Beyond Downloads: How to Measure Your Podcast's Real Brand Impact
Roger Nairn
10,000 downloads and nothing to show the CFO. That's the position too many marketing teams find themselves in after their first year of podcasting — not because the show failed, but because they were measuring the wrong thing from the start.
The download number is seductive. It ticks up with every release. It feels like growth. But it answers exactly one question: how many times was a file requested from a server? It says nothing about whether anyone listened, whether those listeners were the right people, or whether a single perception shifted as a result.
This is the core problem with how most brands evaluate their podcasts. And it's fixable — but only once you accept that downloads were never the right metric to begin with.
The Download Is a Reach Metric Pretending to Be a Performance Metric
Here's how Roger Nairn, CEO of JAR Podcast Solutions, frames it: when a client says
