What to Do When Your Podcast Metrics Have Dipped

Hey Friend!

If you already have a show, what happens to you when you see a decline in your podcast metrics?  And if you don’t yet have a show, do you panic about what will happen if you see a dip in your metrics?  Or do you not even know what the metrics are and what you should be seeing and that makes you panic?

Today, we are looking at podcast metrics: what are they and what do you do if you see a dip in yours? I offer you three tips to help you figure out when to worry and what to do when you get to the point where some changes are necessary.

What Are Podcast Metrics?

Before I offer you any tips, let’s talk about podcast metrics and what they are. Firstly, we need to understand and develop our KPIs. KPIs are the key performance indicators that determine whether your podcast is doing what you want it to do or not.

In my 6-month group coaching program Podcast to Profit, I make it really simple by helping you to figure these out. I give you my KPI spreadsheet along with a full tutorial on how to actively track your KPIs as a podcaster. From here, you’ll be able to set up the data that will actually matter for you to be tracking on a monthly basis. This is a really cool resource that you get as a Podcast to Profit student.  It means you are not feeling around in the dark as to what your KPIs should be.

With your KPIs set up, you can track them against the podcast metrics that you are able to pull from your show. Consequently, you can check what you wanted to achieve against what is actually happening. 

It is important to know that unless you are the Holy Grail, at some point you are going to see declines in your downloads. As a result, I think it’s vital that you take a holistic approach to your metrics. I tell all my students ‘Don’t track something on a daily basis or even a weekly basis. You are going to track on a monthly basis.’  Even with this advice, it’s important to look at a wider window than just 30 days.

You want to look at the 30, the 60, and the 90 days backward so that you can really get that whole comprehensive view.  We do this because if you were to look at one month where there was a decline, this might send you into panic mode.  But if you were to look at it holistically, you might see that there were real increases previous to this month.  Over the 90-day period, there is progress even if there is a decline during one of those months.

Now that you know about KPIs and podcast metrics, let’s look at some tips as to how you can approach them.

Tip 1: Data Over Drama – Approach Your Podcast Metrics as a Guide  

I once heard somebody say ‘Data over drama’ and I loved that.  My first tip is to look at information solely as direction, without getting dramatic about it.  We can look at it as fact and say ‘This is the reality. This is what is happening. Now, what do I do about it?’  We don’t need to get emotional about it.  It just means that 1. something needs to be changed in optimizing your business or 2. something could be going on with your user or 3. something could be going on metrics-wise that you need to be aware of.

There are two questions that you can ask to analyze what the metrics are telling you and whether you need to make changes.  

Question 1: Could the calendar be affecting my podcast metrics?

The first question that you really want to ask here, specifically when talking about podcasting, is how many days and episodes did you release in that month? My highest months had the most days in that month and the most episodes. I either did some bonus episodes or maybe had an extra episode or two because it had 31 days. Consider that you are going to have more downloads if you had 11 episodes this month instead of 10 episodes.  That is simple math. If that’s the case, then there is no reason to worry.

The other reason for a decline over a short period is that my listener is going through something. Here again, the calendar might affect my person who tunes in during different seasons. For example, my listener is typically a mom, under 40, maybe under 45. There’s a lot going on in the summer for her. I’m going to usually have either a holding pattern or a small decline in the summer and I’m not worried about that.

Question 2: Is the decline or hold in my podcast metrics consistent for 3 months or more?

The second question that you really want to ask yourself is whether the decline or holding pattern is consistent for three months.

If I see a one-month dip, I’m not worried at all. It’s just a market adjustment. 

But if I start going over three months of a decline or holding pattern, I’m definitely going to start asking some questions to figure out if I need to make some changes. So if it’s one month no worries whatsoever. If it’s two months, I start to look into those metrics and maybe do some more market research. I need to find out what’s broken. 

Tip 2: Keep Evolving to Keep Your Podcast Metrics on the Rise

This is where you figure out what’s broken and do something to fix it!

I have a whole system in Podcast to Profit that helps you to make sure that you know exactly what your person wants, why they’re not listening, and what they will listen to. This helps you to streamline your whole process and revamp your podcasts on a six-month basis. The framework guides you step by step in the process and takes out the guesswork.

If we find that we have a three to nine-month downward trend, we need to refresh.  We need to go in and optimize our podcast SEO. We need to rework our content strategy. Maybe we need to refresh the artwork for our podcast. Look at what the podcast is called. Look at the delivery. How are we showing up in the episodes? We need to look at some other metrics too. For example, are we still converting at a really high rate? Has conversion gone up but downloads have gone down?

The truth is you guys don’t get to create a business, set it up, forget about it, and walk away and it’s forever successful. You’re an entrepreneur, you are a CEO, you are a business owner. There is consistent creativity and optimization and refining that has to happen if you want to continue to scale. Period. End of story.

There are a lot of variables to consider once you start hitting that three-month downward trend.  It sounds overwhelming but all of this is covered inside of Podcast to Profit for any of you who want to take that journey with me.

We give you the resources and the toolkit to be able to explode your show, not get stuck in ruts, and be able to optimize. I will be there coaching you every step of the way. My team includes community coaches as well as the back office where you get all the training and all the templates and files I use in my own company. This makes it so much easier to keep evolving.

But if you aren’t able to join us at this particular time, you still know what you need to do. Figure out what’s broken by doing a full auditing process like we talked about above. Just go piece by piece by piece. Look at your title. Work on your SEO and your content strategy. Talk to your people and see what they actually need. Uplevel your art. Dive into the analytics of what’s working & what’s not. Look at what length of an episode is working best etc.

Really sit down and become the scientist in your own business and in your podcast and start doing some tests. Start trying some new things. Do a refresh and dig into the details so that you can make your podcast land just a little bit better for your person.

Tip 3: Do Not Give Up

My last tip is don’t give up. Do not give up, even if you are in a three-month decline.  I once had a 12 to 18-month hold. The show didn’t really grow. It would bump and it would drop, it would bump and it would drop. There were a lot of things that played into that one. I was revamping my brand and getting clear about what was I really doing. I was transitioning from a network marketing coach into more of this Christian business space.

There were things that had to transpire. There were all these things that played into the decline but what I knew is that I was not giving up. I knew that I was in it. This could take me decades but I was in it. And I would push and pour into the podcast, showing up and optimizing. I would be unattached and just consistently look at my data and make this better. I would not give up until God said so. Until then, I would be talking to you on this microphone!

And you’ve got to be the same way. I think God sometimes allows things to build our resilience and help us learn and grow in our craft. And I think it made me a better podcast coach – to be able to weather a storm and be able to now speak to it and know why what happened happened. To know what I did to change it and what I did to get out of it.

Get More Help on Improving Your Podcast Metrics

I have lots of episodes on this that you can go and listen to. To make it easier, I have a podcast catalog in our community.  If you want to be able to search for a certain episode of the show, you’ll be able to do that in the catalog over there. And if you’re not a part of it yet, you are going to love our community. We have so much fun.

I hope that this has been useful for you and has helped you to feel more at ease about your podcast metrics.  Have fun with it.  Use this as an opportunity to evolve and to grow more and more to meet the needs and solve the problem for your listener!

If you have a question for me, head over to stefaniegass.com/thepodcast.  And if you want to feel like you are not alone on this journey, join us at Podcast to Profit where we can help you to evolve, scale up and meet your KPIs. I would love to have you there!

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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