Recent conversations that I’ve observed or participated in on- and offline have given me a desire to write about podcasting metrics. I’ve decided to create a multi-part series on the subject. I’m not sure how many parts it will consist of, but it will continue over the next couple weeks and be interspersed with posts on other topics.
First let me share a couple reasons why this has been on my mind…
You may have noticed the buzz that resulted from the "nerd fight" between Rocketboom and Ze Frank over audience measurement. This exchange and the ensuing conversation underscore the inadequacies, frustrations, and misconceptions that exist when it comes to podcasting metrics. If you missed the dialog, the basic gist is that Ze Frank implied that Rocketboom was inflating their numbers.
Just before the Ze Boom exchange, I did a presentation on metrics at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference in NYC. As you can imagine, the #1 thing everyone wanted to know was what the accepted/standard/consistent metric was for measuring podcast audiences. Of course, the primary motivation for this question is advertising. Advertisers, agencies and content creators want to know how to put a price tag on reaching a podcast’s audience with a marketing message. TV and radio have their standards…so what is it for podcasting? I had to tell them that there still wasn’t any widely used standard for measuring the size if audience for a given podcast.
The answer lies partly in the adoption of standards and partly in the shortcomings of available technology. Both can be remedied and will be with time. Sure, we don’t have a perfect answer right now, but I don’t think the situation is as blurry or dismal as some would have us believe.
During this blog post series I’ll go through my own thoughts on what tools and metrics we have at our disposal in an effort to help you measure the your audience and pursue advertising initiatives.
What questions or insights do you have about podcasting metrics? Stay tuned for more of my own thoughts.
November 18th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Also keep in mind that, like Tim Bourquin said, podcasting is in many ways unlike old media because your podcast’s audience is already interested in a narrow niche, advertisers addressing that niche already know 100% of the audience is receptive to their advertising.
Also, the old media method of CP/M breaks down, because, paraphrasing Bourquin, "It doesn’t matter if your podcast only has 3 listeners if those listeners are Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Warren Buffet."
you referenced John Federico’s AxL initiative that urges Apple to provide a method of reporting if a particular advertisement was indeed heard. I thought about this, and I wonder why, if a radio station sets their rates based upon the population beneath their tower’s footprint combined with Arbitron ratings from as much as months before with virtually no assurances that a particular ad was actually listened to by X number of people, why then hold podcasters to a higher standard?
November 18th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Jason, have you seen any good information out there on advertising rates that podcasters are charging sponsors these days, or even a range of rates? If not, do you have any guesses on what the going rates are.
Thanks as always for the great insights and info!
November 19th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Charles,
I agree 100% with your/Tim’s comments. I’m not a fan of the “old media” CPM model. The problem with the CPM model is that it fails to qualify the true value of podcasting–the niche audience (as you stated), the relationship with your audience, etc. If podcasters limit themselves to CPM advertising, they’re greatly limiting their ability to make money. Podcasting falls in the long tail of content.
The CPM model was created for media in the least common denominator “head of the curve”. It’s not the ideal solution, but it seems to be where the discussion has started. We need to be creative about how we monetize podcasting and sell it to the ad world.
Podcasters need to remember this when seeking sponsors and setting ad rates. Grape Radio charges healthy rates without ever quoting how many listeners they have.
Concerning the measurement of listens (whether with AxL or some other solution)…true, podcasting is already more measurable and focused than newspaper or radio. There’s no need to “hold podcasters to a higher standard”, however, if we could measure listening habits (on an optin basis) wouldn’t that be of value to sponsors and podcasters? It’s just one potential tool to help.
Jason
November 19th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Michael,
Ad rates vary widely in podcasting right now. I’ve heard figures ranging from $15 up to $80 CPM. I also know of “effective CPM” quotes that go above $150. What I mean by “effective CPM” is that the money wasn’t earned from a traditional ad buy. The term “effective CPM” is instead used to figure out how much money a podcaster is making through other means divided out per download.
“Effective CPM” is one interesting way of measuring relative success of monetization within your own podcast from campaign to campaign or episode to episode. However, it can easily become an apples to oranges comparison when put up against figures from another podcast, mostly due to variances in the measurement of downloads/listeners.
This is where we need an accepted standard so that we can speak dependably about podcast monetization across the board.
Jason
December 1st, 2006 at 1:43 am
Recommend that you contact Chris MacDonald, who was at indiefeed and is now at Libsyn. He is spearheading an effort to develop best practices for podcast reporting. If a wide group of people use the same techniques for reporting, then advertisers will start hearing the same story from lots of different podcasters — and they’ll get more comfortable with the medium.