At Pacific Content, we get a lot of questions about the Apple Podcasts charts. Apple’s charts are perhaps the most-watched public-facing measure of podcast success, yet they’re among the most misunderstood.

Over the past two years, we’ve learned a lot by correlating chart performance with Apple-specific marketing efforts. Here’s everything we’ve learned…. plus a surefire way to help your show reach the top of the list.

The Apple Podcast charts are designed for discovery

The exact algorithm is secret, but the charts’ purpose is to help listeners find new shows to listen to. To that end, Apple’s algorithm values recency and “hotness.”

Apple updates the charts frequently

Roughly once an hour, give or take. Websites like iTunesCharts.net can help you see historical chart data, but many of these sites take a daily snapshot, and don’t reflect the reality of hour-to-hour changes.

Each territory has it own set of charts

The US charts are different from the Canadian charts, which are different from the Brazilian charts. Apple publishes a list of territories on its website, and you can easily switch between territories in iTunes by clicking the circular flag in the bottom right corner:

A single show can appear on multiple charts simultaneously

But only if those charts belong to nested subcategories. For instance, Hackable? is listed in Tech News, which is a subcategory of Technology, which is a category under All Podcasts. This makes Hackable? eligible to chart in three categories at once:

All Podcasts
  Technology
    Tech News

Apple lists supported categories on their website. To increase your chances of charting, choose a subcategory (rather than a top-level category) as your primary <itunes:category>.

Apple’s charts only reflect activity within Apple’s ecosystem

Apple can only reliably track what happens on its own apps (iOS Podcasts and iTunes). Your show might get a lot of listener activity on other platforms (Pocket Casts, Overcast, CastBox, Spotify, your website, etc.) but that activity will not impact the Apple Podcast charts.

The Apple Podcast charts are available programmatically

To access a JSON or XML feed of top podcasts, use Apple’s RSS Generator tool.

Appearing on the Apple Podcast charts can kick off a virtuous cycle

The top charts are prominently displayed in Apple’s apps. Shows that make it to the Top 10 of a category often stay there, thanks to a positive feedback loop.

For example, take Hackable?, which quickly entered the Technology Top 10 at launch, and remained there for most of August and September 2017:

The best way to appear in the Apple Podcast charts is to send Apple valuable traffic

“Valuable traffic” is traffic that results in meaningful, measurable listener activity within Apple’s apps.

Want to chart on Apple Podcasts? Send traffic directly to Apple. Include a clear CTA in your marketing copy. Make it easy for people to listen and subscribe on Apple’s platform, and you’ll be rewarded for it.

At Pacific Content, we’ve learned that the more useful traffic your send to Apple, the higher you chart.

For instance, look at IRL: Because Online Life Is Real Life. Every time Mozilla sends a burst of traffic to Apple from an email campaign or in-app message, IRL rises in the charts:

Or look at the launch of Command Line Heroes in mid-January 2018:

These graphs illustrate one of the reasons we love working with brands. When brands use their paid, owned, and earned channels to drive news listeners towards a creatively brave podcast series, they can rapidly build a loyal audience.

In a world where the majority of Americans have never listened to a podcast, brands are uniquely positioned to help more people discover the medium.

Remember

• The Apple Podcast charts are designed as a discovery mechanism, and chart position is driven by meaningful engagement on Apple’s platforms
• The most surefire way to gain traction on the Apple Podcast charts is to send useful traffic to Apple. Use Apple’s Link Maker tool to generate links and badges for your social accounts, website, and email campaigns.

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