Comments on: Measuring listeners and podcast advertising

By: a minor technicality » Blog Archive » More podcast downloads than actual listeners - how can we know for sure?

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:12:58 +0000

[...] This post was triggered by Neville Hobson and later this Britcaster discussion. [...]

By: The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #120: March 16, 2006 at NevilleHobson.com

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 23:29:08 +0000

[...] 89:36 Sebastian Keil’s view on Edelman/Wal-Mart are that if you work for a PR-agency you should disclose that in a way that is not ambiguous; some thoughts about Podbridge; and asks what happened to the FIR listener survey we talked about before? (50 shows ago, says Sebastian) [...]

By: » Measuring Podcast Audiences duncanriley.com

» Measuring Podcast Audiences duncanriley.com — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:47:44 +0000

[...] Neville Hobson makes an interesting point: “But there’s one significant statistic we can’t yet determine - how many people actually listen to each show. We also have a link on each show notes post where you can click and listen there and then rather than download the MP3 file. And as Shel and I cross-post each show’s show notes to our own respective blogs, that’s three different places where you can click-and-listen. No way to measure that, as far as I know. This is a problem every podcaster has. Downloads of the MP3s is one thing. Who listens, how many listeners there are and where they are, is another. Yet that’s the most important statistic of all to aid you in creating and tailoring the content in your show to your listener demographic.” [...]

By: neville

neville — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:40:56 +0000

It’s installing the software that perturbs me most (and everyone else by the look of it). Yet as I understand it so far, that’s integral to how Podbridge works its measurement service.

Shel and I will be talking about this in today’s show.

By: Corporate Engagement

Corporate Engagement — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 05:28:21 +0000

The difficulties of measuring podcast audiences…

Measuring listeners and podcast advertising at NevilleHobson.com. But there’s one significant statistic we can’t yet determine - how many people actually listen to each show. We also have a link on each show notes post where you can click and liste…

By: Bryan Person

Bryan Person — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:11:21 +0000

My initial reaction as a podcast listener — and a loyal FIR one, at that — is to say that I’m definitely not crazy about the idea of having to download more software (level of invasiveness still unknown, it seems) just so that the podcaster can know whether or not I actually “tune in” to that show once I’ve downloaded it. It’s not a step I — and many others, I would suspect — would be willing to take.

And even if I did download Podbridge, I can’t imagine it would be able to measure when I listen to a podcast on my iRiver while riding on the train or taking a walk.

Still, as you note, Neville, it’s certainly an interesting concept. It’s the quest for that holy-grail piece of information — am I listening?

I’ll be watching for your report after you’ve used the demo.

By: neville

neville — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:50:08 +0000

That’s what I do with podcasts too, Stuart - usually miss listening to ones I’ve downloaded so move on to later episoides when I have time. My iPod usually has around 20 podcasts on it and I rarely get a chance to listen to even 5 or 6 of them.

Especially the lengthy ones

By: Stuart Bruce

Stuart Bruce — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:32:04 +0000

I suspect there are a number of people like me who subscribe and download every episode but only have time to listen to some. When I get more than about three episodes behind I dump the older ones and start from the most recent.

By: neville

neville — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:18:07 +0000

You make a good comparison, Michael, with newspapers and readership. I agree that getting an exact number is not feasible. Yet we do want to know who actually listens to our show in a more precise way than we currently know, which is by people spontaneously telling us they listen. For instance, if the FIR Frappr community is a good measure, then we know we have at least 135 listeners as of today.

There’s a gap, though - 135 listeners versus 570 average downloads. Does that mean 435 episodes are downloaded but no one listens to them? I don’t believe that, but there’s the issue: I don’t know. Or are there multipole listeners to a partucular show? Do people copy the MP3s to friends and colleagues? Unknown.

Is a service like Podbridge the way to go in order to more precisely measure listenership? I’m hesitant because of the advertising connection plus, as you point out, the notion of installing some software. I don’t like that idea at all (frankly, I doubt I would do it). So there would need to be something pretty compelling about Podbridge to persuade listeners to install their software.

But this is still just an idea at the moment. I need to know more about Podbridge and I hope to have a demo sometime soon.

By: Michael Vanderdonk

Michael Vanderdonk — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 03:05:34 +0000

Neville,

It’s that same age old question in any advertising - How can we tell the message gets there? Newspapers have been attempting to find out exact numbers of who actually reads the ads. They know how many people buy the paper, but can only guess at who actually reads them.

The only way I would put any value in actual readership (including listeners) is to have them respond directly in some way - ask for information, buy, enter the contest, etc. Even then you won’t get exact numbers as some people forget to respond later, choose not to, etc. Web sites are offering some very good advancements in that area, as we can now tell when someone clicks a link, how long they read for, where they jump off from etc.

Thought that brings me to an interesting programming point - it should be possible for the java code you use to record start, finish, fast forward, replay, jump points on the podcast. The way I assume it works it pulls the feed from the server, so that information is already part of the code. It *should* be trivial to log it… Can’t do that with itunes, realaudio etc (yet).

For me, I would avoid podbridge - it is invasive, requiring me to download and install code (read adware) and offers me no advantage other than to be advertised to more… And I am strange in that I choose to be advertised to often…