Podcast Marketing Trends Explained: Data-Driven Podcast Growth Strategies

Podcast Audience Survey Template
How to Run a Podcast Audience Survey
Linkfire
Chartable
How Acquired Grew Their Podcast
Acquired Podcast
Wait But Why
The Smash or Pass Test
The Content-Art Spectrum: How to Identify, Find & Research Your Ideal Listeners

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Two Hard to Spot (But Very Real) Problems Suffocating Your Podcast's Growth

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Imagine if you could interview 500 podcasters, separate out the ones that doubled their audience over the previous year, and ask them point blank what they did to get that result.

Well, that's exactly what we did, and in this episode, we're sharing what we found.

Specifically, we looked into the Podcast Marketing Survey submissions of the 15 highest-growth shows, shows that had grown anywhere from 100%–400% over the previous year, and dug into their response to the question:

"What's the thing that has had the single biggest impact on growth in the past year."

They're answers, and the trend they hint at, might surprise you.

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Topics Covered

1:15 What is the average month-over-month growth rate for podcasts?
6:11 The most-impactful tactics employed by high-growth shows
10:49 Finding Podcast-Market Fit for your show
14:30 The Content-Art Spectrum
19:32 Why reducing listener churn is just as important as attracting new listeners

22:01 Practical takeaways to increase your monthly growth rate

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Darknet Diaries
How I Write Podcast
Jay Clouse
Never Post Podcast
Derek Sivers

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Does Social Media Actually Grow Your Podcast Audience? (& If Not, What Are Your Other Options?)

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 05:00:00 -0500

What everyone gets wrong about using social media to grow your podcast, and what you should be doing instead.

There might be no more common question in podcasting than: “How do I get more listeners”. And there might be no more common answer than, “Be active on social media.”

The result is that social media is by far the most popular marketing channel used by podcasters to (at least try to) get more listeners and grow their shows.

But does it actually work?

And if it does, how, exactly?

In this episode, we explore the potential benefits of social media for podcasters, how to use it effectively to grow your show and your brand, and why social media might actually be a more effective growth channel than it appears on the surface.

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Topics Covered

0:00 Intro
01:02 How many podcast listeners does 40,000 X (Twitter) followers get you in 2024?
05:57 Non-podcast-growth reasons to be active on social media
08:06 Understand why you're using each platform
17:47 Which platform should you be on to promote your podcast?
26:34 The "Buyer's Journey" of Podcast Listener Acquisition
27:24 Why social media is probably getting you listeners without you even knowing
35:10 The double-edge sword of building your platform reputation
38:45 Non-social media growth channels
47:09 Key takeaways from this episode

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Famous & Gravy
Podcast Allies
Answer The Public
PodRoll

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3 (Non-Social) Marketing Channels High-Growth Shows Use to 2x Their Audience

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Everyone loves to talk about podcasting's so-called "Discoverability Problem". But does it actually exist?

And if not, what are the marketing channels you as a creator can tap into to get your show in front of more of your ideal listeners?

In this episode, we break down three types of listener acquisition channels and how you can leverage them to grow your show... without social media and without a discovery algorithm.

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Topics Covered

00:54 Does the Podcast Discoverability Problem actually exist?
04:49 What the data shows about the effectiveness of various marketing channels
08:37 Writing is often a strong indicator of success in podcasting
11:18 How to pick the right marketing channel for you
12:06 The three types of marketing channels at your disposal
15:36 Owned media: The low-hanging fruit for many creators
24:14 What most podcasters get wrong about growth through collaborations
37:01 When is the right time to start paid listener acquisition?
46:34 How to kickstart word-of-mouth growth?
52:47 Your homework for this episode

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Descript
ConvertKit
Cast Magic
Calendly
Zapier
Chartable
Linkfire
Figma
Canva Pro

Connect with Jeremy on Twitter | LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on Twitter | LinkedIn

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

How We'd Spend $500/$2,500/$10,000 to Grow Our Podcast (& the Lessons You Can Apply to Any Budget)

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0400

How to get the best ROI on your podcast production and marketing budget to maximize growth… whether it’s $100 or $10,000 per month.

You’re probably pretty confident that if you had more money to spend on your podcast, you’d be able to grow it faster.

But have you ever stopped to think about how you would spend it to get the greatest ROI?

Should you buy ads? Invest in better gear? Hire an editor or assistant?

In this episode, we break down our takes on where your podcast budget is best spent in order to grow the fastest.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Could we grow faster if we had more budget?
02:47 How much the average podcast spends on production & marketing
06:41 How much high-growth shows allocate to marketing
08:11 How we’d spend $500/month to grow
15:23 How we’d spend $2,500/mo to grow
27:23 How to figure out what brought people to your show
31:00 How we’d spend $10,000/mo to grow
38:03 Understanding your brand
50:24 Running retargeting ads to your podcast
52:33 How we’d grow our podcast with zero budget

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

80/20 Podcast Marketing: Turn Your Limited Time Into Maximum Growth

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Most podcasters waste their time on these tasks that will never lead to growth. Are you?

Producing a regular podcast is one of the most grueling, time-intensive forms of content creation in existence.

But what if 80% of the time you’re currently spending on your show isn’t actually contributing to growth?

In other words, what if you could get the same results while spending drastically less time on your show?

Or, what if you were to redirect that time towards higher leverage activities that actually did move the needle for growth?

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Topics Covered

00:00 Intro
02:13 Breaking Down the Numbers: Data on high-growth show time spends
08:39 What stood out from the categories of growth in the data?
11:19 Where to spend time when you’re first starting your show
19:18 Finding opportunities to improve your show in your daily life
20:48 Where to spend your time once your show has traction
29:00 Time-sucking tasks to ignore or eliminate
40:21 The ultimate amplifier of every hour you spend on your show
42:37 How much time are you spending on your show each week?

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

David Perrell: How I Write Podcast
Chat GPT
Everyone Hates Marketers
Ira Glass

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

3 Creative Decisions That Dictate Your Show's Success… or Failure

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0400

How long should your episodes be? What’s the best format for growth? Plus... the single most important decision you can make if you want to grow.

Before you launch a new show, you have to make a number of creative decisions that set the course of your show.

Will you do an interview, solo, or co-hosted show? How long should your episodes be? How often will you release new episodes? And who is this actually for?

These structural decisions tend to get made once, sometimes without much thoughts… but they cast a long shadow over the growth potential of your show forever.

So how do you ensure you’re making decisions that align with your goals and give you the best chance at success?

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Topics Covered

00:00 Intro

00:53 How much does a podcast's structure matter in terms of its success?
03:26 Breaking down our recent episode length experiment
10:12 A better question than “how long should my episodes be?”
19:03 Which show format is best for growth?
23:48 The impact of podcast format for success and audience growth
25:22 What makes for a great interview show?
25:43 The art of crafting compelling interview shows
29:45 What makes for a great solo podcast?
33:31 What makes a great co-hosted show?
37:01 How we would design a show to get to 50k downloads/episode

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Akimbo
You're Wrong About
How I Write
Essay - Hide Your Work
Tanner Campbell - Practical Stoicism
Pod Save America podcast
All In podcast

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The 10k Timeline: How Long It Takes to Reach 10k dl/ep (& How to Accelerate the Process)

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

We all know success doesn’t happen overnight. But what does the data say about how long it takes to reach 1k… or 10k downloads per episode?

Podcasting is inherently a slow-growth medium.

Without a central discovery system offering the potential for virality, growing a podcast is a long game of slow, steady, incremental growth that compounds over time.

But while you might expect growth to be somewhat slow when you start out, how long should it take before it speeds up?

In this episode, we’re breaking down what the data says about how long it takes the typical show to reach the 1k and 10k milestones, the factors that influence those timelines, and what you can do to accelerate the process.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Intro
00:59 Podcast growth lessons from Warren Buffett
05:00 When typical shows hit the 1k & 10k dl/ep milestones
10:36 How experience affects a show’s growth rate
15:21 What everyone gets wrong about consistency in podcasting
26:16 The powerful compounding of relationships
31:33 Stacking micro-improvements to your show with every episode
35:26 Strategies for navigating (and avoiding) creative burnout
38:28 Building your transferable skill set
44:22 Our personal stories of creative compounding that have got us here
56:12 The impact of mentorship and constructive critique

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource

Mike Birbiglia’s Podcast, *Working It Out*
Build and Launch, Past Project by Justin Jackson
Mega Maker, Project by Justin Jackson

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report

Listen & Subscribe to Sound Judgment

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6 Storytelling Principles to Hook & Retain Listeners (That Apply to Every Show)

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

They’re not always obvious, but the elements of storytelling are at the heart of every great episode. This is as true for interview and solo shows as it is for narrative. For comedy & fiction as it is for business.

And in this episode, with the help of a special guest, we’re breaking down the core principles of storytelling and how to incorporate them into your show.

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Topics Covered

0:00 A new podcast growth experiment
3:21 Introducing Sound Judgment
6:24 Crafting your show’s Sound Vision
16:06 Structuring your episodes for impact & retention
18:54 Thinking in scenes
23:20 Surprise: The unexpected emotion behind all great podcast episodes
35:42 Why specifics are the key to unlocking memorability and emotion
40:20 Our analysis of the Sound Judgment episode
42:17 Digging deeper into defining your sound vision
47:35 How we use scenes to structure this show
51:33 How to incorporate surprise & suspense into your episodes
58:47 How to be a more specific (and thus, better) interviewer
1:01:52 The elements of a fantastic cross-promotion pitch

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource

The Story Grid
YouTube: Brandon McNulty
On Being
Wild Boys
Famous & Gravy

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Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report

Check out our full audience survey data
Walkthrough: How to replicate this survey for your show

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We Asked Podcast Listeners Why They Stopped Listening (And They Didn’t Hold Back)

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Less than 5% of your potential audience is listening to your show. Here’s why, in their own words.

Even small shows with just a few hundred (or few dozen) downloads an episode have usually been listened to—at one point or another—by thousands of people.

A small number of those people are your regular listeners and superfans.

A larger number are casual listeners and samplers, people who don’t listen to every episode, but rather based on their interest in a specific episode topic or guest.

And then there are the people who listened to one episode or less… and never came back. While the data is hard to measure, chances are, less than 5% of the people who are both aware of your show and interested in your topic are regular listeners.

Which begs two questions:

1. Why aren’t they listening?
2. Is there anything you can do to change that?

To get to the bottom of this frustrating phenomenon, we ran a survey to our larger audience to find out—in their own words—what kept them listening more regularly… or at all.

The good news?

They didn’t hold back.

And in this episode, we break down their feedback, which—while aimed at our show—likely applies to your show as well.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Intro
00:49 9k email subscribers… 350 downloads
02:41 How listeners choose what content to engage
04:50 The role of 'Jobs to Be Done' in podcasting
11:32 Why our audiences are tuning us out experiment
15:30 Understanding your Total Addressable Market
18:32 Strategies for retaining podcast listeners
21:24 Earning the right to long term listeners
26:28 Breaking down our casual listeners repsonse data
29:01 The challenges of creating career-adjacent content
30:16 Creative ideas to engage more listeners
33:36 What listeners like about our titles and descriptions
37:13 Using feedback to guide your content strategy
41:50 Why non-listeners choose not to listen
44:06 How to break through to non-listeners
49:43 How we’re incorporating this feedback

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report

Cast your vote for which show we should make next

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Stupid Mistakes, Happy Accidents & Surprising Insights From Making & Marketing Our First 20 Episodes

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Plus, we need your help to decide what to make next.

We spend the majority of our time thinking about podcast marketing & growth. But that doesn’t mean we have it all figured out.

In this final episode of Season 1 of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, we break down our stats from the season along with our mistakes and missed opportunities, lessons learned… and the surprising insights we’ve gained along the way.

Plus, we brainstorm three new show concept ideas to keep us busy between seasons… and ask your feedback on which one we should pursue.

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Topics Covered
00:00 Intro
00:49 How many downloads we expected to get going into this season
02:35 Breaking down our Season 1 stats
03:22 Is YouTube worthwhile for the average podcaster?
08:34 Engagement time and consumption rates
12:44 The metric we care about more than analytics
20:26 Assessing Season 1: What we did well
23:02 How experimentation led us to find our structure
28:21 A big mistake we made with Season 1
32:05 Mistakes and missed opportunities in Season 1
36:18 Help us decide which show we should create next
40:57 Concept idea 1: “Make it Big”
45:03 Concept idea 2: “Why It Works”
49:48 Concept idea 3: “Podcast Riffs”
54:35 Listener feedback and what to expect from Season 2

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource

Jay Clouse from Creator Science
Josh Spector
Bumper articles on measuring listen time
Growth In Reverse
Arvid Kahl
LinkFire
Chartable
The Futur
Unthinkable w/ Jay Acunzo

Listen & Subscribe to Sound Judgment

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Inside the Growth Strategies of Two of The Smartest Podcasters Alive

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Michael Jordan, Simone Biles, Wayne Gretzky. Every so often, someone comes along who is playing the game at a whole different level. And when it comes to podcasting, we've got two of them.

Jay Clouse and Chris Hutchins each host hugely successful shows. And this special episode, we're getting inside the minds of these two creators to understand the thought process, experiments, and personalities behind the downloads (not to mention some serious revenue).

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Resource

Creator Science Podcast
Creator Science
All the Hacks Podcast
Tim Ferriss Episode w/ Chris Hutchins

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Introducing: Season 2 of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 05:25:00 -0500

It’s a turbulent time to be a podcaster.

YouTube and Spotify are introducing discovery algorithms that have the potential to both help and hurt creators. The rise of video podcasting is challenging the very definition of what a podcast even is. And AI… well, you already know about AI.

In short, being a podcaster today means trying to keep your head above water in the firehose of noise that is constantly flooding your listeners’ screens, feeds, and even personal recommendations.

So the question is: In the face of all of this noise, competition, and change, what are we as creators supposed to do?

Or, maybe a better question: Who are the podcast creators and marketers who are making the most of this changing podcast landscape, and what can we learn from the way they’re creating and marketing their shows, that we can apply to our own?

In Season 2 of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, our goal is to get to the bottom of these questions, using a mix of data and personal insights and observations from our own podcasting experiments.

In every episode, we’ll take one key data point from the latest Podcast Marketing Trends Report, and break down what it means for you as a podcast creator, producer, or marketer, so you can make smarter, savvier, data-driven decisions about how to make and market your show.

You can check out the full report at podcastmarketingtrends.com and hit subscribe wherever you’re listening now to get every episode of this season.

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://go.podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit-pmte-sn ⭐️

Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

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Will Discovery Algorithms Save (or Destroy) Podcasting? | Podcast Discovery

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 03:00:00 -0500

Will discovery algorithms actually grow your show for you?

Since the dawn of podcasting, creators have been clamoring for better discoverability. And now, thanks to YouTube & Spotfiy’s algorithms, better discovery might be here.

But will it actually be the marketing cure-all many creators hope it will be? Or might it actually make it harder to grow? Or perhaps, algorithmic discovery will change the medium into something else entirely…

One way or another, we’re about to find out. Here’s how to prepare for it.

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⭐️ Take our 2-minute podcast marketing audit to instantly identify the marketing problems keeping you from growth: https://go.podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit-pmte-sn ⭐️

Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Spotify Conversion Rate Benchmarks Report
How a Podcast Cover Art Redesign Helped Growth Mindset Psychology Grow 45% in One Month (+2,000 Downloads/Episode)

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

About Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Podcast Marketing Trends Explained is a podcast about data-driven podcast marketing, growth, and monetization. In every episode, we take a peek under the hood of one data point from the Podcast Marketing Trends Report and dig into what it can tell us about how to market our shows better, and grow them faster.

On the show, we'll explore podcast marketing strategies, growth tactics, podcast listener psychology, how to create a better podcast, how to use a podcast to market your products and services and grow your business, and broader marketing trends to help you grow your audience and stay ahead of the competition.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

Two Hidden Data Points That Predict Podcast Growth (& Tell You Exactly How to Accelerate It) | Podcast Discovery

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 04:46:00 -0500

A podcast listener's decision to click play boils down to a small number of touchpoints.

Most prominent are your show title, artwork, and episode titles. But while these (and other) touchpoints have always had a significant impact on listener acquisition, we've never had a way to track it.

Until now.

In 2024, Spotify rolled out a new discovery dashboard, giving us as creators a new set of metrics to understand how listeners flow through our listener acquisition funnel.

The best part is that if you know how to interpret the data this dashboard provides, it gives you a map of exactly what you need to do you improve your listener acquisition and grow your show.

Here's what you need to know.

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Resources

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

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More on Podcast Analytics
While podcast analytics might appear to be stuck in the stone age compared to platforms like YouTube, Google Analytics, and many social media platforms, there's a lot creators can learn about how to improve their shows and their marketing... if you know where to look.

Beyond podcast downloads, metrics like listen time, consumption rate, Spotify's podcast discovery dashboard, and more give us clues about the issues facing your show—and often tell you exactly how to navigate them. Which mean understanding your podcast analytics & metrics, and how they compare to industry benchmarks is an essential skill for marketing and growing your podcast.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

Get in touch: jeremy(at)podcastmarketingacademy.com

How Chasing Downloads Might Make It Harder to Grow (Here's What to Optimize for Instead) | Podcast Analytics

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 02:00:00 -0500

For 74% of podcasters, downloads are the primary metric used to measure success. But should they be?

For years, downloads were one of the only ways creators could measure the reach and impact of their show. But over the past few years, we’ve been getting a slow but steady stream of new analytics tools and data points… many of which provide much more useful information about
whether what we’re doing is working than downloads alone.

Topics Covered

00:00 Why do so many people care about downloads?
06:06 The case in favour of downloads
08:13 The shortcomings of downloads as a metric
09:02 How paid podcast promotion campaigns can ruin your analytics
10:22 Is listen time a better metric than downloads?
13:26 Alternative hard podcast metrics to track
17:36 Soft podcast metrics to track
28:17 Understanding leading & lagging indicators
38:21 How we combine metrics to measure success
42:36 One final obscure metric for you to track

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Resources Mentioned
7 Obscure Podcast Metrics to Track
Bumper
Anne Handley
Podcast Movement
PodScan
Podchaser
Open Podcast Prefix Project

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

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The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

The Hidden Dynamics That Make Growing a Podcast Different From Any Other Content Channel | Podcast Listener Psychology

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Beneath the surface of every creative medium is a hidden code. Like DNA, this code dictates the constraints and possibilities of what’s possible within that platform. Like any platform, podcasting has its own code. The problem is most creators don’t understand the unique platform dynamics, constraints, and psychology baked into the medium… which makes it hard—if not impossible—to grow. Fortunately, once you’re able to decipher the code—of podcasting or any other platform—you unlock your potential for growth and ROI.

Topics Covered

00:00 Understanding podcast’s platform dynamics
01:58 Listener bandwidth
05:57 The data on podcast consumption
08:29 Platform constraints & listener psychology
15:37 The pros & cons of podcasting’s built-in intertia
22:13 Host-led vs concept-led growth
25:46 What do listeners expect from podcasting?
35:22 Are long podcasts actually better?
45:03 Our picks for best “podcasts”

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⭐️ Take our 2-minute podcast marketing audit to instantly identify the marketing problems keeping you from growth: https://go.podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit-pmte-sn ⭐️

Resources Mentioned
Pocket Casts
Money for Couples Podcast by Ramit Sethi
Jay Clouse and his Creator Science Show
Conversations with Tyler by Tyler Cowen
Professor G Podcast by Scott Galloway
Three Books Podcast
Ologies Podcast
Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
How I Write by David Perell
Making Sense by Sam Harris

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

About Podcast Analytics
While podcast analytics might appear to be stuck in the stone age compared to platforms like YouTube, Google Analytics, and many social media platforms, there's a lot creators can learn about how to improve their shows and their marketing... if you know where to look.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

The Conflicting Data Behind Paid Podcast Growth Tactics | Podcast Promotion

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:47:41 -0400

Its easy to imagine that if you just had a budget to put toward paid podcast advertising, all your marketing problems would be solved. But is that really true? Anyone who’s ever done any advertising will quickly tell you its one of the most gruelling, creatively challenging marketing practices on the planet—one where you have to be ok with burning a large amount of cash up front to figure out what (if anything works). That said if you approach it with a bit of savvy… paid advertising can be a sneaky smart way to grow.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Does advertising actually work?
01:39 Our personal experience with advertising
08:35 Understanding advertising metrics
11:24 Podcast advertising platforms & methods
22:22 Real vs fake listeners
25:00 Advertising pitfalls to watch out for
25:39 Best practices for podcast ads
25:56 Crafting effective ads
29:16 Retargeting strategies
32:33 Multi-touchpoint ad campaings
34:37 Advanced advertising techniques
44:21 How we’d allocate a $10k budget

⭐️ Take our 2-minute podcast marketing audit to instantly identify the marketing problems keeping you from growth: https://go.podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit-pmte-sn ⭐️

Resources Mentioned
Jay Clouse's The Lab
Corey Haines and SwipeFiles
Kattie Laur and Pod the North
Terry O'Reilly and the podcast "Under the Influence"

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

Jobs to be Done: The Obscure Marketing Theory That Explains Why Podcasts Grow (& Exactly How to Apply It) | Podcast Listener Psychology

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 04:00:00 -0400

Why do people listen to podcasts? And why do they listen to YOUR podcast (or one like yours)? It turns out, the answers to these questions can be found in a nerdy, obscure marketing concept called Jobs to Be Done Theory.

Jobs to Be Done Theory origins date back to the 1930s, but was more fully developed by Harvard Business School researched Clayton Christiansen—primarily through an iconic case study about milkshakes… and how people don’t buy milkshakes for the obvious reasons you might think.

But JTBD applies to much more than milkshakes. In fact, it applies to every product, service, piece of content—including podcasts—that any of us spend time, money, or attention to consume.

In this episode, we’ll break down how to apply JTBD theory to boost the effectiveness of your marketing by aligning your content, messaging, and packaging with the job your listeners are seeking out a show to do.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Case Study: How Justin “Hires” Different Shows
02:31 An Introduction to Jobs to Be Done Theory
08:24 The Importance of Emotional Resonance in Podcasts
13:06 Assessing Podcast Growth by “Job”
21:19 Understanding Listener Psychology
26:12 Understanding Trigger Events
30:39 Examples of Trigger Events
35:50 Challenges and Opportunities for Problem Solver Shows
41:36 Challenges and Opportunities for Pleasure Giver Shows
45:04 Leveraging Listener Behavior for Show Growth
51:50 Practical Examples of Podcast Jobs to Be Done

⭐️ Take our 2-minute podcast marketing audit to instantly identify the marketing problems keeping you from growth: https://go.podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit-pmte-sn ⭐️

Resources Mentioned
Clayton Christensen

Ezra Klein
Freakonomics

Ramit Sethi
Dave Ramsey

Mel Robbins

Joe Rogan

LeVar Burton Reads

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

Podcast Listener Psychology
Understanding why people listen to podcasts—and why they stop—is an essential aspect of improving the efficiency of your marketing—ie. more growth with less effort.

Listener psychology encompasses everything from understanding attention spans and content preferences to parasocial relationships and listening habits. Most podcast creators focus exclusively on content without considering the baked-in psychology that is hard-wired into their listeners.

The result is unwittingly marketing your show on hard mode. Learn to understand the cognitive biases, emotional triggers, and decision-making patterns that influence how all humans (including me, you, and all your listeners) discover, consume, and share podcast content, you can create shows that not only attract listeners but turn them into dedicated fans who recommend your podcast to others.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

Exactly How Your Show Name & Cover Art Impact Growth (According to Data) | Podcast Packaging

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -0400

People make decisions based on the information they have available to them. When it comes to podcast discover, that information almost always consists of just two elements: Your show title and cover art.

These two elements, then, are the first and more impactful listener filter. Get them wrong, and you’ll miss out on a constant stream of your ideal listeners who are passing the show over because they don’t realize it’s relevant or aligned with their taste.

But what does the “wrong” title or cover art even look like? And more importantly, what does the “right” packaging for your show look like (if it even exists).

In this episode, we break down the data from the 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends Report to identify what high-growth shows do differently when it comes to crafting their packaging—and how you can borrow those lessons to help increase your show's growth potential.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Why packaging matters
00:42 Behind the scenes of our cover art development
07:33 Attributes of memorable podcast titles
20:51 Why artwork matters more than most people realize
24:48 Analyzing podcast cover art effectiveness
27:02 Host photos on cover art
33:05 Designing distinctive visual elements
34:24 Your artwork's primary job
38:06 Developing taste for good artwork & titles
44:52 Investing in professional help
46:05 Our favorite podcast titles
50:23 Our favorite podcast cover art
56:25 Perfect pairings of titles and cover art
01:01:32 Final thoughts and listener requests

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource
Hello, My Name is Awesome by Alexandra Watkins
Stand the Fck Out* by Louis Grenier
Holly Arnett
The Dipby Seth Godin
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
Crypto Confidential by Nat Eliason

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

Podcast Packaging
You’ve probably heard that content is king. The problem is that no one—literally not one single listener—will consume your content without first passing through the gatekeeper that is your show’s “Packaging”—including your show title, cover art, episode titles, and descriptions.

While these elements are often afterthoughts to the podcast content itself, they have the power to single-handedly attract or repel would-be listeners, making them an unignorable aspect of podcast marketing strategy

About Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Podcast Marketing Trends Explained is a podcast about data-driven podcast marketing, growth, and monetization. In every episode, we take a peek under the hood of one data point from the Podcast Marketing Trends Report and dig into what it can tell us about how to market our shows better, and grow them faster.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

What Podcast Listeners Say About How They Discover Shows (& Why They Stop Listening) | Podcast Listener Psychology

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0400

There’s no shortage of advice to be found on how to grow your audience. But how closely does that advice align with how podcast listeners say they actually find, choose (and abandon) the shows they listen to?

It turns out, there are a number of surveys that have asked listeners to share their discovery and consumption habits. And while the data can sometimes contradict itself, it offers us as creators a peek behind the curtain into podcast listeners’ hidden psychology, so that we can better meet them where they’re at with our marketing and our shows.

What’s more, this data offers us a blueprint for the questions to ask (and avoid) when conducting our own listener research.
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Topics Covered

00:00 Should you listen to your listeners feedback?
05:42 The Mom Test
08:23 How listeners discover podcasts: Active vs. passive
16:07 Understanding the broader context behind audience behaviour
26:33 Discovery doesn't matter without distinctiveness
31:02 Why listeners stop listening
39:13 Doing your own audience research

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick
Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Life Profitability by Adii Pienaar.
Tom Webster

Additional Resources

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Mark Asquith from Captivate

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

Podcast Listener Psychology
Understanding why people listen to podcasts—and why they stop—is an essential aspect of improving the efficiency of your marketing—ie. more growth with less effort. Listener psychology encompasses everything from understanding attention spans and content preferences to parasocial relationships and listening habits.

Most podcast creators focus exclusively on content without considering the baked in psychology that is hard-wired into their listeners. The result is unwittingly marketing your show on hard mode. Learn to understand the cognitive biases, emotional triggers, and decision-making patterns that influence how all humans (including me, you, and all your listeners) discover, consume, and share podcast content, you can create shows that not only attract listeners but turn them into dedicated fans who recommend your podcast to others.

About Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Podcast Marketing Trends Explained is a podcast about data-driven podcast marketing, growth, and monetization. In every episode, we take a peek under the hood of one data point from the Podcast Marketing Trends Report and dig into what it can tell us about how to market our shows better, and grow them faster.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About Video Podcasting & YouTube | Podcast Strategy

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Video is changing podcasting, probably forever and probably in ways we can’t predict.

But while conversations and debates about the risks and upsides to creators as well as the industry as a whole are inescapable right now, they all seem to be missing the key point: That this isn’t a conversation about different consumption mediums and file delivery formats.

It’s a conversation about YouTube as a platform, and the power, influence, and magnetism it exerts on every person on the internet.

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Topics Covered

00:00 Is video podcasting a threat or opportunity?
04:21 Video’s impact on podcast discovery
07:49 YouTube's dominance over content consumption
10:26 Leveraging YouTube for podcast growth
18:03 The future of podcasting on YouTube
34:16 The opportunities pitfalls of short-form content
37:28 YouTube vs. podcast content
42:41 The long-term value of “slow content”
45:06 Case study: Jay Clouse’s YouTube strategy
51:45 Case study: Chris Stone's YouTube strategy
56:08 What is a podcast anymore, anyways?

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resource
Tom Webster

Mark Manson

Mr. Beast

Jay Klaus of Creator Science

Philip Pape of Wits and Weights

Austin Kleon

April Dunford's book, "Obviously Awesome"

Additional Resources

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback

Podcast Strategy
The difference between an effective show—one that does the job you created it to do—and one that is an endless drain on your time, energy and bank account comes down to your strategy… or lack thereof.

Strategy is an oft-misunderstood term that encompasses, guides, and grounds the intentional decisions around every aspect of your show and marketing, including your show concept, positioning, format, content strategy, packaging, monetization strategy, promotion, and more.

In short, the answers to any marketing question are based in your strategy. Which means without a clearly defined strategy, you’re shooting in the dark, and unlikely to ever get the results you’re looking for from your podcast, whether that’s audience growth, customer acquisition, or both.

The show is hosted by Jeremy Enns from Podcast Marketing Academy and the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter, and Justin Jackson from podcast hosting platform Transistor.fm.

Is It Just Harder to Grow a Podcast Now (& If Not, Where Are the Hidden Opportunities)? | Podcast Strategy

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Over the past year, median podcast growth rates were nearly flat. In other words, the typical show experienced almost zero growth over the previous 12 months.

If you’ve been in podcasting for a while, this might correspond with your feeling that it is harder to grow today than it once was. And yet… while growth may have slowed for the typical show, there are others that are unlocking more and faster growth than ever before.

So what’s going on here? And what do we as creators need to do to tap into the potential for growth that exists?

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Topics Covered

00:00 Is It Harder To Grow Now?
01:56 Growing in 2008 vs 2025
03:49 What the data says about growth rates
08:33 Two reasons it might be harder to grow now
13:14 The two types of competition today
15:56 Keeping up with changing tastes and expectations
21:38 Diagnosing your growth problem
24:55 A tried and true way to differentiate
28:35 Opportunities to grow a podcast today
33:49 A sneaky approach to testing big changes
35:16 The worst thing that can happen to your show
38:43 The opportunities of podcasting for your business

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

The Tim Ferriss Show
This American Life
Mel Robbins’ podcast
Headliner
Descript
The Law of Shitty Click Throughs by Andrew Chen
Atomic Habits by James Clear

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Brandon Sanderson Lecture Series
Nathan Barry
Seth Godin
Shaan Puri
Jason Roberts
Ozan Varol
Awaken Your Genius
The Tim Ferriss Show
Acquired
My First Million
Podcast Movement Conference

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: **http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback**

The Real Odds of Succeeding as a Podcaster (& How to Beat Them) | Podcast Strategy

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0400

One in ten music albums makes its money back. The same is true for startups and movies. But what about podcasts?

Is it possible for any of us to create a successful show? Or are the odds always going to be stacked against us, with only a tiny fraction of shows breaking through to the mainstream?

In this episode, we break down the odds behind creating both a successful show and a successful career as a creator, and explore exactly what you can do to stack the deck in your favour.

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Topics Covered

00:00 The odds of success as a creator
04:59 The data behind exceptionally successful podcasts
13:21 Why you should quit more projects (and podcasts)
21:19 The traits of exceptional podcasts
31:56 Increasing your luck surface area
37:42 The traits of exceptional creators
47:47 Tapping into your unique personal genius

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Resources

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report

Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained

✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: **http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback**

Season Wrap Up & A Preview Of What's Coming Next

Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson | Podcast Growth, Marketing & Promotion Experts — Wed, 07 May 2025 05:00:00 -0400

We've reached the end of Season two, but are by no means slowing down. Here's what we're going to be up to over the next few months between seasons.

⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️

Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report