Ah, the age-old question in podcasting. Is there an ideal time to publish your podcast? Yes and no. The answer can depend on a few different factors and every answer can be different for different podcasts. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. But be careful not to get too bogged down in details and put off actually posting!
You want to keep these things in mind when deciding when to publish your show: Whether or not you want to monetize, who your audience is, and your own schedule. Each of these factors can help you determine when the best time to publish your podcast is for you.
Monetization in the Mix
An important question to ask yourself is whether or not you plan to monetize your podcast. If you do plan on monetizing, especially through ads, then the best time to launch your podcast is in early Autumn. It’s also an excellent time to re-launch your show, start a new season, or even migrate to a new hosting platform.
Why? Well, early Autumn is when both Programmatic Ads and Host-Read opportunities start to increase, at least in our experience. Brands have spent the summer planning their strategies for the end-of-year holidays and execution time is looming closer. (We’re on that Christmas creep, after all.) Podcasts often see a bump in revenue in the last few months of the year thanks to all of this advertising spend.
If you’re looking to monetize your podcast, then joining a new hosting platform or re-launching a new season in Autumn is the way to go!
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Think About Your Listener
A great way to understand when, and how often, to publish episodes for your podcast is to tap into your audience. Who are they? What do their routines look like? When are they choosing to tune into podcasts? Getting to the heart of these questions will help you to determine the prime time upload episodes.
RedCircle’s analytics can help you to find answers to those questions. (It’s even covered in our blog here!) Using our analytics, you can know exactly what time of day folks are listening to your show, what day of the week, and where in the world they’re listening from.
Additionally, think about the type of content you’re creating. Is it for working professionals? Or perhaps for college students? Are they listening to your show on the way to work or class? When would that be? Whoever your audience is, there’s a time and place that they prefer when they listen to your show. You can use an abundance of clues to figure out the optimal time for posting.
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Don’t Forget Your Own Schedule
Knowing the habits of Advertisers and Listeners alike can most certainly help you to determine when to launch, re-launch, or migrate your show. But only you know when you have the capacity to put in the effort to grow your podcast. Consistency is absolutely key to growth, but be mindful not to overcommit and burn yourself out trying to pump out podcast episodes. Attempting to adhere to a schedule that just doesn’t work for you will end up hurting you in the long run.
We say it because it’s true; podcasting is an exciting endeavor! But there are always questions you may not expect as you begin to dive deeper and deeper into the medium. Understanding these key points will help you to know when to publish your podcast and continue on your journey to success!