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> "Also, podcasting doesn’t really have an established way of measuring success that advertisers can get comfortable with, apart from just tracking raw download

> "Also, podcasting doesn’t really have an established way of measuring success that advertisers can get comfortable with, apart from just tracking raw downloads." What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? This seems like a great way to measure a podcast's success since the number of downloads probably tracks pretty closely to the number of listeners (sure, I might download an episode or two of a new podcast to try it out, but I generally only download later episodes of podcasts I actually listen to). As an aside, I think that podcasts are to radio what netflix is to television, in that netflix is able to profit off of shows with niche audiences. With users pulling content rather than producers pushing content, you end up with a lot more niche content. In the past month alone, I've listened to podcasts about: * Analysis of supreme court decisions (First Mondays) * A history of the watergate scandal (Slow Burn) * A history of the English Revolution (Revolutions) * Political interviews (various podcasts) * Improvisational comedy (Improv4Humans) * Random historical figures with a comedic twist (The Dollop) Some of what I listen to is meant for a mass audience, but some of it is targeting a pretty specific audience, which I think is awesome. Personally, I love finding podcasts that get into the nitty-gritty details of whatever the subject is. I almost don't care about what the subject is, as long as the presenter is passionate about it.

jonbarker 8y ago
There's nothing wrong with tracking raw downloads, but for investors who are used to social media in which you 1) target specific people based on their interests with ad-like content that is generated to resemble those interests 2) track every conversion event those specific people do in your funnel, it's a far cry. And of course, those two criteria above are why social media became such a huge business, because that's more efficient than a radio ad, or a download count. I'd argue that these examples of great content are great precisely because the creators can't track their audiences very well. Their audiences have a vote every time they download.
s_kilk 8y ago
> What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? This seems like a great way to measure a podcast's success since the number of downloads probably tracks pretty closely to the number of listeners As a podcast host... not really. We'll sometimes see our ambient download numbers swell while a batch of new listeners catch up on the backlog, then it'll die down while they wait for the next episode. So it's up and down all the time, with very little signal amongst the noise. Except for launch-day for a new episode, then it spikes up nice and high.
jonknee 8y ago
And raw downloads of podcasts is still way more accurate than how TV viewership is measured. As far as I can tell advertisers still love to spend money on TV commercials.
jccalhoun 8y ago
>What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? I think that there might be some who would want to pay based on how many people use the promo code of a podcast rather than the number of downloads or who would like number of plays not downloads. And if I, as a user, download the episode twice does that count as two downloads? I seem to recall some discussion on the accidental tech podcast that some advertisers would like more analytics such as if the downloader listened to the episode all the way through or if they skipped the ads or something like that but podcast apps are not currently offering that.
CharlesW 8y ago
> What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? This seems like a great way to measure a podcast's success since the number of downloads probably tracks pretty closely to the number of listeners… I mean, that's one assumption you could make. Another equally-valid assumption is that 50% of downloads are listened to (depending on your definition of "listened to"). The metric is surely different for different shows — I'd hypothesize that most Hardcore History downloads are listened to, but for many shows this is likely guest-dependent. Without data, we can only guess.
- yoz-y 8y ago
  The advertisers have better data though as they usually switch promo codes quite often. Also, as with most advertising, you only see the effect of the aggregate campaign.
dmschulman 8y ago
There's no way to whether or not YOUR ad was consumed by the audience. As a company who places an ad on a podcast this puts you in a very difficult position when justifying ROI of the ad buy.
rednerrus 8y ago
The reason podcasts offer you a deal to use their codes is so advertisers can track the effectiveness of the ads. Raw download is a good indicator but affiliate links are much better.

jonbarker 8y ago

There's nothing wrong with tracking raw downloads, but for investors who are used to social media in which you 1) target specific people based on their interests with ad-like content that is generated to resemble those interests 2) track every conversion event those specific people do in your funnel, it's a far cry. And of course, those two criteria above are why social media became such a huge business, because that's more efficient than a radio ad, or a download count. I'd argue that these examples of great content are great precisely because the creators can't track their audiences very well. Their audiences have a vote every time they download.

s_kilk 8y ago

> What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? This seems like a great way to measure a podcast's success since the number of downloads probably tracks pretty closely to the number of listeners As a podcast host... not really. We'll sometimes see our ambient download numbers swell while a batch of new listeners catch up on the backlog, then it'll die down while they wait for the next episode. So it's up and down all the time, with very little signal amongst the noise. Except for launch-day for a new episode, then it spikes up nice and high.

jonknee 8y ago

And raw downloads of podcasts is still way more accurate than how TV viewership is measured. As far as I can tell advertisers still love to spend money on TV commercials.

jccalhoun 8y ago

>What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? I think that there might be some who would want to pay based on how many people use the promo code of a podcast rather than the number of downloads or who would like number of plays not downloads. And if I, as a user, download the episode twice does that count as two downloads? I seem to recall some discussion on the accidental tech podcast that some advertisers would like more analytics such as if the downloader listened to the episode all the way through or if they skipped the ads or something like that but podcast apps are not currently offering that.

CharlesW 8y ago

> What's wrong with tracking raw downloads? This seems like a great way to measure a podcast's success since the number of downloads probably tracks pretty closely to the number of listeners… I mean, that's one assumption you could make. Another equally-valid assumption is that 50% of downloads are listened to (depending on your definition of "listened to"). The metric is surely different for different shows — I'd hypothesize that most Hardcore History downloads are listened to, but for many shows this is likely guest-dependent. Without data, we can only guess.

yoz-y 8y ago
The advertisers have better data though as they usually switch promo codes quite often. Also, as with most advertising, you only see the effect of the aggregate campaign.

dmschulman 8y ago

There's no way to whether or not YOUR ad was consumed by the audience. As a company who places an ad on a podcast this puts you in a very difficult position when justifying ROI of the ad buy.

rednerrus 8y ago

The reason podcasts offer you a deal to use their codes is so advertisers can track the effectiveness of the ads. Raw download is a good indicator but affiliate links are much better.