We’re firm believers in the power of podcast appearances to drive business success—but not in the way you might think.
You should consider appearing on podcasts to be part of your PR efforts, rather than a lead generation strategy. It’s a way to grow your audience, share your message, and boost your authority. It’s not a magic formula to quickly close deals with tons of new clients.
But just because the ROI might not be immediately obvious, that doesn’t mean it’s not there!
In this post, we’ll reveal six ways to track your podcast PR effectiveness. Try them all out, and then choose the ones that best reflect your business goals.
1. Backlinks
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you’ve probably at least glanced at the episode notes. These short descriptions are incredibly important; they help with website rankings and persuade potential listeners to hit play.
When you appear on a podcast, ask them to include links to your website or landing page in the episode notes. These are highly valuable backlinks that tell Google your site is legit, because other high-quality sites are linking to it.
You can keep track of backlinks with tools like SE Ranking and Ahrefs. Once you’ve appeared on a few podcasts, these links will help you outrank competitors in search results and increase your visibility.
2. Conversion rate
Appearing on podcasts creates high-value touchpoints with listeners. Those listeners become potential customers who are way more likely to pull the trigger, because they’ve already come into contact with you.
That “trigger” might be downloading a freebie, scheduling a consultation, or purchasing your product. In any case, each lead is perfectly primed to take action, which will drive your conversion rate through the ceiling.
The key is that they already know something about you and your brand, putting you in a much more comfortable position to ask them to take the leap.
3. Website traffic
Generally speaking, this is a tough metric to track. Your website traffic may be influenced by various factors, but podcast appearances are certainly among them. To separate this factor from the rest, you just have to get specific.
For example, try creating a podcast-specific landing page on your website where listeners can download a useful freebie. Mention this in the interview and include the link in the episode notes. Then track the traffic for that landing page—voilà.
This is a short-term approach to website traffic. In the long run, the backlinks mentioned above will gradually increase your domain authority, and Google will send more people your way. The result? An overall increase in traffic across your site.
4. Social media mentions
If people are talking about you, you should know! That’s a pretty basic tenet of PR, and it’s taken on new meaning in the era of social media. It’s also much easier to keep track of it now, as digital “word of mouth” leaves behind an actual record.
You can use affordable tools like Awario to track mentions of certain keywords (like your own name or your brand name) on LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other platform.
If you’ve just recorded an awesome interview on a relevant podcast, wait until the episode is published and then watch as the notifications roll in. These listeners may or may not become actual leads, but they are your newest spokespeople.
See also: How To Promote Your Podcast Appearance on LinkedIn
5. Inbound leads
We already said that you shouldn’t think of podcasts as a lead generation strategy… but that doesn’t mean they won’t attract some leads!
Think of it this way: each podcast listener has just spent several minutes hearing what you have to say. You’ve already started to build trust and establish a relationship. If you’ve done it well, some people might get in touch right after the episode ends.
We’ve found that this is much more likely to happen on smaller podcasts with a specific target audience. Larger podcasts are great for creating clout and credibility, but the small ones are often your best bet for direct business opportunities.
6. Go straight to the source
Finally, don’t forget to ask your leads and customers how they found you.
You can request this information at any point, whether it’s on a call, through a form, or in any other format. Many companies include this question in their first point of contact with leads—you’ve probably answered it yourself countless times.
This is the simplest way to track the success of your podcast appearances. If customers say they found you directly through an episode, you’ll know your hard work is paying off!
