Episode Summary
There are many ways to measure your podcast’s ROI, and it mostly depends on your podcast goals, whether that is to increase brand awareness or connect with your audience. But the impact of your podcast goes beyond the traditional metrics.
In this episode of the Recorded Content podcast, our host Justin Brown discusses different ways to measure your podcast’s ROI. He shares the critical qualitative and quantitative data points. He also explains why you can’t measure the impact of your show based on your metrics.
Featured Co-Founder
- Name: Justin Brown
- What he does: He's the co-founder of Motion.
- Company: Motion
- Noteworthy: Justin is also the co-host of the Recorded Content podcast.
Key Insights
- Use quantitative and qualitative data points to measure your podcast's ROI. Different quantitative and qualitative measures can help you measure your ROI. Justin says, "There are a few key metrics that have to be considered. It's important to segment these metrics into quantitative and qualitative data points. By tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into your podcast's effectiveness and identify improvement areas."
- The ROI of your podcast goes beyond traditional metrics. Depending on what you want to achieve with your podcast, you measure its ROI based on certain metrics. But sometimes, the ROI goes beyond those traditional metrics. Justin says, "A podcast can act as the centerpiece of your content marketing flywheel by providing regular high-quality content. The podcast can help you create and distribute other forms of content, which can help drive website traffic, social engagement, and brand awareness, and a handful of other things that we've mentioned in today's episode. In addition, a podcast can also help you build relationships with other thought leaders in your industry. Inviting guests to your podcast allows you to tap into their audience and create valuable networking opportunities to help grow your business."
- You can't measure the impact of your podcast based only on traditional metrics. Your podcast is so much more than the number of downloads or social media shares it gets. Justin explains, "The impact of your company's podcast can't be measured on metrics alone; instead, you need to consider specific data points, qualitative feedback, and the impact your show has on your company's entire content marketing. A podcast lets your team focus on one primary input — a conversation or podcast episode — to get several authentic pieces of content. If you continuously improve your show and track your progress with data, your podcast can help drive your company's entire content marketing strategy and really get that content flywheel going. So when you think about the overall ROI of your company's show, try to look at it from a few different angles, not just downloads."
Episode Highlights
Qualitative metrics are just as important as quantitative metrics
“In addition to these quantitative metrics, there are also several qualitative data points that can help you understand the effectiveness of your branded podcast. A lot of podcasters focus on the download metric because it’s a very tangible number. I get it. I look at download numbers. These qualitative metrics, though, are generally more subjective and are a little bit more difficult to measure. But they can provide important insights into your podcast success.”
Set SMART goals
“To effectively measure the ROI of your podcast, you need to start by setting clear and specific goals before you ever hit the record button. Using the SMART framework can help ensure that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, a SMART goal for your podcast might be doing increased website traffic by 20% within the next six months, or you might want to improve the conversion on specific PPC landing pages, or you might want to increase the total views your company gets on LinkedIn. Once you’ve set your goals, you need to track the key metrics that are going to help you measure that progress to get to what is that ROI. Depending on your goals, those metrics may include downloads, website, traffic, social engagement, reviews, or revenue.”
Learn from both mistakes and successes
“Finally, it’s important to continuously improve your podcast by learning from your successes and failures, regularly analyzing your metrics, experimenting with new strategies, and soliciting feedback from your audience can help you improve the quality and impact of your podcast over time.”
