How to Measure Podcast Success

A key statistic shows that podcasts become successful when 80% of podcast listeners listen to all or most of each episode. (According to castmagic) It’s not just about getting people to listen all the way through. Sure, that’s a solid start, but there’s more that goes into making a podcast successful.

It’s about keeping things engaging, entertaining, and polished, right? Think of it this way: your podcast’s success depends on a combination of factors, such as great audio quality, engaging topics, and the right guests. 

These are the building blocks that turn casual listeners into loyal fans who come back for more. Want to make sure how to make your podcast hit all the sweet spots? 

Let’s dive into the metrics and strategies to take your podcast to the moon!

Downloads and Listens: The Basics

As Shakira said, numbers don’t lie; downloads and listens are the most basic yet legit metrics. Obsessing the viewer count is unhealthy as it may not give you the whole picture. 

Instead, use those numbers to: 

1. Measure Your Growth: Your downloads and listens can tell how much your podcast has grown. 
2. Variance in Audience Size:  You can measure the number of audiences and if they are growing or not. 
3. Find Content Preferences: You can find the episode-specific content preferences of your audience. 

Audience Retention: Keeping Listeners Hooked

It’s not about how many people come and go but how many decide to stay. For your podcast to be considered successful, your listeners have to hit that sweet spot of at least 80% completion per episode. 

Turbulent or stable, audience retention can help you decide: 

1. Content Structure: See how long into the episode listeners drop into the podcast and work on the parts that are lacking. 
2. Content Pacing: See how episodes with different pacings perform and pace future content accordingly. 
3. Editing Structure: See how the cutting at different parts creates intrigue, keeping the audience hooked. 

Listener Engagement: Interaction Matters

Engagement goes beyond listening and boosting tracks. It also focuses on several other aspects that tell you where to improve. 

Users interacting with your podcasting is one of the most important elements for your success, so make sure you pay close attention to: 

1. Reviews and Comments on Social Media Platforms

Keep checking reviews and comments, whether good or bad; they will provide quick feedback and insights. 

2. Likes and Shares

The amount of likes and shares is a great measure of how well the content is received by the audience. 

3. Subscriber Inflow

The number of subscribers gained over specific periods greatly indicates the podcast’s growth. 

Episode-Specific Metrics: What’s Hot and What’s Not

Not every episode performs the same, and that’s okay, too. Episode-specific metrics can be used to see which episodes gain traction among viewers. 

If one format outperforms another, it is a sign to use it more. Similarly, you can check these elements through these metrics as well: 

1. Experimenting with different lengths

Try experimenting with shorter and longer lengths and see what your audience prefers. 

2. Guest Features

Guest features on podcasts tend to do well, so see how your audience responds and plan accordingly in the future. 

3. Formats/Presentation

Test with different formats and presentations when uploading the video version of the podcast to see how your audience responds to the changes in visuals. 

Monetization and Sponsorships: A Financial Measure

Cha-ching, it’s raining money! It’s okay if it’s just dripping because brands are more likely to sponsor podcasts with consistent or growing viewership. 

Even if you’re not at the monetization stage right now, tracking your monetization stats can help you secure a sponsorship in the future.

Keep an eye out for these: 

• Advertisements (ADs): ADs are great for revenue inflow; you can insert them in the podcast on certain platforms to generate revenue. 
• Listener Donations: Your regular listeners can donate to you through platforms; these donations can also be a source of revenue. 
• Sponsorships: Once your podcast establishes itself either based on listener count or content quality, you will get sponsorships from brands and agencies for your podcast. 
• Merchandising: Some catchphrases or one-liners used by the hosts make great merchandise content; make sure to capitalize on them!
• Premium Content: Give access to premium content for a specific fee and add to your revenue inflow. 

Ways to Make a Podcast Successful

Those were some of the factors to look out for when making a podcast successful in virality and gaining traction among viewers. 

You need to divide and use interesting bits of the podcast that can gain traction among users. These can include anything from funny exchanges to viewers' questions to strong reactions or opinions. 

These bits and pieces can be divided into teasers, highlights, clips, and shorts or THCs. 

Why are Teasers, Highlights, Clips, and Shorts (THCs) Useful?

THCs can open ways for you to expand your reach and different revenue streams. The best part? You can do it all from a single episode!

Let me show you how: 

Teasers: Before the release of full-length podcast episodes, teasers show intriguing podcast bits to create buzz among the listeners. 

(Tip: End the teasers on cliffhangers to tease the audience)

Highlights: Highlights consist of juicy bits of podcast compiled in a single video and posted on the internet. Highlights are a great way to create intrigue among your listeners about your podcast. 

Clips: Clips are 3 to 5 minutes long and show one segment entirely. These segments include questions and answers, reactions, or simple humorous exchanges.

Shorts: Shorts can be posted on many platforms, creating a lot of buzz for the podcasts. Shorts are just under a minute and show an edited version of the interactions. 

Different Platforms for Publishing (traction and views gained)

The content generated through THCs can be used on multiple social media platforms to generate traffic to your full-length episode, and those short segments can stand alone and benefit you, the uploader, in the long run. 

The best part is that you don’t even need to post the content in one go or right away. You can post the cut-out content over a specific period to keep your content fresh in the audience’s mind. 

The Big 3 for Posting: 

TikTok (Shorts): TikTok is super popular for its short-form content. Content that goes viral on TikTok can also be shared on other platforms, so make sure your content is posted there!

Instagram (Shorts/Reels): Instagram is a great platform for short-format content, as it makes it easier for creators to boost their engagement via hashtags and interactions with their followers. 

YouTube (Clips and Highlights) : The only platform in this list that still supports long-format content. 

You can upload longer clips and highlights on YouTube and your shorts and teasers! Making it the only platform where you can upload all the content you have. 

THCS - The Perfect AI-Tool

Creating THCs from videos like ShxtsnGigs can consume time and resources. But as time-consuming as they are, they are necessary to widen the reach of your channel.

AI-Tools like Rizzle ease the THC creation process. All you have to do is upload your video on Rizzle, and it will generate several formats of content for you to work with. You can even use a text prompt to generate media from Rizzle's Getty Images integration.

You can then further edit the content according to your preference. Save time while generating content, Try Rizzle today!

Rizzle: Your Go-To Platform for Effortless Video Creation 

Rizzle smoothens the editing process like magic. After you upload your video, it will produce teasers, highlights, clips, and shorts for you. You can choose the contents to be included and edit or save them once the generation is done.

What separates Rizzle from the crowd is its vast selection of templates that add a perfect finishing touch to your content. Besides the templates, you can easily include attention-grabbing captions, making your content more accessible and engaging for viewers.

Conclusion

While podcast success doesn’t rely on views and downloads alone, they can determine your content’s trajectory. To make the podcast successful in the long run, monitoring engagement, episode tracking, and monetization is important to ensure smooth production of each episode. 

The developing process of THCs can be scary. I mean, who wants to do all that editing? 

Relying on tools like Rizzle can smoothen the flow and help the content attract three times more engagement. So what are you waiting for? Try Rizzle today!