, 19 cents on Meta and 58 cents on LinkedIn. For an awareness campaign aimed at a specialized B2B audience, that's efficient reach.

LinkedIn kept getting better

LinkedIn's click-through rate climbed every quarter: 0.55%, then 0.82%, then 0.99%.

That's nearly double from the first quarter to the third. By the third quarter, LinkedIn was beating its goal by 77%.

Testing and refining creative pays off. Every dollar learns.

What other B2B teams can take from this

1. Measure awareness like awareness. Judge reach campaigns on impressions, views, engagement and cost to reach, not leads.
2. Let the content be the ad. If you make video or podcasts, YouTube lets the ad and the content be the same thing.
3. Use the audiences you already have access to. Partner and customer lists turn broad targeting into precise targeting.
4. Give every channel a job. Channels are tools, not strategies. Each one should have a clear role.
5. Set goals by platform. A 0.56% CTR goal on LinkedIn and a 1.5% goal on Meta can both mean success.

Want more of the right people to see your brand? Book a strategy call.