What Is The Best Way To Track Podcast Listenership?

By Author: Barry Elvis
Total Articles: 104
Comment this article

Building your podcast listenership is at the heart of creating a podcast. Podcast download numbers give you an idea of how many people are listening to your content, how much and fast you are growing, what episodes and topics do well, and a wealth of other information.

There are several ways to determine how well each episode of your podcast is doing, but these are some of the best ways to track podcast listenership.

Install a Podcast Analytics Tool

A good podcast analytics tool can give you an idea of what your listenership is for each episode you create, and this information is incredibly valuable. The information on a tool like this lets you know where your listeners are coming from, how they found your podcast, their ages, interests, the length of time they spend on your page before downloading, and how frequently they download. All of this information can be used to shape your future content, and give you an idea of where you should focus in order to reach more listeners.

Apple iTunes Connect

Because Apple iTunes is one of the main platforms for podcasts it is one of the best places to ...
... determine podcast download numbers. Connect provides you with a wealth of analytics, but it will only provide information for those downloads that happen on the sites platform, not all the downloads a podcast might receive.

Podcasting Plugin

There are several plugins that can be used on a private domain that will give you accurate numbers of downloads that happen across several platforms. This option requires that you house the podcast on your website, and then promote it and make it available across other platforms. The download URL will be redirected for each episode of your podcast through the website that you have created and will need to maintain. Because you will be using your website as your main source for hosting your podcast, it is important to promote the podcast broadly and really work to build your listenership. If no one can find you, they aren't going to be able to download your episodes.

Author Resource:-

I'm Barry Elvis, podcast marketing consultant, providing info about monetizing a podcast, analytics, promotion ideas and advertising for SME's. You can find his thoughts at podcast optimization blog.