Background

CBC manages a large and diverse podcast portfolio, spanning national news, investigative series, culture, and hyper-local programming. While podcasting is one part of a broader media ecosystem, the team has focused on growing priority shows through cross-promotion, publicity, and editorial distribution. To understand what was driving listener growth, CBC partnered with Magellan AI to measure the impact of each tactic.

Challenges

CBC was already investing in podcast growth across internal promos, placements in other podcast feeds, host appearances, and owned channels like newsletters. But without consistent measurement, it was difficult to tell what was working. Teams lacked a clear way to compare performance across shows and tactics, and leadership needed stronger proof that these efforts were driving results. As a result, teams made decisions based on experience rather than measurable performance.

Results

• Episode-specific promos roughly tripled conversion over generic show trailers, moving from 0.3–0.4% to around 1%
• Timely creative pushed further. A Front Burner promo tied to the federal election ran just 48 hours and converted at 9.06%, bringing in 7,885 new listeners
• Placement context outweighed reach. Broad network promos converted in the low single digits, while well-matched feeds reached 14.5%
• Host appearances on other podcasts converted at around 13%, outperforming most other tactics CBC could measure