For the longest time, the number of downloads was considered the primary metric to evaluate the success of podcasts. However, is this one metric enough?
This blog discusses how deeper engagement matters for measuring the success of podcasts. It also evaluates podcast analytics important for podcasters looking to grow in the industry.
Why Downloads Alone Don’t Tell the Full Story
The number of downloads is essentially a vague metric as it is unable to tell you if people are actually engaging with your content. Thus, it does not provide any meaningful insight into listener behaviour or retention.
A better alternative in this case can be the completion rates. Completion rates and other holistic metrics can more accurately identify the actual rates of listener engagement and retention for your podcast.
There are various feasible podcast analytics, such as performance on listening platforms, play-through rates, listener demographics, top-performing episodes and so on. Analyzing these metrics can be effective in ensuring an effective understanding of the performance of your podcast.
Key Advanced Podcast Metrics to Track
A variety of podcast analytics metrics exist that you can apply to effectively evaluate how impactful your podcasts are.
Listener retention rate, average consumption rate, unique listeners, and others are referred to as advanced podcast metrics. These advanced metrics are actually useful in tracking how effective your podcasting channel is in attracting new listeners and retaining them.
1. Listener Retention Rate
The listener retention rate keeps track of how many people are continuing to listen to your podcast over time. This rate essentially shows that the audience has returned to listen to your podcast after the first time.
To identify your listener retention rate, you have to count how many people have engaged with your first episode and how many people have engaged with your second episode.
Dividing the second value by the first will give you your listener retention rate. When presented as a formula, it is represented as:
Listener retention rate = [Listeners of second episode] / [Listeners of first episode].
Identifying this rate shows you how many listeners have dropped off after the first episode, and how you can optimize your content to prevent this in the long run.
The optimization process can involve several steps that can help you improve your podcast’s ability to attract and retain listeners. The first option is to make each episode’s length and content well-planned to ensure that the episode is not too long. You should also ensure making content that the listeners will like and care about.
2. Average Consumption Rate
The average consumption rate is among the most important Podcast Data Analytics that can tell you how well your podcast is performing among listeners.
The consumption rate of your podcast is a percentage value of the average playtime of the podcast that your audience has consumed. The average consumption rate is calculated as a percentage value, with the closer to 100% you get, the better.
In general, getting a 75-80% value is the ideal rate to achieve. However, if you are a beginner podcaster, any value above 70% is a good place to aim for.
Now, why is this metric important? It effectively indicates how well your content is keeping the audience engaged. If you can make your audience return for second episodes and beyond, it shows a positive retention capacity.
Such a key metric is accessible to all podcasters as well, as free podcast analytics platforms will offer you this information.
3. Unique Listeners
Whenever you are trying to start a podcast channel, an important metric is knowing how many individual listeners have listened to your podcast. This is what the Unique Listeners metric shows.
Tracking how many devices have actually downloaded or streamed your podcast is more meaningful for tracking the viewer engagement of your content in comparison to the rate of downloads.
Engagement and Audience Behavior Metrics
There are other podcast analytics as well that you can use to measure success, especially to calculate the audience engagement levels of your podcast.
1. Social Shares & Mentions
Social shares and mentions are significant metrics to evaluate how the audience perceives your content. These not only show how engaging your podcast is to your current audience, but they can also attract more listeners to your content.
When any member of your listener base mentions your podcast, show, or channel on any social media platform, it is called a mention, and if a link to your podcast is shared on a platform, it is referred to as a social share.
This metric shows how your listeners directly act as word-of-mouth advertisers for your podcast content, and it can also indicate how you can gather more listeners through these shares and mentions.
In fact, this is something you can take into your own hands. With the right AI podcast editors, you can transcribe snippets of your podcast and generate captions for them to upload on various social media, increasing your reach.
2. Comments, Reviews & Ratings
On any web content, a significant way to create consumer engagement is through allowing for comments and ratings. These act as constructive feedback from the listeners themselves. You can take these comments and adjust your content accordingly to cater to them better.
Comments not only help your audience engage with you directly but also facilitate discussions among the listeners themselves, fostering a sense of community-building.
If you are keen, you can simply use AI-based podcast editors to edit your content as per audience feedback, to show instant response to criticism. This can create audience trust based on engagement.
Tools to Help Track These Metrics
It is important that you keep track of all the metrics that you are using to evaluate the listener perception of your podcast show. If you are a beginner podcaster, only starting out, you can use free podcast analytics platforms.
However, as your show grows in popularity, the number of listeners you have to keep track of increases, so you can consider different reputable podcast hosting platforms. With a monthly price rate, these platforms will provide you with the relevant data that you need to manage.
Conclusion
Downloads may represent how many listeners have engaged with your podcast, but it is not an ideal metric to evaluate the true value of your show.
It can be explained as a starting line. To keep going along the track, you have to ensure observing the critical metrics that will optimize your content to the needs of your listeners and ensure long-term listener loyalty.