My listener analytics seems off

Reviewed How Castos' Analytics Work but still think your analytics seem off?

Listener Behavior

Listener/follower behavior can change over time.

A more notable example for this is when listeners stop auto-downloading episodes either on purpose (like switching to a different podcast app where its not an option or they just don't re-enable it) or with an app update (such as with Apple Podcasts and iOS17). When an episode is auto-downloaded, it's counted as a "listen" even if the person didn't actually press play, so if they're no longer auto-downloading, it may take them longer to actually listen to the episode.

Inconsistent episode releases can also affect listener behavior. We recommend releasing episodes with a regular cadence and if there will be a large break in between two episodes, provide a heads up in the last episode or in the show notes of the last episode that you'll be back with new episodes at X time. This way your followers and potential followers will know that you'll be back and you haven't abandoned the podcast.

Differences between Castos Analytics and those shown in Apple Podcasts Connect or other directory-specific analytics dashboard

Because Castos can only track the file of the episode and the access source, we might not be able to match exactly what the directory apps can track themselves as it's their app being used to manipulate the file. Also the definition of a Play or Listen or Download can vary from place to place. So your Apple Podcasts-specific listens that Castos has aggregated may be slightly different than what Apple Podcasts Connect considers a listen. See How Castos' Analytics Work shares how we consider a listen.

Missing analytics

If your analytics are showing 0 listens, it's possible there hasn't been a listen that met our criteria for what we consider a listen for that time-frame or they haven't aggregated yet. If it looks like your recent analytics haven't updated yet, it can take up to 24-hours for a days analytics to fully aggregate and appear on your dashboard, though usually it's much sooner. If it's been more than 24 hours and your Analytics dashboard hasn't updated, reach out to us in support and we'll be happy to take a further look for you.

Third-party Analytics tracking

There are third-party analytics tracking services are available, such as OP3.dev (open-source and free) and PodTrac where you simply add a media prefix to your enclosure URL (see: Add a media prefix for third-party analytics tracking). Since they track and aggregate differently from us (and other podcast hosts) your numbers may be slightly different but not wildly different.

2024 Castos Analytics Changes

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