Audience Growth

Who Is Your Podcast Listener?

Last updated on: 
July 27, 2022

As podcasting is only expected to continue to grow in 2020, there's an increased necessity for podcasters to figure out who their target podcast listener actually is.

Reports like the Infinite Dial provide us with incredibly useful data on podcast listeners as a whole. But in 2020, podcasters will need to start narrowing down their show data to determine who their unique listeners are.  

The Ideal Podcast Listener Profile

Brands are turning their attention to podcasts. Historically, the medium has proven to be an engaging way to reach dedicated, high converting audiences. However, the power of podcasting relies on a show’s ability to create hyper-targeted groups, who buy similar things. 

Creating a listener profile for your audience is useful so podcasters can show potential sponsors who they can reach while tailoring the show’s content to their audience.

Completing this exercise is necessary for all podcasters but especially podcast networks who publish multiple shows. Think about each show as a separate business. First, you need to figure out the demand for your content, then determine who wants to consume it. Once you understand who your consumers are, you can tailor your marketing tactics to meet their unique behaviours and desires. 

Podcast Listeners

To start, you need to understand who your content is going to resonate with and sadly, “everyone” is not an answer. No one makes a podcast for everyone. As the creator, you need to take a step back and reflect on how niche your series is, what sort of topics do you cover? What type of person would want to listen? For example, if you have a podcast that’s specifically about eating gluten-free in Toronto then we can assume that your podcast listener will be individuals who are gluten-free and living in Toronto. 

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a more specific group of people you can start to get to know your listeners. Find out information like ages, genders, occupations, where they’re normally listening, hobbies, etc. This will give you more of a base to run with when you’re creating your listener profile. An easy way to find out this sort of information is through podcast survey’s that you can promote on your series as well as online. 

And lastly, as always, engage with your audience on social media! Get a conversation going about your series among your listeners, learn more about them and also what they think of the series.

Alison Osborne

Director of Growth Marketing

A passionate storyteller, Ali is Quill’s Director of Growth Marketing, previously the co-founder and CMO of the branded podcast agency, Origins Media Haus (acquired by Quill). She excels in merging creativity with data in order to successfully build and grow a brand.

Platform
Price
Pro’s
Con's
Anchor

Free

  • Easy to use
  • Automatically distributes your podcast to major platforms.
  • Embed media player.
  • Great if podcasting is a
    side hobby
  • Very basic editing
  • Since it’s a free tool, you don’t have full control over the monetization of your podcast.
  • Not the right platform for people taking podcasting seriously
Buzzsprout

Free for 2 hours of content per month

$12 for 3 hours per month

$18+ for 6 hours and up

  • Very user-friendly
  • Caters to both long term and beginner podcasters
  • Advanced analytics
  • Easy distribution of your episodes
  • They measure their size requirements to hours not megabytes
  • Bonus: get a free $20 Amazon gift card when you sign up for any paid hosting plan!
  • Advanced features like dynamic ad insertion need some work
Libsyn

$5/month for Monthly Storage 50mb

  • Oldest podcast hosting site.
  • Easy distribution to major platforms and great for scaling once your podcast gets bigger.
  • Hosted over 35,000 podcasts.
  • An iTunes Podcast partner.
  • Allows you to publish your podcast to specific directories.
  • Embed media player.
  • Price is based on storage
  • 50mb storage for $5 won’t be enough if you are publishing weekly so you’ll end up with a higher price point
Podbean

Unlimited audio package: $9/month

Storage space:

Unlimited

  • Great support & customer service features
  • Unlimited audio.
  • Pages are easy to customize
  • Can schedule podcast release dates.
  • Easy to use.
  • Uploads and changes to podcast titles and/or descriptions are automatic to Spotify.
  • Embed media player.
  • Simple Analytics
  • Analytics aren’t as advanced as other platforms
  • Upload and changes to podcast titles and/or descriptions take a day to change on iTunes.
  • Not an iTunes podcast partner.
  • The process to send a podcast to iTunes is more tedious. But, you will still be able to get on the platform.
Blubrry

Classic

$5/month

Monthly Storage

50mb

  • Podcast Wordpress plugin and management.
  • If you want to record a new introduction or conclusion, add in a sponsored ad or upload a new version of a podcast, it doesn't count towards your storage usage per month.
  • Blubrry allows a 25% storage overage each month
  • Prices are based on storage.
  • Usability is okay.
SimpleCast

Starting: $15/month

Recommendation: $35/month

Monthly Storage: Unlimited

  • Hosts your audio files no matter what the size!
  • Dynamic insertion for podcast ads or edits.
  • Incredibly detailed analytics including number of episodes completed and listener location tracking.
  • Embed media player.
  • Easy to use.
  • Great distribution! Easy access to all major podcast platforms.
  • Customizable podcast
    website.
  • Prices are slightly higher than other platforms, but well worth it especially if you have a branded company podcast!

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