In this final post of Podcasting for Business, we’ll take a look at how you can measure your podcast’s performance. There are several ways to do this, and you don’t have to solely rely on metrics and numbers.
1. Reviews:
A simple way to find out if your podcast is doing well is to monitor the reviews that it receives! This is why it’s important to regularly ask your listeners to write a review on the various podcast directories that your show is on. Obviously the more positive and detailed your reviews are, the more likely that others will listen to your show.
2. Downloads & Subscriptions:
It’s very important to keep track of the number of episode downloads as well as how users download them, e.g. a lot of people consume audio through mobile devices, so keep that in mind when analyzing metrics. However, number downloads ≠ number of listens (some people may have downloaded the episode but haven’t listened to it yet or even forgotten about it).
Also take a look at your subscriber numbers – the people who subscribe to your RSS feed. This is also not always accurate because, some people religiously listen to podcasts without subscribing to them; others don’t subscribe because they prefer to listen to only a few episodes of interest.
3. Traffic to your website:
Monitor the podcast-related traffic to your website, especially when you release a new episode or promote your podcast. Don’t forget that some people will listen to your show through iTunes or Stitcher, and just skip your website entirely.
If you do eventually plan to use your podcast as an income generator, then you should track your sales through a specific landing page or tracking code in the URL.
4. ROI:
Here’s a simple formula, by Search Engine Journal, to measure the ROI of your podcast: Revenue Generate – Expenses ÷ Production Hours = Return on Investment
“Each month total all the sales you’ve made through the various sources associated with your podcast. Then total all your podcast expenses, which most months will probably just include hosting cost.
At the same time, you should be tracking your podcast production time. This includes strategy, planning, scheduling, recording, pre- and post-production, and distribution.
Once you have these two figures, divide total revenue by total production time, and you have the hourly ROI for your podcast.”
Remember to revisit & refine:
If you find that your podcast is not performing so well, focus on improving it: keep promoting through online marketing; revisit the keywords and show notes that you use; continually refine and update your content; and listen to the feedback that listeners provide!