Podcast appearances
Guest appearances borrow someone else’s audience and trust at once. Leads arriving from a show close at 30 to 50%, roughly midway between cold traffic and warm referrals.
Cost to acquire$100–$300
Close rate30–50%
Time and production cost per appearance. Est · Estimate
Where it fails
Entirely dependent on the host’s audience fit. Ten appearances on the wrong shows produce nothing, and you will not know which were wrong until afterwards.
Timing and fit
- Time before reliable flowHorizonWeeks, and lumpy
- Best suited toBest forCoaches with a specific, articulable point of view
6 channels cost less than this one: Referrals, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google and Microsoft Ads, YouTube, Meta Ads. Cost is not the only axis, but it is the one most easily ignored when a channel feels productive.
Against every other channel
- ReferralsEvery niche, at every stageCost$0–$50Close rate40–70%
- LinkedInBusiness, executive, leadership and career coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—
- InstagramLife, health, relationship and wellness coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—
- Google and Microsoft AdsExecutive and B2B niches with real search intentCost$65–$150Close rate14–18%
- YouTubeThought leadership, executive and high-ticket coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—
- Paid directoriesCoaches without an audience who need volume nowCost$200–$600Close rate—
- Meta AdsConsumer niches with a strong lead magnetCost$30–$80Close rate—
- Cold emailHyper-personalised B2B outreach onlyCost$50–$300Close rate0–1%