Podcast listeners have always based their listening decisions on a small number of key touchpoints.
Most prominently, your show title, cover art, and episode titles.
In most places a listener encounters a show, these are the only data points a potential listener has available to determine whether or not a show or episode is interesting, relevant, and worth their time.
And so they make use of them, ignoring and passing over shows that might be objectively better in favour of those with more attractive packaging.
Obviously, this is a problem for us as creators.
Unfortunately, there's never been an easy way to know whether our packaging is limiting our growth... until last year that is.
In 2024, Spotify rolled out a new podcast discovery dashboard with a full visual representation of the listener acquisition funnel.
On the surface, this might seem to be just another confusing (perhaps even useless) chart to try and make sense of.
But when you know how to interpret the data, you'll find a treasure trove of actionable information to help you improve your show and your marketing.
Among other things, Spotify's dashboard allows us to pinpoint issues with our show that might be stifling our growth on all platforms.
Plus, when we look at the data from shows that Spotify promotes heavily through its algorithm, we can begin to decipher some clues as to how we can put it to use for our shows as well.
In this episode of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, Justin and I dig into Spotify's conversion rate data, as well as the benchmarks you can—and should—measure your show against.
If you want my personal feedback on how to improve your own conversion rate data to attract more listeners to your show, check out my Zap Micro Audits.
In these ultra-affordable audits, I'll start the timer and then pack as much of my best, juiciest, growth-generating advice as I can before the buzzer rings.
Stay Scrappy,
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If you'd like an honest, no-punches-pulled assessment of what's keeping your show from generating the growth and conversions it should be, I'm currently opening up Q3 availability for my X-Ray Audits.
These audits are the most powerful and comprehensive tool I offer, and I’ve designed them specifically to spot and solve the following problems for coaches and advisors:
An audience that loves the show but refuses to buy from you (but will from your guests)
A proven offer that gets your clients results… but struggle to sell consistently, with leads regularly ghosting you after a sales call or email exchange.
Spiky, unpredictable revenue cycles that leave you constantly stressed about your next month’s income
You regularly get passed over for speaking, partnership, and summit opportunities in your space… even though you’re more qualified than the people who get them
Pouring countless hours into social media with barely any discernible impact on either your growth or your sales
The sneaking feeling that things should be easier, given everything you’ve built (podcast, product, lead magnets, newsletter, just to name a few), and the feedback you regularly get on the quality of your work.
Unlike other specialized programs that tend to optimize for narrow siloed aspects of a business…
My job with the audits is to give you the full, comprehensive picture of how the various pieces of your business and marketing strategy fit together (or as is probably the case right now, don’t).
The end result?
Full clarity into exactly why your show hasn’t been driving the sales and growth you thought it would…
And a step-by-step roadmap on what to do—in precisely what order—to fix it.
Here’s how it works:
First, we start with an intensive assessment of your business, offers, brand, and marketing assets to spot brand and strategy-level issues and opportunities.
Second, I spend 10–15 hours with your show and related material before delivering a feature-film-length video report talking through my findings, recommendations, and suggested sequencing (don’t worry, it’s timestamped and bullet-pointed).
Third, we systematically work through the roadmap, with me guiding you on exactly what to do, how to do it, and providing insight, feedback, ideation support at every step to cut down the time to results (and revenue).
There are3 audits available in Q3, and an 8-week waitlist.
That said, if you book your spot now, you'll get immediate access to the Podcast Marketing Academy Membership, our first 1:1 call, and twice-weekly group coaching with me to help you build momentum leading up to the audit.
If you're interested in learning more, hit reply with "X-Ray" and I'll shoot over the details.
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