Shownotes
Forget Listen Notes - this is how you learn your true ranking
It's one of the most perplexing and annoying parts of podcasting—understanding your podcast's global ranking.
Let's face it, it's a complicated mess.
You log into your host's dashboard, see some numbers, but what do they truly mean?
How do they stack up against others?
More importantly, how can you use this data to improve and maybe even monetize your show?
In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain and showing you how to decipher your podcast's performance against the global landscape.
Let's get one thing straight: a lot of the so-called ranking tools and sites out there are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Once you've heard this episode, you'll get why IAB downloads are just a piece of the puzzle and how individual hosting companies have their own methods that can distort your view.
(Here's a useful link that explains what IAB downloads actually are!
You'll learn that the so-called 'top 1%' status many flaunt might not be as genuine as it seems.
My team at Podknows Podcasting have created a global podcast ranking calculator that provides a more accurate measurement based on a realistic baseline.
Here it is:
Stick your download numbers in and see where you land.
Think of it as a way to gauge where you are and where you want to go.
Timestamped summary
00:00 Podcast data comparison: download numbers, specific dashboards, rankings.
04:21 Global podcast ranking data challenges and limited transparency.
07:59 Maintain realistic expectations for podcast download rankings.
10:35 Focus on your podcast, check global rankings for personal insight only.
Next steps
Want to get more of a handle on your podcast strategy so you can enjoy more new ideal listeners who are actually going to enjoy what you're putting out?
Contact me!
https://www.podmastery.co/contact/
Mentioned in this episode:
Show Notes Simplified
Are you sick of having to write out your episode descriptions (show notes) from scratch every time? Want to set up a templated approach that will save you hours every week? This tool is for you! (Note - this is an affiliate offer, but I don't recommend tools I'm not using myself, and I use this one DAILY)
Save hours on your editing
Want to cut hours out of your production workflow? Whether you're a podcaster, YouTuber or even a professional content creator, this tool will get you back your life! (Note - although this is an affiliate, I don't recommend any tools I don't use myself. And I use this DAILY)
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcripts
One of the most frustrating aspects of being a podcaster is
Speaker:understanding the wider picture around your own podcasts
Speaker:performance. There are sources of data, if you know
Speaker:where to find them, that can give you an overall picture,
Speaker:but it's still not that accurate. In this episode of the
Speaker:podmaster, I'm going to talk you through exactly how you can find out
Speaker:what your global podcast ranking is,
Speaker:what to ignore, and what to bear in mind.
Speaker:Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, it can be
Speaker:really frustrating as a podcaster to get the real facts
Speaker:around your podcast data. Most podcast
Speaker:hosting companies offer you a dashboard with some
Speaker:analytics data in it. Usually it's called stats.
Speaker:You'll look at it and it will give you the data on
Speaker:actions taken on your RSS feed. Just the other
Speaker:day, the newsletter pod news linked to
Speaker:an article written by somebody that really well explained
Speaker:what IAB downloads are. So I'm going to link to that in the episode
Speaker:description for you to take a look. But IAB download numbers
Speaker:are only part of the story.
Speaker:Of course, in previous episodes I've mentioned how important it
Speaker:is to get into your Apple Podcasts connect
Speaker:dashboard so you can see Apple podcasts specific
Speaker:data, your Spotify for podcasters dashboard
Speaker:so you can see data relevant to Spotify itself.
Speaker:But what about when it comes to comparing your podcast
Speaker:data with other podcasts? There's not
Speaker:really that much available to tell you how well your podcast is
Speaker:doing. Let's face it, every other aspect of life
Speaker:gives you a ranking, a percentage score based
Speaker:on your performance. Be that in school, with your
Speaker:exams, you'll get 92%, which will give you an
Speaker:a in your working life. You might have regular
Speaker:KPI's that you need to keep to even elections are
Speaker:run based on percentage performances. You
Speaker:need a certain percentage of the electorate to vote for a
Speaker:candidate in order for them to get first past the post and
Speaker:be selected. So why is it so difficult to
Speaker:pin this down in podcasting?
Speaker:So why is it so difficult to pin this down in podcasting? Here's
Speaker:the reason. Siloed data now there is a measurement
Speaker:body called the IAB. I mentioned it before, IAB
Speaker:certified downloads. This is the interactive
Speaker:advertising bureau, or as some refer to it, the Internet
Speaker:Advertising Bureau, saying as that's the space with the most impact that it
Speaker:has, but it still only gives you the core
Speaker:central data. The IAB do not release
Speaker:the stats to tell you your global podcast
Speaker:ranking. So it's weird then that there's a website that a lot of people
Speaker:refer to when they're talking about their global podcast ranking
Speaker:listen notes. If you've never visited this website before,
Speaker:don't start now. Don't bother. It's wildly
Speaker:inaccurate, but what listennotes does is it offers you a
Speaker:listen score. This is a plucked out of the ether
Speaker:figure where they make a guess as to how many people are
Speaker:listening to your podcast episodes based on
Speaker:coincidental data like your social media followers, the number
Speaker:of podcast episodes you've released, how popular those episodes seem to
Speaker:be, it doesn't really give you a very good picture. It's
Speaker:a guess. And unfortunately, some people use
Speaker:this for less than scrupulous reasons. There are certain podcast
Speaker:managers and podcast consultants who claim
Speaker:an entitlement to you giving them your hard earned cash
Speaker:based on the fact that they once had a top 1%
Speaker:podcast. They didn't. They're using the listen note
Speaker:score, but shamelessly. They stick this on their
Speaker:website for some kind of faux credibility so that you'll feel
Speaker:comfortable passing with your cash.
Speaker:Now this global ranking data is not easy to come by,
Speaker:which is why it's taken my team and I a long time to figure
Speaker:this out. I've had to work with data scientists to plug the
Speaker:various sources together, make various
Speaker:calculations that are based on balance and fairness
Speaker:and parity in terms of the data measurement.
Speaker:Some sources are based on seven day measurement, other sources are based on 30
Speaker:day measurement. So therefore, calculations need to be made in order to
Speaker:balance those to make them a fair comparison. Now, various
Speaker:podcast hosting companies have their own data, which
Speaker:they use to rank their customers podcasts in a
Speaker:chart that doesn't get released to the public. Why?
Speaker:Who knows? Maybe they value their customers privacy, or maybe
Speaker:they don't exactly want the public knowing how their
Speaker:podcasts rank. In general, if they've got lots of podcasts
Speaker:with only one to 10% scores, it doesn't reflect well
Speaker:on them as a hosting company. To date, there are only a couple
Speaker:of podcasting companies that offer their
Speaker:data publicly. One of those is Buzzsprout,
Speaker:the other Libsin. Now this is where the complication
Speaker:lies. Both of those are using IAB
Speaker:certified stats, but they're using them in different
Speaker:ways. Buzzsprout insists their
Speaker:stats are the only true IAB
Speaker:certified stats. They claim Libsyns are not as
Speaker:accurate, but Libsyn has been around a lot longer.
Speaker:That said, Spotify for podcasters has definitely
Speaker:become the number one podcast hosting platform.
Speaker:Why? Because it's free. Who wouldn't host their podcast on
Speaker:Spotify if they don't really care about results which is,
Speaker:to be fair, what probably 50% to 80% of podcasters
Speaker:do. They go, ah, I'll have a dabble, I'll stick a podcast out there
Speaker:and then that's it. What listen notes does is
Speaker:include and factor those podcasts into
Speaker:its data. So when you're getting your global
Speaker:ranking, as listennotes calls it, you're being compared to
Speaker:podcasts that maybe only ever released a trailer or one
Speaker:episode. Maybe they didn't even bother because at one
Speaker:point you could actually get your podcast accepted by Apple
Speaker:automatically through what Spotify for podcasters
Speaker:was previously known as Anchor. So that
Speaker:data is extremely skewed when they claim there are 4 million
Speaker:podcasts in the podcast index.
Speaker:Yep, that's true. That's how many feeds there are in
Speaker:total. But they're not active podcasts. The true
Speaker:number of currently active podcasts is
Speaker:sub 500,000. And when you break it down into
Speaker:categories, that number is even far lower. It's a
Speaker:complicated calculation to make, which is why it's taken me
Speaker:absolutely weeks to get on this.
Speaker:We can now proudly publish a
Speaker:calculator in which you can stick your podcast
Speaker:download numbers into it, and get a
Speaker:genuinely accurate, to the best of our ability
Speaker:reading on your global podcast ranking. I will
Speaker:tell you this. Now, this is the baseline figure. If your
Speaker:podcast is getting fewer than 90 downloads per
Speaker:episode within 30 days on average, you are not in a
Speaker:global top 50%. That's just a fact. I'm going to manage
Speaker:your expectations now. So if you're getting 50 downloads per
Speaker:episode within a month, you're not currently able to call
Speaker:yourself a top 50% podcaster. And of course,
Speaker:the numbers increase incrementally as you increase your percentage
Speaker:rankings. Now, the elite
Speaker:podcaster that can call themselves a top 1%
Speaker:podcaster, it's not hundreds, it's
Speaker:obviously thousands. I'm not going to share the number here because I don't want
Speaker:anyone to feel massively disappointed when they're listening to this and
Speaker:feel disheartened and want to give up. The number is intended as a
Speaker:guide to you and you alone on your podcast.
Speaker:I'm not really looking to tell you what number the top
Speaker:1% podcasters are getting in their downloads every
Speaker:month, because that's their business. They are
Speaker:entitled to celebrate if indeed they are hitting that mark. But
Speaker:you need to understand that none of this really even
Speaker:matters. It matters to you to know how your podcast is
Speaker:performing. That can help you with everything from driving your
Speaker:show forward, developing it, improving the content,
Speaker:and seeking out monetization be it through advertising or
Speaker:sponsorship. What it's not useful for is thinking to
Speaker:yourself, oh, my podcast only gets x amount of
Speaker:downloads, whereas the top 1% podcasts are getting those
Speaker:amount of downloads. Ah, it's not fair. The whole
Speaker:system's rigged against me. No, because here's another part
Speaker:of the picture that you may not have factored in. Those
Speaker:podcasts that are top 1%
Speaker:podcasts according to global rankings may
Speaker:not be there fully, organically or ethically.
Speaker:We all know that there are podcasts that cheat the system. They
Speaker:artificially inflate their download numbers in order to get attention
Speaker:via either the charts, if that's their strategy, or to
Speaker:advertisers if they're looking to hit minimums so that they can
Speaker:make revenue from their podcast. Comparing yourself to
Speaker:any other podcast is an innings to nothing.
Speaker:It's a game you won't win. The only
Speaker:thing you should be comparing your podcast ranking against
Speaker:is your future goals. And that's it.
Speaker:So I say it again, this is meant as a guide for you
Speaker:to understand how your podcast is
Speaker:performing in the bigger picture. It is not intended
Speaker:as a stick to beat yourself with and feel
Speaker:that you're imperfect. Your podcast is
Speaker:the only thing that matters to you. Nobody else's
Speaker:podcast. Go check out the global podcast rankings
Speaker:calculator now. I'll stick a link in the episode description, but
Speaker:you can find it directly at Podmastery co
Speaker:ranking. That's Podmastery co
Speaker:ranking. Thanks for listening and I'll speak to you again soon.
Speaker:The Podmaster is a podnost podcasting production. Find
Speaker:out more about us at Podnows dot co dot Uk. That's
Speaker:podknows dot co dot UK.
