GMP's Analytics: Understanding Episode Performance
Welcome to the 43rd episode of "Good Morning, Podcasters!" Today, we are going to dive into the analytics of the show and see if there is a specific day of the week that performs better in terms of downloads. My name is Fuzz Martin, and I took over the show on Halloween in 2022. In this post, I'll share my analysis of the performance of the episodes, and how you can apply these insights to your own podcast.
The show is posted three times a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There are five main content pillars that the show is sorted into - marketing, social media, public relations, advertising, and general podcasting topics. To perform these analytics, I used a Google Sheet to analyze my release date, release day of the week, episode title, episode content category, and downloads within 3 days, 7 days, and 30 days of publication.
Days of the Week Performance Analysis
Let's start by looking at the day of the week performance. First, I sorted the data by the number of downloads within 3 days of publication. Wednesday was the most downloaded day, followed by Monday, and Friday had one episode in the top 10.
Next, I pulled the data for 7 day downloads. In the top 10, Monday and Wednesday each had 4 downloads, and Friday had 2. When I increased the sample size to the top 20 episodes, Wednesday had 9 downloads, Monday had 6 episodes, and Friday had 4 episodes.
In the top 20 7 day downloads, Wednesday had 8 downloads, Monday had 6, and Friday had 5. Although Friday was in last place, the sample size may have been small. To find out, I'm going to change my launch schedule to Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the next month or two to see if it affects listenership.
Content Pillar Performance Analysis
Next, I analyzed my content pillars. It was difficult to analyze because some technically cross over between categories, like advertising and social media, or marketing and pretty much anything. So far, I've posted 14 episodes about general podcasting, 8 about marketing, 10 about social media, 5 about advertising, and 5 about public relations. In the top 20 7 day downloads, general podcasting, marketing, and social media had the most downloads, while PR was almost non-existent. However, this may not be a scientific conclusion as there are too many variables to consider and only 5 PR episodes were posted.
To find out, I'm going to experiment by creating some more PR episodes this month and see if they continue to underperform or if it's just a result of when they were posted.
Discovering Most Popular Episodes
Finally, I took a look at my most discovered episodes. These are the episodes that had low early downloads but increased the most from week 2 through today. Episodes on Podcast Trademarks, Merchandise, and What Gen Z is listening to all underperformed upon launch but were later discovered. This data can be used to create more episodes like these, as they might perform better with time.
Analyzing the performance of your episodes can give you valuable insights into your listenership and how you can improve your podcast. If you're interested in checking out my OP3 analytics, I've made them public. You can view them at gmp.fm/stats. Don't forget to stay tuned for the next episode, and let me know how you're using analytics to improve your podcast.
Transcript
Fuzz Martin 0:00
Good Morning Podcasters I'm 43 episodes in. And I spent some time analyzing the Good Morning Podcasters download statistics. And I wanted to see if there's a day of the week on which the show performs best. So let's review.
Fuzz Martin 0:18
dcasters back on Halloween in:Fuzz Martin 1:06
Also, Good Morning Podcasters is sorted into five main content pillars. Those are marketing, social media, public relations, advertising and general podcasting topics. I don't have a set number of each of them. And sometimes the episodes ride the line between multiple categories. But I'm going to take a look at those analytics as well.
Fuzz Martin 1:30
To analyze this data, I used a Google Sheet to look at my release date, release day of the week, episode title episode content category, my three day downloads, my seven day downloads, and my 30 Day downloads. Also, I installed op three analytics in the beginning of December, so I had to backfill the data with my host analytics for those episodes released in November. But the numbers look pretty close between op three and captivate. So we're going to roll with it. And by the way, if you want to check out my mp3 analytics, I've made them public so anybody at any time can take a look at how the show is performing. Simply go to gmp.fm/stats. That is G MP as in Good morning podcasters gmp.fm/stats. So let's dig in and see what we can glean from this data.
Fuzz Martin 2:28
Let's start by looking at the best day of the week for releasing new episodes. I started by looking at the three day downloads. I sorted the data by number of downloads within three days of publication of the top 10 episodes. Wednesday is the most downloaded day followed by Monday. And then just one Friday episode crack the top 10. Now I understand that perhaps if somebody doesn't listen on Friday morning, then they might not listen until Monday's maybe they listen on their way to work or their podcasts listening habits change on the weekend. So I also pulled the seven day downloads to see which performed best when it comes to seven day downloads. Monday and Wednesday each have four downloads in the top 10 and Friday has two now using the top 10 episodes may be too small of a sample size.
Fuzz Martin 3:20
So I kicked that up to 20 to see how that looks. When I do that three day downloads Wednesday is still the top performing, followed by Monday. And then Friday has four episodes in the top 20. There was also a Friday episode that I released on a Saturday. And that episode also cracked the top 20 But I didn't lump that into Friday. Then when I look at the top 27 Day downloads, Wednesday still perform the best Monday's still second best and Friday is third. With that info. I'm happy to see that people are listening to the Friday episodes the following week. But since Friday is solidly in last place, I'm going to make a change to Good Morning Podcasters and my launch schedule. Starting this week, I'm going to be launching on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays over the next month or two to see if I get any changes in that third day of the week. I'll let you know how it goes.
Fuzz Martin 4:18
Then I dug in and looked at the categories. But that one's a little bit more difficult to analyze because, again, some topics technically cross between categories like advertising and social media, or marketing in pretty much any other topic. Also I've posted far fewer of some categories versus others. So I'm not going to make any changes based on this information. But I am going to pay closer attention to it. So far, I've posted 14 episodes about general podcasting topics eight about marketing 10 about social media, five about advertising and five about public relations. I can see in the top 27 Day downloads that general podcasting, marketing and social media all have the most in the top 20. PR is almost non existent. But again, there are way too many variables to make this scientific, and only five PR episodes to look at three of which were posted in November when the show first started, one was posted less than a week ago. So I don't have seven day download data yet. But that one has a pretty high three day download.
Fuzz Martin 5:26
So I'm going to experiment by creating some more public relations related episodes this month and seeing if they continue to underperform. Or if it's skewing lower because of when they were posted. I looked at a couple more things while I was digging into these analytics, my most discovered episodes, those would be the ones that had low downloads early on, and then increased the most from week to through today.
Fuzz Martin 5:54
Those episodes on podcast trademarks, podcast merchandise, and what podcasts Gen Z are listening to is listening to all underperformed upon the launch of those episodes, but have since been discovered later, I might use that data to do some, in case you missed it posts on social media with those particular episodes. I may also optimize their websites more to see if I can get more search traffic to people discovering those pages. And speaking of search traffic. My holiday gift guide episode post has the most web visitors according to my Google Analytics, GA4 data, followed by some more how to Episode pages, how to post audio to static images on Instagram, my transcription process and using Calendly versus Google for podcast guests scheduling. Those are the next three highest episode pages. So I may lean on that type of content a little more to drive search traffic on GoodMorningPod.com.
Fuzz Martin 6:59
You can look at analytics and you can talk about how many downloads a day you have and such but analytics can be used for more than just spiking your dopamine or tanking your dopamine. You can take action on your analytics and optimize your show. Make decisions on the types of content you create and give your listeners a better experience. I hope my data has helped you a little bit with your podcast again. You can see my op three analytics by going to gmp.fm/stats. That is gmp.fm/stats.
Fuzz Martin 7:33
That will do it for today's episode of Good Morning. Podcasters new episodes every Monday, Wednesday. And now Thursdays. Please follow the show in your podcast player and if you are so inclined, please consider giving me a five star review. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you Wednesday, right here on Good Morning Podcasters
