Episodes
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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”📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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 HarrisAdditional Resources
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
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✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
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.
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.
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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Resources Mentioned
7 Obscure Podcast Metrics to Track
Bumper
Anne Handley
Podcast Movement
PodScan
Podchaser
Open Podcast Prefix ProjectAdditional Resources
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
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.
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.
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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Missing episodes?
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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Resources
Spotify Conversion Rate Benchmarks Report
How a Podcast Cover Art Redesign Helped Growth Mindset Psychology Grow 45% in One Month (+2,000 Downloads/Episode)Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
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.
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.
Get in touch: jeremy(at)podcastmarketingacademy.com
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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😒 Do better⭐️ 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
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ 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.
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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Over $15k of podcast marketing education is up for grabs. Here's how to get it.
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends Survey
Resources
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
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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
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
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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).
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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ResourceListen & Subscribe to Sound Judgment
Creator Science Podcast
Creator Science
All the Hacks Podcast
Tim Ferriss Episode w/ Chris HutchinsSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
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✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
Cast your vote for which show we should make next
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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 ⭐️
ResourceJay Clouse from Creator Science
Josh Spector
Bumper articles on measuring listen time
Growth In Reverse
Arvid Kahl
LinkFire
Chartable
The Futur
Unthinkable w/ Jay AcunzoSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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
Check out our full audience survey data
Walkthrough: How to replicate this survey for your showSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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😒 Do betterTopics 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 ⭐️
ResourceListen & Subscribe to Sound Judgment
The Story Grid
YouTube: Brandon McNulty
On Being
Wild Boys
Famous & GravySubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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 ⭐️
ResourceMike Birbiglia’s Podcast, *Working It Out*
Build and Launch, Past Project by Justin Jackson
Mega Maker, Project by Justin JacksonSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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?
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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 ⭐️
ResourcesAkimbo
You're Wrong About
How I Write
Essay - Hide Your Work
Tanner Campbell - Practical Stoicism
Pod Save America podcast
All In podcastSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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?
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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😒 Do betterTopics 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 GlassSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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
Descript
ConvertKit
Cast Magic
Calendly
Zapier
Chartable
Linkfire
Figma
Canva ProComplete the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Survey
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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
Famous & Gravy
Podcast Allies
Answer The Public
PodRollSubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
Connect with Jeremy on Twitter | LinkedIn
Connect with Justin on Twitter | LinkedIn✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
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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
Darknet Diaries
How I Write Podcast
Jay Clouse
Never Post Podcast
Derek SiversComplete the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Survey
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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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.
📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
🤩 Nailed It!
🙂 Solid
🥱 Meh
😒 Do betterTopics 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 listeners22:01 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
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 ListenersComplete the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Survey
Subscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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Look closely at the data behind almost anything—from podcast growth, to Google search results, to Amazon product sales, and more—and you'll notice a trend.
In almost every case, the bulk of the rewards (downloads, clicks, sales) go to just a tiny percentage of the available options.
This pattern shows up everywhere, and it's known as the Power Law.
In this episode, we're breaking down the math behind the power curve as it relates to podcasting, whether you should actually be aiming to be at the peak of the curve, and how to set realistic and achievable goals related to your show.📊 What did you think of this episode? Click to cast your vote:
🤩 Nailed It!
🙂 Solid
🥱 Meh
😒 Do betterTopics Covered
00:00 Introduction
05:10 Understanding the Power Law Curve and it's impact on podcasting
14:25 Why you shouldn't settle for creating an "average" podcast… and strategies for stand-out
26:40 Unpacking the download data in the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
37:15 Aligning expectations and setting realistic goals⭐️ Get a free podcast marketing audit with personalized recommendations to help you grow: https://podcastmarketingacademy.com/audit ⭐️
Resources
Complete the Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 SurveySubscribe to Podcast Marketing Trends Explained
Check out the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report
Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter
Try Transistor.fm for free for 14 days
✍️ Leave your feedback for the show: http://podcastmarketingtrends.com/feedback
Complete the 2025 Podcast Marketing Trends survey and enter to win from one of 30 podcast marketing trainings worth a total of almost $16k.
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It's easier than ever to launch and produce a podcast. But it's never been harder to grow one.
On this show, we break down and explore what the data says about what it takes to market and grow a podcast in 2024 to help you make smarter decisions about your show, grow faster, and earn more.
Together, cohosts—and longtime podcasters, creators, and marketers—Jeremy Enns (Podcast Marketing Academy) and Justin Jackson (Transistor.fm) explore topics like:
How do you define success for your podcast?
What are the most effective marketing strategies, tactics, and growth channels for podcasts?
What does the data say about how to structure your show and episodes?
Which social media channels should you focus on as a podcaster?
How do you stack up to other shows?Using the data uncovered by the Podcast Marketing Trends 2023 Report our goal is to make sense of the numbers and turn them into actionable insights that you can use to create a better show and market it more effectively.
You can find the full report at podcastmarketingtrends.com/2023.
