#30: Balancing ROI and Creativity in Brand Podcasts

It is the question that lives inside every branded podcast project, often before the first recording is even made: "How are we going to prove the ROI on this?"

This episode tackles the tension between creative ambition and business accountability. While proving value is essential, Ed argues that letting ROI pressure dictate the brief often kills the show before it begins. If a podcast is measured strictly like a performance ad, focused on direct attribution and conversion, it will likely become transactional, short-lived, and unmemorable.

Instead, Ed proposes viewing your podcast as Brand Infrastructure—a compounding asset that builds trust, accelerates pipelines, and aids retention. He outlines a practical framework for measuring success without suffocating the "human" element that makes a show worth listening to.

What We Cover:

• The 3 Lenses of ROI: Why you should look beyond financial metrics to include Behavioral ROI (time spent, habits) and Reputational ROI (sentiment, authority).

• The "Attribution Trap": Why perfect attribution doesn't exist in audio and why correlation is a better currency for trust.

• A New Measurement Framework: Moving from "Inputs" (guests, topics) to "Outputs" (clips, assets) and finally "Outcomes" (perception changes).

• The 3 Horizons of Success: Consistency & Quality, Engagement & Reach, Business Influence

• Talking to Stakeholders: How to pitch the podcast to CFOs and CMOs not as a creative experiment, but as essential infrastructure for Reputation, Revenue Enablement, and Retention.

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