Why You Need a Podcast Audience Survey (and How to Make One)

Photo by Carlos Arthur M.R on Unsplash

I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t run my first podcast audience survey until two and a half years after my first show launched. I knew it was something bigger shows did, but I didn’t really get why it was important until a potential sponsor asked for our audience’s average age. I said something like, “Uhhhh, probably mid-20s, but I don’t really know.” Later that afternoon, I started drafting our first survey.

Audience surveys empower podcasters to make better shows, earn more money, and build stronger relationships with listeners. The data you gather from a survey will help you:

• Figure out where to book live shows
• Get better sponsors for your audience
• Refine your podcast content, structure, and release schedule
• Build trust with your audience by showing them you want to learn from them
• Hear from your fans because they’re awesome and will probably say sweet/smart things

Learn from my mistakes and create a survey that tells you exactly what you need to know. Let’s go!

Writing Your Survey Content

The best way to get useful results is to design your survey thoughtfully. Before we jump into exactly what the questions will look like, take a few moments to jot down what you hope to learn in your audience survey. Ask yourself:

• What do you want to know about your listeners? Demographics like age, gender, and location are commonplace, but what about the percentage of your audience that identifies as artists/creators?
• What assumptions have you made about your listeners’ preferences that you’d like to test? I worried that listeners would be annoyed if we increased the frequency of the monthly Spirits Urban Legends miniseries, which have a looser structure than regular episodes. But it turns out most survey respondents would prefer more of those episodes, not less.
• What would you like to brag about? I love to share with potential sponsors that 98% of our survey respondents “usually listen to the entire episode” of the Multitude shows they subscribe to.

Once you have a list of information you’d like to know, start to draft your questions. Be sure to do this in a text document, since we’ll be re-ordering these questions in the next section to help get the best results.

These are the topics I suggest you cover in your questions:

Age

Either provide age ranges or a list of numbers. Learn from my mistakes: don’t use a text entry field where people can type their own answers! Processing all those entries was a PAIN.

Location

Country, state, and closest metro area. You can pull a list of countries, states, and major metropolitan areas online, or let people type in their own answers. We went with two questions, firstly, “Do you live in the U.S.?” If yes, people were prompted to select from a list of metro areas. If not, they were asked to select from a list of countries.

Content Feedback

It was terrifying to include these questions on our survey, but I’m so glad I did. It made me feel much more secure in our editorial instincts to learn that most of our listeners answered “just right” to questions I was worried about. Some examples: Does our show come out too frequently or not enough? Are episodes too long or too short? Are there too few guest episodes or too many?

Be sure to include a text entry field at the bottom of the “Content Feedback page” where people can leave longer comments and ideas while they’re thinking about the show!

Listening Habits

This is a great opportunity to brag about your audience to potential sponsors, so gather information to support your strengths.

Ask questions like: How soon do you listen to new episodes? Do you usually finish the whole episode? Do you listen to the other shows on our network? What are your other favorite podcasts? Is there a specific day of the week that you wish more podcasts released on? Do you use our transcripts?

Sponsor Habits

An active audience is a great selling point for sponsors. Ask if your listeners have ever ever bought a sponsor’s product or checked out a sponsor’s website after hearing about it on your show. You can also help focus your search for sponsors by asking what kinds of products they’re interested in. Include a text entry field here, too, for sponsor suggestions or feedback you didn’t think to ask for.

Many of our listeners living outside the U.S. used this space to ask for more sponsors with digital products or free international shipping. Now I am sure to search for more sponsors that meet those criteria — and I can use this proof of demand among listeners as another selling point for our shows.

Financial Support

If you use a service like Patreon to get direct support from fans, ask if the survey respondent supports you: Yes, No (but I’d like to), No (but I used to), No (I didn’t know about it). Include a space for people to add additional context. And if you don’t use Patreon yet, ask if people would support you, how much they’d want to give, and what kind of benefits they’d like to see.

Future Planning

What do listeners want to see from you in the future? Ask for suggestions on topics, guests, sponsors, or anything else you could use help searching for.

• If you’re debating what your next project will be, ask what people want to see!
• Would they rather you produce a new show, or more of this one?
• Would they love to see you try videos or streaming?
• What kind of merch would they like to buy?
• Would they rather see new merch or more live shows?

Even if you’re not sure if or when you want to add to your workload, you can use this opportunity to gauge demand.

Structuring Your Survey

After you draft your list of questions, take a break! Return a day or two later to edit them and add or remove questions as needed. Group them by subject matter, starting with the questions you care about the most. Some people may drop off in the middle of the survey, so front-load with the most important ones.

I asked Matt Healy, co-founder of the survey tool Iterate, for some tips on survey content. He said, “Ask one question per question. For example, “Would you recommend our show to parents and teachers?” should either be split into two questions or focused on whichever segment is more important to you.”

Matt also suggests asking a couple of open-ended questions, but choosing them wisely: “You’ll probably have enough of people’s attention to ask them two great freeform questions. That’s where the big surprises will come from, so make them good!” The last question of our Multitude survey was extremely open-ended (“Anything else to tell us?”), and yielded the best and most surprising answers of the whole survey. We included a picture of the team on this last page, which (accidentally!) encouraged people to share personal stories, kind feedback, and creative ideas for making our collective stronger.

Once you are happy with your questions, it’s time to build your survey!

Setting Up Your Survey

My survey tool of choice is Iterate, which has a robust free version and additional features on paid plans. You will never regret having the option to put emojis in your questions.

Regardless of which survey platform you choose, keep in mind these best practices on survey setup:

• Make your introduction personal. Your listeners are taking time out of their day to help you succeed, so thank them! Tell them why you’re doing this and what you hope to learn.
• Include a realistic estimate about the time required in the introduction. Saying up front that your survey will take 10 minutes to complete may deter some, but underestimating the time required can cause frustration.
• Have your friends test your survey. Ask them if anything is confusing, misspelled, or in the wrong question format (ex: using a single-choice format when the respondent wants to check multiple boxes).
• Use a URL shortener like bit.ly to create a pronounceable link for you to read on your show and share on social.

Then all you have to do is share your link! Make sure to mention the survey on your podcast, promoting it at least three times over 2–4 weeks. When making calls-to-action on my shows, I always imagine listeners are washing dishes in a comically sudsy sink. If they can’t write down or click on anything in the moment, will they remember what I asked them to do when they’re finished cleaning? To make sure, I am always sure to use an easy-to-remember link, repeat my CTA twice, and give listeners a reason why this is important.

Learning From Your Results

After running your survey for at least 30 days, it’s time to put your data to use!

The dashboard of your survey provider is the best place to start understanding your results. If this looks overwhelming, start by reading through the responses to your open-ended questions. Then take a look at the graphs your survey platform provides, which make multiple-choice or check-box formats much easier to parse. You can also export your data in a CSV file and open it in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets for greater control over how you sort and analyze your data.

Go through your results by section. Write down observations you make in a text document, grouped by section. If you have a team, carve out some time to meet and go over the results. If you’re working solo, jot down ideas you have next to the relevant data point. Underline or rank the most important ones so you’re not overwhelmed by a long list of things to do.

Here are some potential uses for your data:

• Add demographic data and sponsorship behaviors to your sponsorship pitch deck.
• Include quotes (anonymously, or attributed with permission) in your press kit or on your website.
• Make a plan for implementing suggestions you’re excited about (new episode formats, additional merch, live shows, etc.)
• Share high-level observations with your audience, who are probably just as curious about their peers as you are.

Good Luck!

I hope this information equips you to make smart and impactful decisions for your podcast. Let me know how your survey goes!

Thank you to Matt Healy for his survey best practices, to Eric Silver for editing, and to my Multitude colleagues for helping make our first survey a success.

Amanda McLoughlin is a podcaster and business builder. She created Multitude, an independent podcast collective and consultancy based in New York City. Reach her via Twitter or email, and check out Multitude’s resources for podcasters here.

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