28. Ask Angie: How Do I Measure The Success Of My Podcast Besides Downloads?

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So have you ever wondered how

to tell if your podcast is doing

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good or not or how to know if your

podcast is quote unquote successful?

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So in today's Ask Angie, I am

answering a question about how to

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know if your podcast is doing good.

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Performing well or quote

unquote successful.

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So stay tuned.

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Okay.

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What's up fam.

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Welcome back to another ask Angie.

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And this question comes from my Facebook

group and inside my Facebook group.

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I actually asked a question and I

was asking what are your biggest

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struggles when it comes to your

podcast and Stephanie actually

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responded and asked, how do you even

know how to evaluate how good your

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podcast is doing besides downloads?

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So if you know me, if you listen to me

often, You know that I don't care about

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downloads and I think I just wrote a post

about this on Facebook not too long ago

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about Uh, why downloads only gives you,

actually I sent an email to my list the

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other day about this, about how downloads

only gives you, a small picture of what

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is actually going on in your podcast.

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So I gave an example and I'll

give the example again here.

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Uh, one of my clients has a podcast,

the nutrition edit , Jeannie Oliver.

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I love her.

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I love her podcast, The Nutrition Edit.

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She's super smart.

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She has super smart guests.

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If you are looking to, , Get healthy

great podcast to listen to anyway I was

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editing one of her episodes and she was

talking about one of the things that you

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should do is Literally throw away the

scale but not for the reasons why you

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hear a lot of other people talk about

it So a lot of times you hear it because

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it's like I don't know damaging to your

mindset or your pleasure Body weight goes

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up and down blah blah blah, whatever.

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But she was just talking simply

about how paying attention to the

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scale doesn't give you enough

information of what's going on.

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It just doesn't.

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show the full picture.

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And it made me think, and I use this

example in my email as well, because

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it made me think about podcasting

and it made me think about downloads.

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So with your podcast downloads

are the same as using a scale to

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measure what's going on in your body.

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So using your downloads to measure

what's going on in your podcast

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is not going to be the thing that

gives you enough information about

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whether you are successful or not.

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Right.

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So a lot of people look at downloads

as that measurement and this is what

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this podcast episode is all about is

what should you be looking at then?

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And so the first thing that I'm going

to tell you in this is that you don't

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know what to measure if you don't

know what you're trying to achieve.

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So if you don't know what your goals are,

if you don't know what you're actually

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trying to accomplish from your podcast,

other than downloads, then you're

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not going to know what to look for.

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You're not going to have a

measurement of success whatsoever.

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Right.

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Now, a lot of people, why do

people even measure downloads

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as a measurement of success?

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It's just because like what other

people do, it's because what you've

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seen, it's because, okay, if this

podcast gets so many downloads,

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then they get to get sponsors.

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And then they have money coming in from

sponsorship deals or whatever, because

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they have a lot of eyeballs, a lot

of eyeballs, a lot of ear balls, a lot

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of ears listening to their content.

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Right.

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So that is why people

started measuring downloads.

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But I want you to think about

what it is that you really want to

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accomplish other than downloads.

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What is it that you're hoping to do?

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So are you wanting more conversions?

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Are you wanting people to actually

take action on your content?

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Are you, you know, building this

as a place in order to showcase

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your, thought leadership so that

you can get speaking gigs from it?

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I don't know, there's so many different

reasons why you could be building this.

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Is you building this to be a part

of the marketing of your business?

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That's something that's really important.

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So this is just a cog, a

big cog in your marketing.

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And so it's not even really something

that you measure as a standalone tool.

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And so.

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In your marketing, right?

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It could be that this is just a part

of everything else that you do and

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it gets factored into the equation

of your overall marketing, which is

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actually really smart or something

that you should be, you know, doing.

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But anyway, so it just depends on what

it is that you're trying to accomplish.

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It depends on what

you're trying to achieve.

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So here are some things that you could be

measuring that just looking at your stats,

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if you open up your podcast app, your

host and look at these different numbers.

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Here's some others numbers that could

tell a different story or paint a bigger

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picture of what is actually going on.

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So here's the things that

I like to track to know.

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Well, first of all, I want you

to know what your goals are and

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what you're trying to accomplish.

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That's number one.

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So you need to know that so that you know

that if you are actually accomplishing

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your goal or not, that's number one.

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Number two is here's some things to look

out for within your podcast host, which

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would be metrics that I like to dig into.

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So one of the metrics that I like

to look at is your unique listeners.

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So your unique listeners, tells a

measurement of how many unique IP

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addresses or whatever you call it is,

are actually coming to your podcast.

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So this gives you an idea of not

just downloads, but people who are

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actually listening to the show.

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So there is a little distinction

between a download and a listener.

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So downloads automatically will happen.

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If someone has a setting on their

phone that's turned on that says zero,

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You know, every time a new episode

comes out, it automatically downloads.

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Right.

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So then you look like you're

having people listening, but

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they're not actually listening.

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It's just downloading in the

background on their phone.

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Okay.

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So I like to measure the number of unique

ones, because that gives you a picture.

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of how many people are

actually in your audience.

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So you know, if you go and measure in

April, and you have 150 unique listeners,

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and then you can measure in May, and all

of May you have 250 unique listeners, you

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know that your audience size has grown.

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So that's a great metric to look at.

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another metric I really love to

look at is your consumption rates.

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Now your consumption rates, you can

only find inside of Apple podcasts.

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So you need to make sure that

you're in Apple podcast connect

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so that you can get this, data.

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I do like Apple podcast, analytics.

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Most people, the majority of people,

I mean, 70, 80 percent and upwards

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are listening still on Apple podcast.

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So it still gives you a.

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a big enough picture, a big

enough pool of data to, to get

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an idea of what's going on.

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even though it's not the full amount of

people, because there are still people who

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are listening on Spotify and other places.

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Right.

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So what your consumption rates tell

you, and here's what I like to look

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at and why I like to look at them.

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So your consumption rates are telling

you how much of your episodes people are

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consuming once they come to your episode.

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So this is a great tool and a

great metric to actually see

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if your content is engaging.

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Thanks for watching.

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Transcribed And not just to see if

your content is engaging, but to

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see what content is most engaging.

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What is capturing people's attention?

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What is getting people to listen

all the way until the end?

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And so this is something that you can

measure so you can go in and see different

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topics might be doing better than other

topics because remember your podcast is

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about your listeners and what they are

resonating with, what they are liking.

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So this is a metric that

is going to tell us.

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If you're being successful in

creating content that aligns with

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your people and that people are

actually wanting to consume to the

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end or for the most part, right?

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And so looking for consumption

rates of for solo shows.

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I mean, you want to really be in

the eighties, 90 percent consumption

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for a solo show and for interviews.

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I mean, 60 percent is probably a good

percentage, 60, 70 percent because it's

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usually a little bit lower for interviews

because let's be honest, I mean, sometimes

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unless they're done really, really well,

the interviews tend to lollygag around

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different topics and sometimes people just

don't consume them all the way through.

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Okay.

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So this gives you a good idea of how.

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your episodes are, your content is,

if it's hitting the mark, if you are

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doing interviews, if you're seeing

people drop off soon, then you know that

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you guys are doing too much lollygag.

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You're doing too much.

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You're not capturing anybody's attention.

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No, like people aren't

listening all the way through.

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And so that's a better, a much better

metric than looking at downloads because

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Who cares if it's downloaded to their

phone if they're not listening to

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it, that they're not engaged, right?

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Then it's not being

quote unquote successful.

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So that's a great metric to also hang

on to and be able to see what content

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is resonating, like how is this doing?

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And then you can make tweaks

and see if that does better.

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Do people enjoy this?

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I could do a split test or I can go

in and look at my metrics and see if

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these Ask Angie episodes, how they

perform next to My other episodes.

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What's the difference?

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Are people actually more engaged in this?

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Because these are like

shorter to the point.

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I'm answering your question episodes.

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Do people like that?

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Or are people seeming to like

my other content just as well?

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Right?

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So this gives you a picture

of what is actually going on.

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And I don't know if that's

necessarily this is, you know, Okay.

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gives you a picture of how to measure

if my podcast is successful or not, but

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it's a great metric to look at to see

if your content is actually landing.

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Okay, so the last thing I like to look

at to measure podcast success, and

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this just goes back to number one,

which is like, what are your goals?

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My assumption is always that your goal

is to get people to act on your content,

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get people to convert from your content.

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So that would be the third thing.

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To measure if your podcast

is being successful or not.

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So it's not about how

many people are coming.

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It's about what are people

doing when they're coming?

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So are people actually taking action?

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Are they going to that

call to action page?

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Do you have a, do you even have it?

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Most people don't even have it set up to

be able to see this information, right?

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But it's really important data and it's

really important to get it set up where

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you can have the visibility to see, Hey,

this week when I released this episode

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on my sales page, there was an uptick of.

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, visitors, or there was an uptick from,

you know, my podcast this week with this

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content, or, I had a higher percentage

of people who came from my podcast.

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And I also had a higher percentage of

people who converted or who got my opt in,

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or I had a high percentage of people who

came, but nobody, you Went to my opt in.

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So it just gives you more data,

but I like to measure and see,

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are people actually taking action?

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That's probably my number one metric

to measure success because for me,

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success is, are you engaging people?

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Are they actually taking

action on what you're doing?

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Are they wanting to take

the next steps with you?

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Is this working as a

marketing channel for you?

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That's what I would be.

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measuring.

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And that's what I would be getting good

at looking at those numbers of, Hey,

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people are actually acting on my call

to action, but no one is converting.

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So then I know, Hey, okay,

maybe I need to go in here and

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change like what my offer is.

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Maybe this isn't the right thing, but

you have to start collecting that data.

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So.

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I hope that that helps.

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I hope that that answers the

question of how do you actually

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measure success from your podcast?

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And again, if you have any questions

that you want me to answer on the

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podcast, head over to my Facebook group,

Launch Grow Explode Your Podcast, and

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you will see posts in there, or you can

just ask away any questions that you

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have, , for a chance for me to answer it.

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Live, well, not live, but me to

answer it here on the podcast for you.

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So thank you for tuning in

and I'll see you next time.