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Hey Reader! - Fish tacos and sandy beaches with the wife, and walks in the woods with the dog. You can't beat summer. Quick heads up: I am working on an ebook titled How To Get 100,000 Podcast Downloads in 2 Hours per Week Without Advertising. I'll be launching it in the next couple of weeks with bonuses, so if you want to be the first to know, click here to join the waitlist.

Metrics that Matter - How to Measure Podcast Growth

I love to celebrate milestones. That’s why I have the community wins section of this newsletter.

But measuring total downloads doesn't measure growth. Look at this example podcast. I’ve made up some stats that reflect conversations I’ve seen on Twitter.

End of Year 1:

• 52 episodes released
• 300 average downloads per episode
• 15,600 total podcast downloads

End of Year 2:

• 104 episodes released
• 300 average downloads per episode
• 31,200 total podcast downloads

By the end of year two, total downloads had doubled, but I would argue that the podcast hadn’t grown because the number of listeners remained the same (around 300).

Measuring podcast growth is measuring how many people are listening. And while tricky, you can use three measurements to approximate audience size:

• Total followers on Apple and Spotify
• First 7-day downloads of each episode
• Monthly downloads

Total Followers on Apple and Spotify

The number of followers your podcast has on podcast apps best represents your audience size.

Yes, some listeners will listen every week while never hitting follow. And some will hit follow while never listening to an episode. But overall, this is the number to look at for approximating audience size. You can find these numbers by:

Apple

Sign up for an Apple Podcasts Connect account, and you’ll get access to your Apple podcasts analytics. From there, you can see how many followers your podcast has on Apple Podcasts.

Spotify

Spotify has a similar function (even if you aren’t hosted with them): You can sign up for a Spotify for podcasters account and access your Spotify analytics.

First 7-Day Downloads of Each Episode

This is how you approximate fans. As it suggests, this is how many times your podcast gets downloaded in the 7 days from release. To me, this is how many people are excited to listen to new episodes as soon as they drop. As your audience grows, this number will grow too, and you can look back and compare recent episodes to older releases.

Monthly Downloads

This is your overall measure of popularity. As I discussed in my article on the four levels of listener, you will have listeners who come in now and again and cherry-pick a few episodes to listen to. These people won’t necessarily listen to your latest episode on release, so by measuring monthly downloads, we can factor in these listeners, too.

How Often Should You Measure?

Podcast growth happens in months and years, not days and weeks. Don’t worry that your podcast isn’t growing with every episode. Mine certainly doesn’t.

Quarterly check-ins for download numbers are about as often as you need them. This helps account for download spikes from collaboration or other mentions.

It’s also worth looking out for seasonality. My podcast is about spooky Scottish history, so there is always a spike of interest in the run-up to Halloween. If you have a specific niche, you can check Google Trends to see if there is a natural seasonality that will likely be reflected in your downloads.

Final Thoughts

These four metrics best represent what is happening with your audience. They account for the behavior of all your listeners and will give you a starting point to troubleshoot if your podcast isn’t growing.

Podcast growth = audience growth.

Community Wins

A lot of download-specific milestones this week. Good job everyone! If you have a win you want to share, hit reply.

How I Can Help You

1) ​The Template Vault ​– Learn how to grow your podcast on autopilot. Get fill-in-the-blank templates to set up your podcast foundation for growth, success, and making money. $15 for the first 15 customers

2) ​Work with me 1:1​ – Book a chat with me today, and we can discuss how we can work together to grow your podcast!

2) ​Recommended Tools​​ – These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.

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