How do people find podcasts? How are people consuming podcasts? When thinking about ways to grow your show, these two questions can help guide your podcast marketing.

Understanding how listeners discover and consume podcasts is essential for any podcaster looking to expand their audience. This blog post will walk podcasters through podcast discovery and consumption trends while providing some actionable steps to help with podcast optimization, which can boost show searchability and discovery. 

But first, let’s start with how we learned how podcast listeners are really consuming and discovering podcasts.

Headliner Listenership Study: Methodology

Recently, Headliner conducted a “Listenership Study.” The study aimed to learn how people find and discover new shows while also learning about their consumption habits. 

The survey was distributed via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Respondents had to be marked as “Internet Users” to qualify for the study. In total, we had 315 unique participants from around the world.

Findings and Background

When asked, “Do you listen to podcasts?” a staggering 99% of participants responded, “Yes.” If a participant marked “No,” they did not listen to podcasts, they were directed to the end of the survey.

Most respondents were 25-34 years old (87%) and had at least a bachelor’s degree in college (84%). Respondents were predominantly men (68%) who lived in the United States (95%). 

The high listenership (99%) reaffirms the growing trend of podcast consumption, especially among younger, more educated audiences. 

The survey aimed to understand how podcast listeners find new shows and consume podcast content. 

First, we asked, “How do you listen to or consume podcasts?” 60% of participants said they only consume podcasts on podcast players (Apple, Spotify, etc.). 33% said they listen to podcasts on both podcast players and YouTube, with 7% listening to podcasts on YouTube only. 

Next, we asked about podcast discovery. Study participants were asked, “How  do you discover or learn about new podcasts?” They were allowed to select methods from the following list: 

  • Podcast Players (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.)
  • YouTube
  • Social Media
  • Web
  • Word of Mouth (WOM)
  • Personal recommendations (friends, family, co-workers, etc.)
  • Advertisements
  • Other (write in option)

Note: WOM and personal recommendations were combined in the final analysis. WOM received 7%, and personal recommendations received 28% response rates. 

It was close, but social media was the top discovery method at 71%. Next were podcast players (70%), YouTube (59%), and WOM and personal recommendations (33%). 

Relationships in the data: podcast discovery and consumption 

Overall, the survey yielded some interesting findings. The data suggests that a multi-channel approach, leveraging both traditional distribution methods (e.g., podcast players) and a mix of digital marketing platforms (social media and YouTube), boosts podcast discoverability and broadens the scope of the potential audience. 

Furthermore, our study found some interesting relationships. The most notable relationships were related to gender and consumption behaviors. 

Our survey revealed that men and women consume podcasts differently. In our study, men were mostly likely to listen to podcasts using a podcast player. 74% of men said they consume podcasts on podcast players only.

Women, however, reported listening to podcasts on both YouTube and podcast players (60%). 

Correlations Between Consumption and Discovery 

The survey also revealed some interesting correlations between podcast discovery and consumption. 

Across the board, people who listen to podcasts were likely to discover podcasts on YouTube (r =0.47, p<0.05). While YouTube was not the top discovery method, there was a moderate positive relationship between the number of people listening to podcasts and those discovering shows on YouTube. This means that as more people listen to podcasts, there is a good chance they will discover new shows on YouTube. 

There were no other statistically significant correlations in the data.

Putting it all together

What exactly does all this data mean, though? Our study suggests that leveraging a multi-channel approach to podcasting helps more people find your podcast. 

If you want to reach a wide audience, using traditional podcast platforms, uploading your show to YouTube, and promoting it on social media will help you grow your audience. However, if you want to target specific demographics or are strapped for resources, optimizing for one platform might be the most effective approach for your show. But remember, if you have the bandwidth, being on multiple platforms will likely increase the discoverability of your show the most.

How do you optimize podcasts?

Podcast optimization can involve a lot of different things and moving parts, especially between different platforms. However, when thinking about your podcast growth and audience development, you’ll find podcast optimization is well worth the time and investment. 

Optimizing your podcast involves several strategies, from improving search engine visibility to engaging on social media and effectively utilizing YouTube. Key steps include using relevant keywords, descriptions, transcription, and/or tags. All of these things make your podcast easier to find and improve its discoverability.

Podcast optimization attracts more listeners and ensures that your show reaches an audience genuinely interested in your content while helping it stand out. Good podcast optimization essentially turns “how do people find my podcast” on its head. It makes you, as a podcaster, really consider audience behaviors and helps you understand how people find podcasts.

Here are a few ways you can start investing in podcast optimization. 

Get intentional with podcast SEO

Traditionally, SEO (search engine optimization) was tethered to search engines, like Google. However, today, SEO and SEO best practices are part of nearly every digital platform and algorithm. 

Getting intentional with your podcast SEO means going beyond checking the boxes your host makes you add. It means really diving into your show metadata to ensure things like titles, descriptions, and tags work to help elevate your show – not just simple descriptions. 

So, how can you do that? (Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds!) 

Podcast optimization, in this sense, means ensuring that your titles, descriptions, and tags – all those wonderful metadata nuggets – contain relevant keywords. Relevant keywords are words or phrases you want to target and relate to. Essentially, if someone searches for something, your podcast pops up! 

Keyword research for podcasts

Getting those relevant keywords for podcasts can take time to start. But, once you’ve done the initial grunt work, it can be a pretty straightforward, automated process. 

Keyword research starts with you trying to find and match search intent. One of the easiest ways to get started is to identify relevant, broad topics and refine them to best match your podcast’s content and audience interest. 

Using SEO planning tools, like Google Ads Keyword Planner, can help guide you through this process. You can even use AI tools, like Eddy by Headliner, to help automate the research process. SEO planning tools can help you gain deeper insight into the keywords you are trying to target and even help you find new ones! 

Be where your audience is 

Podcast optimization also involves being in the spots where your audience and potential audience are. If you have a podcast, you’re already on podcast players (check!), but consider branching out to social media platforms and YouTube, especially if you want to target younger audiences! 

Again, you’re a podcaster, and you’re busy! Being where your audience is doesn’t mean you have to be everywhere. It just means being in the places that make sense for you, your bandwidth, and your show. 

Leveraging social media for podcast growth

Our study found that social media is the number one way podcast listeners discover podcasts. Outside of discovery, social media is the perfect spot to develop audience relationships and foster engagement. 

Getting your show on social media helps create a touch point for your existing and potential audience. Again, getting on social media does not mean you need to be everywhere. Identify one or two platforms that match your audience behaviors to help find and retain listeners on social media.

Once you’re on social media, actively engage with your audience. Some easy wins for audience engagement are asking questions to encourage comments, liking or replying to comments, and following back. 

How to optimize podcasts for social media 

Here are some tips for optimizing your podcast for social media:

  1. Use Hashtags: Hashtags are one of the easiest ways to integrate your keywords into your social media content. In most social media algorithms, hashtags are treated as search terms. So, just like if someone were to Google “podcast marketing tips,” they could search for “podcast marketing tips” on social media, and content featuring that querey and hashtag will be front and center. 
  2. Rename your files: Like search engines, social media cannot crawl or index video and audio files. However, they can crawl file names! Naming your files to either match your podcast title or to include one to three relevant keywords will help give your content a little extra boost. 
  3. Be consistent: Social media favors timeliness and relevancy. Posting on a consistent basis helps inform social media algorithms that the account is active and viable. This helps social media continuously push your content to the appropriate eyes and ears. However, consistency isn’t just about posting cadence – it should also include your content’s look and feel (aka, your branding!). Using similar colors, fonts, and styles will help make your content and overall podcast more recognizable.

Utilizing YouTube for podcast growth

59% of podcast listeners surveyed reported discovering podcasts on YouTube. YouTube is a powerful tool for podcast growth and boasts one of the largest global audience potentials, with billions of active users. Uploading your show to YouTube is one of the best and easiest ways to optimize your podcast and enhance its growth. 

How to optimize podcasts for YouTube

Optimizing your podcast for YouTube is REALLY easy. In most cases, you’ll even be able to reuse the existing work you did for your episode uploads. 

Here are some tips to optimize your podcast for YouTube:

  1. Transcribe podcasts: Transcriptions are powerful tools for SEO and YouTube optimization. They not only enhance your podcast’s accessibility, ensuring everyone can enjoy it, but they also provide YouTube (and search engines and podcast players) with a ton of information. Podcast transcripts give YouTube a lot of context to really understand what the show is about and who may enjoy it the most. 
  2. Create podcast playlists: YouTube has made massive investments in supporting podcasting in-app and in-platform. Creating a podcast playlist allows podcasters to organize their content while getting the most bang for their buck on YouTube. Adding a podcast playlist to your channel will help you improve your podcast’s discoverability on YouTube. 
  3. Make unique thumbnails: Thumbnails do not impact how YouTube ranks or pushes your content; however, they do influence audience engagement. Thumbnails have scroll-stopping power and can be used as a quick marketing message. Having simple yet effective thumbnails can help boost your show’s discoverability through YouTube and Google search queries through engagement. 

Applying these tips, in addition to YouTube best practices, will help increase your podcast’s discoverability on YouTube. We also have some helpful “how-to” guides here.

Optimize your podcast, grow your audience 

Understanding how listeners find and consume podcasts is crucial for podcasters aiming to grow their audience. Social media, podcast players, and YouTube are major platforms where people discover podcasts. Current consumption behaviors using a mix of traditional podcast players, social media, and YouTube provide podcasters with a unique opportunity to reach a wider audience.

Optimizing your podcast – whether in podcast players, YouTube, social media, etc. – can boost your credibility and authority while actionably growing your podcast. Podcast optimization can also lead to more opportunities for monetization through ads, sponsorships, and partnerships.

Ultimately, investing time in podcast optimization can lead to greater audience growth, higher engagement, and increased opportunities for monetization. By being intentional with SEO, leveraging social media, and utilizing YouTube, podcasters can effectively navigate the digital landscape to maximize their show’s success. With these strategies, podcasters can attract new listeners and create a strong, engaged community that retains listeners.

Getting started (free tools for podcast optimization)

Looking for ways to get started with podcast optimization? Headliner makes it easy to optimize your podcast for discoverability and engagement. From creating eye-catching audiograms and video snippets for social media to auto-posting on YouTube and TikTok, free transcription, and more, Headliner has all the tools you need. Sign up today and start growing your audience with Headliner.