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 2025 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 annual Podcast Marketing Trends 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 latest report at podcastmarketingtrends.com.
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 in...
This episode explores the evolving landscape of podcasting with the rise of video and YouTube's dominance. It discusses whether video podcasting is a threat or an opportunity, analyzing data on listener behavior and platform usage. The hosts delve into strategies for leveraging YouTube, including creating platform-specific content and repurposing existing material, while also cautioning against misdiagnosing consumer behavior.
Jeremy Enns and Justin Jackson explore podcast listener psychology by examining surveys on how listeners discover, choose, and abandon shows, highlighting the gap between what listeners say and what they actually do. They emphasize understanding listener behavior through observation and direct engagement, rather than relying solely on general survey data. The discussion covers strategies for optimizing podcast discoverability and creating content that resonates with listeners' actual needs and preferences.
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 cove...
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. Bu...
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 sn...
Jeremy Enns and Justin Jackson explore the unique platform dynamics and listener psychology of podcasting, discussing consumption habits, platform constraints, and strategies for creators to build engaged audiences and lasting relationships with listeners. They analyze the challenges of attracting and retaining listeners amidst competition from other media and emphasize the importance of understanding platform dynamics, creating compelling show concepts, and providing consistent, emotionally resonant experiences.
Jeremy Enns and Justin Jackson discuss the value and limitations of using download numbers as the primary metric for podcast success. They explore alternative metrics like listen time, consumption rates, and qualitative feedback, along with the importance of aligning metrics with specific show goals. The episode also delves into leading and lagging indicators to provide actionable insights for podcast growth and monetization.
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 y...
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 t...
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...
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 i...
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? Cl...
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...
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 the...
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: 🤩 Nailed It! 🙂 Solid 🥱 Meh 😒 Do better Topics Covered 0:00...
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 brea...
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...
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 actu...
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 o...
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: 🤩 Nailed It!...
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 e...
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 th...
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 ...
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? Wh...
