Podcast Analytics

How to Interpret
Podcast Listener Numbers

How many people listen to a podcast? Podcast hosts publish “listener numbers”, but those numbers can be a little “squishy.”

To understand why, you need to understand a little of the technology behind podcasts. (Apologies if this is all old news, but I’d rather cover ground you already know than assume you know more than you actually do.)

The actual audio file that people listen to – on their phone, tablet or computer – is initially uploaded and stored on a podcast host. (I prefer BuzzSprout.)

When I publish a new podcast episode, I upload it to BuzzSprout. Then BuzzSprout makes it available to the world for listening.

Ways to Listen to a Podcast

There are actually 4 different ways that people can access that file to listen to it:

1. Listeners can link directly to the file located on the podcast host using the podcast’s URL
2. Listeners can download it from the podcast host
3. Listeners can stream it or download it through one a syndicator
4. Listeners can stream it or download it through embedded websites

Let’s take these one at a time.

Link to it

If you access the file this way, then the podcast host can get an exact count. This is pretty much the same way that you count visitors to a web site.

Download it

Here is where accurate counts start to get difficult. Although the podcast host can count the number of downloads, they cannot count the number of people that download gets distributed to.

So what do they do? They guess. The podcast industry’s best-guess is that a download generates some multiple of listeners.

(I won’t go into their reasoning. Just take it as a given that this multiple goes into calculating “Total Listeners”.)

Syndicators

Now accurate counts are really difficult. I syndicate all the podcasts I produce across all the major syndication platforms. This includes Apple, Spotify, Google, Alexa, I Heart Radio and Stitcher. (There’s more, but those are the biggest.)

This is where it gets really weird.

Each of those syndicators accesses the audio file from their own IP address. It’s impossible for the podcast host to count actual listens this way, because each listener from any syndicator looks the same.

There is literally no difference between one listener from Apple and one million listeners from Apple.

So again, we have to trust the industry’s best guess. And they guess if you’re on the syndicators I’m on, and have the connections I have, then “100 listens = 10,000 listeners.)

That’s where the “10,000 listeners” number comes from.

Is it 10,000 actual listeners?

There is no way to know.

But these multiples are truly educated guesses. They are calculated across thousands of different podcasts across various languages, countries, age ranges, and cultures.

In other words, they’re a pretty good “best guess.”

Embedding

When you go to the podcast website and look at the podcasts page, you are seeing embedded links that point back to the physical file on te podcast host.

Embedding makes it look like the episodes are actually on your website. Listeners can stream or download the files through that embedded link. Embedding offers the same advantages and disadvantages that we have with syndicators.

Every time a file is accessed from an embedded site, it comes from the same IP address, so it looks like the same event to the podcast host. Whether we have 10,000 people listen through our website, or only 1 – it all looks the same to the podcast host.

Summary

BuzzSprout’s analytics tell me precisely what they are able to count. In addition they provide those “best guess based on industry standards” numbers from the various syndicators.

BuzzSprout is one of the better podcast hosts out there and – as much as I trust anyone – I trust their numbers.

I hope this helps. Drop me a line if you have any more questions.

PS: Spoiler alert. Podcasters are the new Kronkites. Not sure how to start? Grab a copy of the free guide How to Produce and Publish a Podcast Epsisode for step-by-step instructions.

(Part 5)

Why Do People Like You?

People trust people they admire. And people trust people who are like themselves.

Your persona is who people perceive you to be.

It takes time to get to know a real person.

It takes not-long-at-all to get to know a persona.

I’ve distilled the elements down to 5 elements:

1. A recognizable face
2. Your most obvious quality balanced by…
3. Your most surprising quality
4. Your biggest fear or flaw balanced by…
5. Your strongest value 

For a quick tutorial in how to craft your persona, download my free guide here.

If you want a deep dive, then check out my Irresistible Persona course.

PS: Next time, I’ll share with you the equipment you need to produce your own podcast.

(Part 4)

The Three P’s of Trust Building

The more you listen to someone, the more you trust them.

First, you need a platform to speak from. Kronkite’s platform was his nightly broadcast. For you, that’s your own branded podcast.

Next, you need to appear on that platform on a predictable schedule. We all knew Kronkite would be on every weeknight at the same time. For your podcast, I recommend you publish one episode at the same time every week.

Finally, you need a believable persona that people admire. Kronkite had this in spades. Another way to say it is that he sounded authentic.

Podcasting gives you a huge advantage here. With a podcast, you “sit and chat” with your audience. It sounds real because it is real.

When you host your own branded podcast, you earn the trust of your audience because:

• They get time listening to you through your podcast
• They get to listen on their own schedule
• They get to know the person you are

It should be obvious to you now:

If you want to build trust in your market, you need your own branded podcast.

Next time, I’ll talk more about how to craft a persona people relate to and admire.

PS: My free guide How to Produce and Publish a Podcast Epsisode gives you step-by-step instructions for creating and publishing your own podcast episodes.

P.D. Mangan wrote this morning:

“Historically, writing progressed from pictographs to letters, but is now going in reverse.”

This is a trend I’ve been observing for almost 20 years, (coincident with the rise of the internet.)

We’ve drifted from the clear tools of speaking and writing.

We use emoticons and emojis rather than words.

Images rather than descriptions.

Memes rather than essays.

These visual forms of communication are faster and easier to generate than articulate speech or articulate writing. And for people in a hurry, with nothing precise to say, and nothing important to think, these forms of shorthand work fine.

But precision in thinking requires precision in speech. If you cannot precisely articulate your own thoughts, how in the hell will anyone else understand your thoughts?

A person who does not master the tools of speech and writing cannot pass his own ideas on to another person.

Symbols, images and memes all have power to communicate an idea. But they are low-resolution versions of specific ideas.

Percy Shelley famously observed that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

Not musicians.

Not sculptors.

Not painters.

Poets.

Master the use of language so you can master your thoughts so can pass them on to the world.

(Part 3) The Kronkite Effect

Time Builds Trust 

There is no substitute for time together. And that’s doubly true for persuasion.

Why does Coke spend zillions of dollars a year to keep their logo in front of you?

Time.

Of course, nobody else has Coke’s marketing budget. So, how can you get the same “face time” with minimal investment?

Your Own Branded Podcast Series

You can spend hours inside the ears and mind of your target audience with your podcast. Hours they won’t give your advertising. People hate advertising.

And people love podcasts.

The numbers are hard to ignore.

And it’s better than TV because they can listen to you on their schedule. You won’t be hostage to randomness of broadcast schedules.

The time your audience spends listening to you will make them feel like they know you.

And knowing you will translate into trusting you – assuming you know how to show your humanity.

Till next time,

PS: Next time, I’ll explain some simple ways to show your own humanity in your podcast.

PPS: Spoiler alert. Podcasters are the new Kronkites. Not sure how to start? Grab a copy of the free guide How to Produce and Publish a Podcast Epsisode for step-by-step instructions.

When I first started lifting, I didn’t know my own physical limits. So I started light. (One of Jim Wendler’s maxims is “”Start Light and Go Slow.” I trust Jim Wendler.)

The amount of weight I was lifting at the time didn’t require much concentration. I could lift and talk at the same time. Or lift and listen to a motivational podcast or an educational podcast. Or lift and also think about something else.

In other words, though my body was busy lifting, my mind was engaged in doing other things. It was only when the weight bumped up against my own limits that I discovered the mental side of lifting.

Then one day, I came up against another limit.

My son & I were lifting one day in his garage. I was going to attempt a PR in my squat. Now, when my son lifts, he generally has some sort of metal blaring on the sound system.

Me? Up to that point, I could take it or leave it. I didn’t care about the music.

He said, “here – let me help.”

And he put this on the sound system and turned it up LOUD:

Something started happening in my body and mind as well. My focus intensified. My perception narrowed. Everything else disappeared. I was in a battle for my life. There was nothing in my world except me and that bar. And the music blasting out of those speakers was the soundtrack of my battle.

My battle.

I was going to war.

I took a deep breath, stood up, unracked that weight, and squatted a PR like it was nothing.

Then I did it again.

And yet again for a 3rd rep.

I re-racked the weight and a primal roar exploded from me. I couldn’t help it. It was instinctive, visceral, triumphant. I had faced and conquered a weight that scared the crap out of me.

And the music was the missing ingredient.

I spend a lot of time thinking about what I learned that day, (and still practice.) That music pushed me – physically and mentally – to a place I had no idea I was able to go.

I cannot explain why.

I only know that the music – that particular music – helped to unite my body, mind, will and emotions. I needed maximum effort to achieve my goal. And that soundtrack is what got me over and through.

I don’t know if anyone has performed a controlled study on the effects of various kinds of external stimuli on the performance of lifters.

But…

…I suspect that “Heavy Metal” is the music of choice in powerlifting gyms around the world.

And I don’t think that is a coincidence.

Lift Heavy.
Play Metal.

(Oh – and eat meat.)