Google just introduced the all new Google Podcasts Manager in the beginning of May 2020. If you haven’t heard about Google Podcasts Manager yet, you should definitely take a couple of minutes to read more about it here. In this article we’ll review the new tool, walk you through the process of adding your podcast into it, and provide a step-by-step guide on setting up the tool.
What is the Google Podcasts Manager and what is it good for?
The Google Podcasts Manager allows podcasters to view and analyze their podcast’s listening data and get advanced statistics about their listeners, their tendencies, and the overall performance of each one of your episodes. It is important to note that the data is only available for the users that listen on a Google Podcasts Platform (i.e. – the Google podcasts app, embedded player, Google Home and so on).
Having said that, the available data is still quite relevant for any podcaster, and really easy to set up and get insightful information from. You can use this tool to get the number of listens for each show / episode, track play counts, create breakdowns by device, audience retention, and much more.
With the audience retention chart, you can understand which parts of your episode were the most interesting or when certain listeners stopped listening or “dropped” from the episode.
If you’ve had a chance to work with Google Analytics, you’ll find this tool very familiar as it is eventually quite similar to Google Analytics, and servers the exact same purposes, just for podcasting instead of websites.
How to get your podcast on the Google Podcasts Manager?
Before you can even get started, you’ll need to ensure your podcast can show up on Google Podcasts. Google has its own set of requirements from podcasters to index a podcast on their platform. You’ll need to go over a few steps to get started before you can start using the analytics platform –
- Create an RSS Feed. Just like any other other podcast platform, you’ll need a valid RSS feed to get your podcast on it, so if you already have a podcast on other platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify you should already have it. (if you use a podcast hosting service, they usually create the RSS feed for you and you can copy it from your dashboard).
- Create a dedicated homepage that references to your feed – you can use Podcastpage.io to create one in minutes. Your podcast homepage must include a special meta tag in the <head> part of your HTML, to ensure it can be indexed properly by Google. Our podcast website building platform does this automatically for you.
- Get your podcast indexed by Google. If you already have your dedicated podcast website set up, you can wait until Google finds it or you can let Google know about your site to make sure they crawl it. Another option is to upload and verify your podcast RSS feed via the Google Podcasts Manager tool.
How to add your show on Google Podcasts Manager?
Simply visit the Google Podcasts Manager website and login with your own Google account. (or create a new account).
Next, start the process and add your RSS feed as seen in the screenshot below:
Once you’ve added a valid feed, you can preview it and make sure it is the right one and that it shows up properly and includes everything you need:
Next, you will need to verify the ownership of your podcast. Google does that to ensure you’re not adding and tracking podcasts that are not yours. Your RSS feed contains an email address, and Google will simply send a verification code to that email. Simply click on the “Send Code” button to continue –
Then, copy the code you’ve received via email and insert it in the input field to verify the podcast RSS feed ownership:
Once verified, you’re good to go! It might take a small amount of time until your podcast and website are indexed, so you may not see any data at first, but give it a little time to work its magic.
Once you have your podcast indexed and tracked, you’ll start seeing all the relevant stats and data coming in from your podcast, for example:
Most podcast hosting services usually also offer direct analytics data, or at least integrate with well known podcast analytics services like Podtrac or Chartable.
The Google Podcasts Manager would not be able to replace those, as it only shows data coming from the different Google platforms, but you should be able to get some really interesting insights by using this tool alongside your regular podcast analytics service.
Why is it important to have podcast analytics?
You want your podcast to be successful and keep growing your audience. You probably also want people to find, listen, enjoy, recommend and come back to your podcast, right?
So, how do you know if your podcast is indeed successful? Getting actual feedback from your audience is great, but if it’s the same several people who are providing the feedback, you may need to find another way. Analytics can help you understand how others perceive your own podcast, and give you the true figures of listeners or any other podcast-related data.
It doesn’t really matter if your podcast is a hobby or a business, doesn’t matter if you monetize it or just do it for yourself – You should still get some kind of insight of your podcast’s reach and understand what is going on after you hit that same old publish button for every new episode.
Podcast analytics can help you learn more about your audience, your content, guests and more, therefore helping you improve it and make it the best podcast it can be.
Key benefits of podcast analytics
- Understanding where your audience is coming from. What are the best marketing channels to get the most relevant listeners for your podcast?
- Understanding who is listening to your podcast. This part could help you monetize your podcast. If you have a niche audience, you could get sponsors that are looking for ways to connect with your audience.
- Seeing all your podcast data in one platform – understand the data as a whole. Get a complete overview of your podcast statistics and get valuable insights from it.
- Discovering what is working best for you. Which parts of a certain episode your listeners liked the most, or which didn’t worked as planned and many dropped off. Get new ideas for future episodes or think about new ways to improve your content.
- Understanding the habits of your audience. Are they listening from home? On their daily commute? From a mobile device or desktop? Which episode is the most successful episode, and why? With this information you can tailor the structure of your podcast, and adapt it to better fit your audience. Make shorter/longer add new guests or stay solo, etc.
In conclusion
To sum up, if you want to get meaningful insights on your podcast, you should add it to Google Podcasts Manager. Check out the steps mentioned above to add it and start tracking your podcast’s performance.
You know your podcast best, and surely, your audience can provide so much more insight, but with that said, you should take the analytics with a pinch of salt. Analyze the metrics and get ideas, but don’t let it disappoint you if you have a slow week, or a bad performing episode. Don’t underestimate your artistic thoughts and passion. Just like every new project, you’ll need to be patient. By working hard and creating quality content, you’ll surely find your right audience!
