Why Downloads Might Be The Worst Possible Metric For Your Podcast - The Podcast Report With Paul Colligan Episode #85

Why the download just might be the worst possible metric for your podcast. It's The Podcast Report Episode 85 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 85 My name is Paul Colligan. I'm a podcast consultant, podcast author. But importantly for this show, I like youe and the Podcaster. This is the podcast report where I show you how to reach more with your message and profit more from your content. That's what this show is. No mic shootouts, no hosting comparisons. The stuff that matters for podcasting. I report on what's happening, who's doing what, what's working. You benefit from it, and the podcasting world gets better and better all the time. Which, by the way, it is doing. I've got a handout for you, something you might want to just fold up and keep in your wallet. It's the podcastreport.com 85 it is the seven reasons that downloads Are a Terrible Podcast Metric. They are, and we'll chat about that in this episode. I want to arm you to make the conversation, but I want you to have this worksheet. So when somebody tells you we got to work on our downloads or anybody out there tells you it's about the downloads, use this sheet. Realize what it's about, do more with your podcast, reach more with your message, profit more from your content, and stop worrying about a number that doesn't matter. You can get that@thepodcastreport.com 85 the Big Idea for today's episode is simply the purpose. I'm sorry, podcast purpose trumps podcast downloads every time. The purpose of your podcast, that's more important than the downloads. Are you doing what it is that you are trying to accomplish? That's what you're looking for. That's what you're tracking, not how many downloads you got. Now, why this topic? And haven't I hit it in the past? We've hit it slightly in the past, but I'm beginning to understand more. And the reality of the space is getting more. And basically, well, I had a client call and the client says, hey, I've got a way for us to get more downloads. Now, sometimes that's code for, you know, we're going to increase the audience, we're going to expand our reach. The things that are really dear and important to me. Sometimes that's code for, you know, I heard something, a hack was mentioned, that kind of thing. In this particular case, it was a hack. And the sad thing was, you know, he wanted to implement something that wasn't going to change anything. Wheels spinning, more effort spent, more time wasted to something that was going to accomplish nothing. This happens a lot in YouTube. You know, I've got my whole YouTube business. My YouTube podcast is actually doing quite well. Actually better than this show. But I think I love this show a little bit more. You know, YouTube, everybody wants more downloads, but, you know, you can buy those more views, you can buy those offshore, but they don't do anything. What has happened is we've got lost in bad math and I want to chat to why it's such bad math. So what am I talking about? Well, if you are looking to monetize your show at all, and let's face it, that's why you're listening to this podcast, you have heard that downloads is the number one thing. Now. Downloads make sense in one case and in one case only. It makes sense when you're selling ads up against downloads. When you're getting CPMs for your show, and be it a $5 CPM, a $20 CPM, a $40 CPM, you got to get downloads. You show the stats that you got the downloads. Somebody writes you a check. That's the only time when increasing downloads matters. But I'll tell you, man, that model of ads, it's going down fast. The more ads people are selling, the more they're telling you this number is going down fast. Be careful. That's the only time when podcast downloads are important. I know this episode is going to be controversial, but let's get to the seven points. Seven reasons Downloads are a terrible podcast metric. Number one, they can be faked, they can be hacked, they can be bought. This is huge. The fraud ability in the podcasting world is tremendous when it comes to downloads. You can fake, hack and buy as many downloads as you want, and you could do it ridiculously cheap for a while. I think in a past episode I even spoke to it. It was the whole world of Twitter bombing. But the fact of the matter is you can set up machines to increase your downloads. But wait a minute, Paul, don't people pay for downloads? Yes, and this is part of why I'm telling you that these numbers are going down. This can be faked, Hacked bot and anything that can be faked. Hacked bot is not a good metric. Reason number two is downloads don't equate to listens. And this is sort of a part of number one. I mean, if I've got robots all over the world downloading your podcast over and over and over again, or I'm tricking Twitter users that your podcast episode might have something to do with some celebrity being naked or something like that. I mean, these are not going to translate to listens, and they're certainly not going to translate to listens for your target audience. So the download number doesn't matter, and the download number has nothing to do with the lessons. Getting my point here. The next thing about downloads is they don't define the market to message match. You may have gotten 25,000 downloads of people who hated your message. You may have wasted the time of 25,000, 50,000, 100,000 people. But if they hated your message, is this something to be happy about? Is downloads something to be good about? Is downloads something to smile and brag about and issue press releases about? No, downloads. Don't define the the message to market match. Are you catching what your audience wants? Testing that all the time on this show. The numbers are going up, the interaction's going better, the calls to action are there, the reviews are coming in. I'm connecting with you. And if you know, you wouldn't be at six minutes into this show if I wasn't connecting with you. Their value on the market continues to fall. The value of downloads is becoming less and less and less, but podcasting is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I'm certainly making more money from podcasting this year than I made last year. So the download value continues to drop. Yet it's the thing that we're all aiming for and tracking for and asking for. That doesn't make sense. That doesn't give us logic number five. They don't define the customer reaction, if any. I mean, if we're meeting our audience, if we're trying to get them to learn something, do something, change something, be a better person, be a better businessman, be a better podcaster. We don't know if that's working. Downloads tell us nothing. They don't define the customer reaction, if any. What if 25,000 people downloaded your podcast and they ended with meh? What would be better? That or one person who listens to your podcast and he changed their life? Somebody recently posted on Instagram, this was the podcast I needed to hear. Thank you. This is what we want. We want to know what the customer reaction is, and we want to track that. And, you know, comments, reactions, social, that kind of thing is not a good way to track. Calls to action are a great way to track. I'm going to know how good this episode is by the amount of people who go to the podcastreport.com 85 and download the seven reason downloads are a terrible podcast metric sheet. If a lot of you do it, I know that this is an issue that we're struggling with and an issue that we're going with. If very few of you do it, I'm going to realize that maybe we're past this and we're going on to other things. See, I'm going to define the customer reaction to this episode. That's more important than anything else. Number six, downloads can be a massive waste of time for all involved. I mean, think about this. If they could be fake, hacked and bought, they don't equate to listeners. They don't define the message to market match. They have no value, and the value keeps going down. And there's no definition and no relation to the customer reaction. It's a colossal waste of time. Go to the park, take a walk, get a hobby, catch up on House of Cards. You know, something like that. I don't know. But they could be a massive waste of time if that's the only thing that you're grabbing now. Number seven is perhaps the most important. It's certainly what drives me. Downloads has no connection to podcast purpose. You heard me at the top of the show. My goal is to reach help you reach more with your message and help you profit from your content. Does downloads for my show have anything to do with you reaching your message, reaching your audience? No. Does it have anything to do with you profiting more from your show? No. Downloads mean nothing to me. And if there's no connection to a metric to my podcast purpose, what a colossal waste of time. So downloads are a terrible metric because they can be faked, hacked, and bought. They don't equate to listens. They don't define message to market match. Their value in the marketplace continues to fall. They don't define customer reaction. They could be a massive waste of time for all involved. And there's no connection to a podcast purpose. Man, downloads. You're right, Paul. Maybe this isn't what I was tracking. So what do you do with this? Download the sheet, look at it, work at it. If you're tracking downloads, ask yourself where this worksheet's wrong. Ask yourself where the connection is. I think it will move you to things. And then I'll tell you this. What is your podcast metric? That's the question. What are you tracking? What are you defining? Mine is conversions to download. I'm gonna take the amount of people who go to the podcastreport.com 85pick up. This worksheet to the downloads. If the number's high, I'm gonna keep doing this kind of stuff. If the number's low, I'm not gonna keep doing this kind of stuff. Mine is conversions to the download. My goal this episode is to get the email address so that we can do more. We can expand what we're doing. That's my goal. Being fully transparent. I love that I can be what's your goal? What is your podcast metric when you figure that out? Well, first thing I'll tell you this. It's probably not going to be downloads, but when you figure that out, your podcast will change. I would love your thoughts on this. Thepodcastreport.com 85 there's room for comments. What do you think? Am I nuts or should we be looking at another metric? And if you're one of those ones selling ads, maybe we'll talk about that on a future episode. Heck, if you want to hear about that on a future episode, let me know in the comments and we'll go from there. You can also go to the podcastreport.com Twitter thepodcastreport.com Facebook thepodcastreport.com Insert social media network here and we can chat about this mention 85 mention this focus and we will go from there. If you head out to the podcastreport.com 85 I've got the link to the worksheet, I've got a link to the latest version of the how to Podcast book, I've got the how to Podcast app, we've got the Podcast Report app, we've got a link to the how to Podcast training program and the Podcast Interview wizard program. All good stuff. And of course the opt in to get your 7 reasons why downloads is a really, really Bad metric. So head out there and do that now. If you've not yet subscribed The Podcast Report ThePodcastReport.com iTunes ThePodcastReport.com Stitcher ThePodcastReport.com TuneIn ThePodcastReport.com Overcast Pocketcasts Whatever platform it is you use to get your podcasts on, head out there, subscribe to the show so that when the next episode comes out, I can update you. I can keep you in the loop. There's no reason for me to send you email about this show. Once you've subscribed, you're in it. You got it. And we'll improve next week and this show will help you reach more with your message, profit more from your content, and we'll do it without tracking downloads. Sound fair? Chat next week. Bye.