In a new survey report produced by CoHost with Quill Inc., we learn that developing better podcast ROI metrics is the most predicted five-year trend by agency professionals. The survey queried 46 podcast agencies about their resources, methods, and challenges. (See it HERE.)
One unusual value of this report is the large amount of quoted perspective from agency pros. It is sprinkled throughout, with a three-page concentrated burst at the end.
“Brands are beginning to understand the power of voice. It is a key element to how they connect with their consumers or clients.” –Michael DeAloia, CEO, Evergreen Podcasts
Moving into the metrics, here are key takeaways:
- 99 problems and agency resourcing is #1 – Agencies work with an average of 7 tools throughout their production process but over 78% of agencies have fewer than 10 employees. This is a sign that podcast agencies are under-resourced and need solutions to save time and increase efficiency.
- One tool isn’t enough for podcast agencies – On average, podcast agencies are using 2 hosting platforms, 2 recording softwares, and 3 extra podcast tools for clients. This sparks the question as to why agencies require so many different tools in their stack. It’s clear that there is no all-in-one solution for agencies to rely on.
- Agencies can’t ditch the downloads – Downloads are the most popular metric podcast agencies use to measure client success. But we suggest downloads are being used as a proxy since it can be challenging, time consuming, and expensive to report on more meaningful metrics.
- Growth and reporting challenges are holding clients back – Audience growth and measuring ROI are the two biggest constraints on podcast agencies’ client’s success. Agencies need beter tools and tactics to drive growth for their clients’ shows, and they need the tooling (i.e. tracking links, analytics) to understand the impact of podcasting on marketing objectives.
- Agency acquisition magic: Word-of-mouth marketing – Social media is the most popular tactic to grow a podcast agency but word of mouth and referrals are the most common way podcast agencies are acquiring new customers. If agencies struggle to attribute ROI for their clients, this might be an issue they struggle with for their own business as well.
- The ROI revolution in podcasts – “Better Podcast Data to Measure ROI” is the biggest podcast trend agencies predict over the next 5
years. This is unsurprising since measuring ROI is the second biggest constraint agency clients are experiencing.
The ROI-data metric is very interesting, and is just the lead statistic when agencies were asked about leading trends. Here are the results:
One especially interesting query asked agencies what recording software they used. As shown below, Riverside leads the pack by far:
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