Apple Podcasts can help news media companies boost their content strategy
Newsroom Transformation Initiative Blog | 30 October 2024
Apple Podcasts continues to be an essential platform for news media companies aiming to expand their reach and engage with audiences through audio.
During this week’s Webinar, Lauren Osen, who heads creator partnerships at Apple, shared an overview of some of the latest updates and tools from Apple Podcasts. She explained how to use them not just for content distribution but also for audience growth and engagement.
With a presence on 2.2 billion devices worldwide, Osen said Apple “translates to a huge opportunity to grow your audience and reach people who may not already be listening to podcasts through that purple app that comes pre-installed on every one of those devices.”
Because users don’t have to download an app to use it, Osen said it is advantageous for companies to link directly to their podcast site on Apple.
“When [users] see a link to a piece of audio … they don’t want to be redirected to another Web site that they might not be familiar with,” she said. “And we know that for every click you make a user go through, a certain larger percentage falls off after each one of those clicks. So my biggest piece of advice today is to link directly to Apple podcasts or podcast player of your choice.”
Apple continuously improves the user experience, and its reach extends beyond Apple device users. It recently launched Apple Podcast on the Web, which allows anyone to listen to Apple Podcasts on any Web browser, regardless of where they are. This makes sharing shows on Apple Podcast more accessible than ever, as it is available in more than 175 countries and regions. It is optimised for SEO, making it easier for listeners to discover new content.
Another notable improvement came with last year’s iOS 17 update, which enabled support for episode art. Now, the art for each episode appears throughout the podcast platform, which Osen said has been valuable for creators.
“It’s a really powerful way to highlight guests on episodic shows or give more context for a limited-run series,” she said. “And it really helps. We’ve seen evidence of this draw in listeners before they ever hit play.”
She urged users to include episode art in their shows if they haven’t started doing so already.
Another new valuable feature is called Channels. This was introduced in the app a couple of years ago, allowing podcast creators to group multiple shows together in one space. This helps get users to discover other shows created by a single company, and Osen said anyone can set up a channel.
The company has also expanded its transcript capabilities, offering transcripts of every show in English, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Portuguese, Italian, and Dutch. A new update allows users to share shows via a transcript link. This is important, Osen said, because “we know that word of mouth is still one of the most important ways that people learn about podcasts.”
Growing audiences with Apple
Getting listeners in the funnel is critical, and Apple has rolled out an array of DIY marketing tools found at podcasters.apple.com. These include a social post generator, which allows creators to produce polished, customised promotional assets quickly and easily.
“You can generate these for your show, for a particular episode, for a channel, even for chart placements,” Osen explained. “If you make it to the top of your category chart, you can generate one of these social posts. These are wonderful for generating and sharing. If you have big guests come on, or shows that have their own followings, [you can] just send it to them, suggesting that they share as well.”
Putting analytics to work
Understanding audience behaviour is crucial for any media strategy, and Apple Podcasts offers robust analytics through Podcast Connect.
This platform provides insights into key metrics such as the number of followers, monthly listens, episode performance, and completion rates. These analytics help creators understand which content resonates most with their audience and adjust their strategies accordingly.
“I think this is really underutilised. I talk with podcasters all day long who have podcasts on Apple and oftentimes they’re unaware of this,” Osen said.
One of the most interesting metrics, she said, is the number of followers a show has. There’s a lot of confusion around this topic because not everyone who downloads a show listens to it. The next number, after downloads, is followers, she said:
“People who follow your show are the ones that are having the show automatically downloaded to their device. If they have that setting turned on, they’re your more engaged audience who are likely to listen.”
At the bottom of that funnel are “the people who are actually listening” — and that is the number Apple pays attention to.
By following these analytics, companies can get a better idea of their actual audience size and see things like episode performance to understand which topics are best for keeping users engaged.
By analysing completion rates, they can determine the optimal length for their episodes: “If people are only completing 50% of an episode, maybe that’s a sign that you need to shorten your episodes and that you’d benefit having a shorter episode or breaking something into two episodes.”
A clear CTA
In addition to making podcasts easy to find and access, Osen said companies must provide clear calls to action. A common mistake she sees is that podcasts often use the wrong language by asking people to “subscribe” to their show rather than “follow” it.
“Subscribing really connotes paying for something now,” she said. “So if your show is free, there’s no need to say ‘subscribe to our show.’ You want them to be following the show.”
Rating and reviewing are also crucial since activity on podcast show pages drives its placement in the charts — and that can lead to more discovery. She recommended podcasts encourage listeners to follow the show and leave a rating to help generate more traffic and interest.