Cambridge Podcasts
A podcast production company making shows for businesses, universities and industry regulators.
- Sector
- Media production
- Where
- Cambridge · National
- Organic growth of over 500%
- An average of 3 additional enquiries every week
- 20% increase in the number of companies working with Cambridge
Where they started
A specialist service with real national demand and almost no organic visibility. Universities, regulators and comms teams were searching for exactly this, and hiring somebody else.
What we changed
We rebuilt the brand and the website first, then ran a nationwide campaign aimed at buyer intent in the major cities where the clients actually are. Generic podcast terms were left alone, because most of that volume never spends a penny.
A national service with no obvious geography
Cambridge Podcasts sells to universities, regulators and corporate comms teams. Those buyers are everywhere and nowhere in particular, the opposite of a local trade campaign, so the same playbook would have wasted the budget.
The instinct with a national service is to chase the service term: "podcast production", "corporate podcast agency". Every studio in the country and every aggregator is fighting for those, and much of the volume is people starting a hobby podcast, not commissioning one. Expensive to win, and mostly worthless once won.
So we went city by city instead, targeting intent in the metropolitan centres where the client base actually sits. National buyers still search with a place attached, because they want to know somebody can turn up with a microphone. Those searches are cheaper to win and far more likely to convert.
Rebuilding the brand before the campaign
The brand and website were rebuilt before any search work started. The order was deliberate, and it protected the campaign budget.
When universities and regulators are the buyers, credibility is the whole sale. A procurement lead comparing three production companies judges competence from the website in about four seconds. Drive that person to a site which undersells the work and you have paid for the click and lost the contract.
It is the same argument we make on the web design page. Ranking a page nobody enquires through is an expensive way to prove a point, so fix the destination first.
Why the enquiry rate matters more than the traffic figure
Organic growth of over 500% is the headline, and it is the number people quote back to us. The numbers that changed the business were three extra enquiries a week and 20% more companies on the books. Traffic does not pay the studio rent; contracts do.
That gap matters. A specialist B2B service does not need much traffic, it needs the right handful of people. Judge the campaign on sessions and the strategy drifts toward broad content about podcasting, which lifts the traffic figure and lowers the enquiry one.
That is why we agree the measure before the campaign starts, not after. Whatever number goes in the monthly report is the number the work will bend toward, so it had better be the one that pays.
For other specialist and creative businesses
The pattern holds for any high-value service with a national buyer. Compete on city plus service rather than the bare service term, fix the credibility of the destination before sending traffic to it, and measure enquiries rather than sessions. Each of those saves budget the generic approach burns.
Start with SEO for creative and media, or SEO consultancy if you have an in-house marketer who needs the strategy and can handle the delivery.
More clients, more numbers
Different sectors, same approach: a named client, real figures, and work that paid for itself.
- Danum Plumbing & HeatingTrades & heating
- Gio StockingsEcommerce · Fashion
- Fill Your ClinicHealth & aesthetics
Ready when you are
Tell us what you are trying to rank for and we will look at the site and the search results before we reply. You get a straight answer, including if SEO is not the right spend for you yet.