A bar chart of my podcasts audience, broken down by listening app.

Chartable: A Guide To Podcast Analytics and Growth

By podcast | May 17, 2024

One of the go-to resources for podcasters all over the world, Chartable is making waves in the podcasting industry because of its comprehensive suite of analytics, attribution tools, and authoritative podcast charts.

Here is everything you need to know about Chartable podcast analytics and growth so you can boost your podcast and put it into the ears of the right people.

What is Chartable?

Chartable is a platform that offers comprehensive podcast analytics, attribution tools, and podcast charts to help podcast creators, networks, advertisers, and marketers understand, grow, and monetize their podcast audiences via data-driven insights.

Since Chartable was founded in 2017-2018 in New York City, it has helped countless podcasters, podcast companies, and podcast advertising agencies understand their audience.

How Does Chartable Work?

Analytics and Tracking

Chartable utilizes a number of key features and tools to track podcast performance.

The Trackable analytics prefix is integrated into a podcast’s RSS feed with a wide variety of hosting platforms that support it, including Buzzsprout, and many others.

For hosting platforms that don’t natively support Trackable, Chartable provides an alternative called SmartFeeds.

When a listener downloads an episode, the prefix logs key data like the device’s IP address, device information, and podcast player used without collecting personal details.

This means podcast providers can track a number of key metrics such as downloads, listener demographics, listening behavior, and so much more across various podcast apps and platforms.

Chartable compiles and displays authoritative podcast charts across over 150 countries from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and their own Chartable Top 200 rankings.

By tracking podcast ranking positions in main categories and relevant subcategories over time, Chartable provides insights into a show’s popularity, trends, and discoverability on major platforms.

Attribution and Promotion

Chartable helps podcast providers track the effectiveness of podcast promotions in a number of key ways, including SmartLinks, which are trackable URLs that automatically route listeners to the podcast in their preferred apps.

When sharing the SmartLinks across marketing channels like email or social media, Chartable tracks the clicks and downloads driven from each link, revealing which promotional channels and campaigns are most effective.

SmartLinks function by allowing users to create short, branded URLs using relevant keywords for what’s being promoted as well as multi-destination landing pages.

When somebody clicks a SmartLink, they’re taken to a landing page displaying options to access the podcast on various platforms and apps based on their device and preferences.

Additionally, SmartLinks track clicks, locations, visitor sources, and so many more engagement data points when someone interacts with the link.

Different SmartLinks can be created for different marketing phases, for example, new seasons, pre-releases, or playlists, all with customizable landing pages.

Rankings and Reviews

Chartable tracks and displays podcast charts from major platforms, monitoring podcast ranking positions in the main categories, as well as relevant subcategories on these platforms over a period of time.

Podcasters can view the current chart ranks, historical trends, and ranking data for up to 30 days.

The multi-platform chart data provides insight into a show’s popularity, discoverability, and performance compared to competitors in different regions.

Chartable aggregates all podcast reviews and ratings for every podcast in every country. It displays the most reviewed shows each week, meaning podcasters can track new reviews as they come in, monitor the average ratings, and analyze listener feedback.

Chartable’s podcast rankings are crucial for podcasters to attract new listeners and increase visibility and discoverability.

Monitoring these chart positions over time provides insights into trends and performance, allowing podcasters to benchmark their show’s performance against top competitors or publishers within specific categories.

Having high rankings on authoritative charts like Chartable ensures credibility to podcasts. Additionally, it demonstrates their popularity and this can help secure sponsorships and advertising deals.

Why is Chartable Important?

Data-Driven Decisions

Making data-driven decisions for podcast growth helps you to understand metrics such as unique listeners, consumption rate, downloads, and reviews, revealing which episodes or indeed segments are the most popular.

This means that podcasters can replicate successful content strategies and refine certain areas, ensuring consistent quality that grows the audience.

Attribution data from tools like SmartLinks and SmartPromos can show which marketing channels, advertising campaigns, and cross-promotions drive the most effective listener acquisition to enable more effective promotional spending and strategies.

Audience Insights

Gaining audience insight is vital, and Chartable offers features that provide invaluable understanding of listener demographics and behavior, such as the Trackable analytics prefix which allows granular listener data when an episode is downloaded, including device information, location data, podcast player/app, and listening behavior, for example, how much of each episode was consumed.

Through its analytics, Chartable provides demographic breakdowns of listeners, for example, location, gender, and age, as well as performance metrics for each episode, including consumption rates, unique listener counts, and total downloads.

Chartable aggregates all reviews and ratings for podcasts from platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, meaning greater insight into listener sentiments and areas for improvement.

Monetization

Using analytics can aid in monetizing podcasts in a number of ways:

Demonstrating audience value to advertisers and sponsors, which attracts relevant podcast providers and sponsors by showcasing the podcast’s reach and ability to connect with specific target users.
Metrics like consumption rates and reviews provide insights into which segments of the audience are most engaged with the content, meaning podcasters can prioritize certain monetization efforts like sponsorships or host-read ads toward these listeners.
By analyzing data on when listeners tend to “drop off” during episodes, podcasters can strategically place ads at points with higher engagement and also create ad messages that better resonate with the audience.
Tools like SmartPromos enable tracking downloads and engagement specifically through host-read ad campaigns across the podcast, allowing them to calculate returns on ad investments and optimize future campaigns.
Additionally, with insights into a listener base, podcasters can command higher sponsorship rates aligned with the audience they can deliver to brands.

Gaining a Competitive Edge

Chartable can give podcasters a competitive edge by benchmarking themselves against other podcasts with a number of key features:

Authoritative podcast charts where podcasters can monitor their show’s ranking positions in relevant categories compared to other top podcasts through charts like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Chartable Top 200.
By aggregating data from all major podcast directories and platforms, podcasters can get a comprehensive view of their performance relative to others, meaning a direct competitive comparison.
Chartable provides robust benchmarks for podcasters to measure key metrics like demographics and downloads against the top competitors and publishers.

Who Should Use Chartable?

Podcasters

Podcasters who work by themselves can benefit from Chartable’s analytics and tracking features:

With in-depth data, this audience intelligence means podcasters can deeply understand who their listeners are and tailor their content strategies accordingly.
By tracking metrics like consumption rates and listener feedback, podcasters can identify which specific content resonates most, which guides future episodes and segments.
Chartable’s SmartLinks tool tracks downloads and clicks from promotional links across marketing channels like social media, revealing the most effective audience acquisition sources to optimize marketing efforts.
Podcasters can calculate returns on their monetization efforts with the SmartPromos feature and its Trackable prefix to monitor engagement and downloads driven by host-read ad campaigns and cross-promotions.

Podcast Networks

Networks benefit hugely from Chartable:

Chartable provides a centralized platform for networks to view and analyze performance metrics, enabling the marking of show performance and identifying top performers.
Chartable’s SmartLinks tool tracks which marketing channels and promotional efforts are driving the most new listener acquisition across the network’s shows.
Networks can calculate returns on their monetization efforts with the SmartPromos feature.
By aggregating data across all shows, networks gain visibility into which cross-promotions between their podcasts are the most effective at driving audience growth, informing strategic investments in talent, and advertising across networks.
Chartable aggregates all reviews for every podcast across platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify so networks can effectively monitor feedback across all their content.

Marketers and Advertisers

The podcast promoters can also use Chartable to gain a considerable advantage:

Marketers can calculate the reach, impressions, and effectiveness of their host-read ad buys and sponsorships within a particular podcast using SmartPromos for ad tracking.
Marketers can use SmartLinks to understand which promotional sources and campaigns are most effective at acquiring new listeners for the podcasts they advertise on.
Additionally, Chartable’s brand impact solution connects podcast ad impressions to website visits, purchases, and other conversion events, allowing marketers to directly measure the sales impact and return on their investment from their podcast ad spend.

Podcast Producers

Every aspect of the podcasting world can benefit from Chartable, including the people behind the scenes:

By analyzing episode performance based on key metrics like unique listeners, consumption rates, and listener feedback, podcast producers can identify which specific episodes, topics, segments, or formats resonate most with their audience.
Producers can refine their content strategies and replicate the attributes that drive the highest engagement, like episode length, guest choices, or topic areas.
Using Chartable to gain in-depth insights, podcast producers can leverage content insights through listener demographics like age and gender, as well as behavior patterns across devices.
By tracking metrics such as geographic listener expansion, viral episode performance, and new follower rates, producers can capitalize on emerging growth opportunities and optimize targeted content and marketing strategies.

Chartable In a Nutshell

Understanding your audience is crucial, and Chartable offers a comprehensive range of metrics and benchmarks. This tool provides invaluable feedback for podcast companies, advertising agencies, and solo podcasters.

It’s one of the best tools for understanding podcast analytics and growth, helping you create tailored content to boost your audience, engagement, and ROI. So, check out Chartable today by requesting a demo to see its benefits.