Podcast Power-Up: Discover How Apple’s Fresh Tools Amplify Your Content on Apple Podcasts!

Linkfire’s robust marketing capabilities allow creators to simply track their subscribers’ reactions to premium content and expand their fan bases.

Image: Apple

Apple has released three improvements for podcasters in an effort to expand their listeners and revenue streams.

Subscription analytics

Creators may monitor the activity of their premium Apple Podcasts subscribers with the help of subscription statistics in Apple Podcasts Connect.

When a creator chooses a subscription from the revamped Analytics tab, the Overview tab displays information about the number of free trial signups, the number of paid subscriptions, the percentage of free trial signups who convert to paid subscriptions, and the estimated revenue generated by the selected subscription. In addition to seeing subscription numbers overall, creators can see those numbers broken down by country/region and by membership type (monthly vs. annual). Real-time metrics for certain time periods, such as the last 30 days or the prior month, can be viewed by filtering the relevant modules.

The Trends tab provides creators with a robust visualisation tool that allows them to examine the success of their subscriptions over time and with different filters. The Trends tab provides a visual breakdown of subscribers by Subscription Status, such as the percentage of subscribers who are in their first year versus those who have been paying for more than a year. Subscription Events like Activations, Cancellations, and Renewals can all be viewed under the Trends tab, and the Creator may also filter Sales under the Trends tab by Subscription Duration to view the expected split of revenue between monthly and annual memberships.

Every Apple Podcasts Connect creator with at least one subscriber with an Admin, Finance, or Legal role can access subscription metrics as of right now. All creators and shows still have access to listening data, and creators can download subscription reports from the data tab.

New Delegated Delivery partners

Image: Apple

Delegated Delivery was introduced in January with the debut of Apple Podcasts, allowing creators to push out episodes to subscribers without ever having to leave the control panel of their hosting service. Currently, Triton Digital’s Omny Studio utilises Delegated Delivery to publish over half of their new subscription episodes to Apple Podcasts.

The following hosting companies have committed to implementing support for Delegated Delivery by the end of the year, and we’re happy to announce it today:

• Audiomeans
• Captivate
• Podbean
• Podspace
• Transistor

Delegated Delivery is now supported on Podbean. Creators using these services should get in touch with them to find out more about Apple Podcasts Subscriptions and releasing episodes for subscribers.

Linkfire for Podcasts

This fall, Linkfire, the marketing platform used by the industry’s most prominent artists and record companies, will launch a dedicated podcasting toolkit that has a unique interface with Apple Podcasts.

Linkfire* accounts allow creators to establish an infinite number of smart links to landing sites for their podcasts, allowing them to track how their audience interacts with the content while protecting their listeners’ anonymity. These sites, which can be set up in minutes and are compatible with any device, are meant to lead Apple Podcasts users to the shows and subscriptions they enjoy. In addition to promoting their shows on their own apps, creators can also promote them on other platforms, websites, and events.

The Linkfire Insights dashboard will allow authors to track metrics like anonymous visitors and click-through rates in real time for all of their links and sites. New engagement insights, such as whether a user has listened to an episode or followed a program on Apple Podcasts, are made available to producers as users visit Apple Podcasts through these pages. Creators who are part of the Apple Podcasts Affiliate Program and who provide Apple Podcasts Subscriptions can use their affiliate token to track signups, purchases, and earnings from their affiliate links.

To preserve user privacy, these top-tier insights are aggregated and anonymised before being displayed across links and time periods, but they nevertheless provide the ability to confidently attribute success to a given channel, campaign, or promotion. Linkfire for Podcasts enables producers to track the success of limited subscription offers, digital ads, and cross-promotions in audio.

“Linkfire for Podcasts is an absolute game-changer for podcast marketing,” stated Jeppe Faurfelt, co-founder and chief content officer of Linkfire. In a statement, Apple Podcasts said, “Linkfire for Podcasts delivers all-new engagement insights that unlock new marketing capabilities for creators while respecting listener privacy through our exclusive partnership with Apple Podcasts.” We can’t wait to see how podcasters use this cutting-edge toolkit to spread the word about their programs.

This fall, all creators and shows throughout the world will have free access to Linkfire. Linkfire for Podcasts has a monthly subscription option that unlocks more features for $9.99. Visit linkfire.com/podcasts for additional information and to sign up for an email alert when Linkfire for Podcasts is released.

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