Google Podcasts saw a big update in March that revamped the Android client and introduced an iOS app. A new Google Podcasts Manager tool today gives podcasters analytics about who’s listening and what can be done to improve engagement.
The Google Podcasts Manager is billed as providing “insight into the evolving habits of podcast listeners” to help better understand audiences. It starts by helping audio publishers make sure their shows are available in Google Podcasts. Today’s blog post touts “millions of Google Podcasts listeners.”
Available engagement metrics provide historical data like play count, plays in first 30 days, average played, and minutes played. There are also granular “Audience retention” breakdowns that shows how many listeners stick through an entire episode. A particularly nifty shortcut is an audio player right underneath the graph.
This includes retention analytics which help you better understand where people tune in—and when they drop off—along with listening duration, minutes played and more.
Google is letting podcasters export this data for those that want to use their own analysis tools.
Other available data points include anonymized device analytics — as percentages — broken down by phones, tablets, desktop/laptop computers, and smart speakers, given the prevalence of Assistant speakers and Smart Displays.
This data can help podcasters better understand and respond to changing listening behavior. For example, you might discover that the majority of your listeners access your show on a smart speaker. This might mean you add shorter form content for listening on-the-go, or develop more family-friendly options for consumption in an open space.
More about Google Podcasts:
- [Update: More] Podcasts team talks focus on simplicity, recognizes Play Music confusion
- New Google Podcasts redesign starts rolling out w/ auto-download, new episode alerts
- Podcasts on the web adds homepage, search, and suggestions
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