Apple launched its Podcasts Analytics beta in December 2017, much to the delight of data-hungry podcasters who want to better understand show performance.

But did you know Apple offers another, lesser-known tool that can help you measure your podcast marketing?

For example, let’s say you link to your show on Apple Podcasts from your website, and your Facebook page, and your Twitter account, and your Instagram bio, and your email campaigns. How do you know which channels do the best job of driving listeners to your show?

Here’s how we do it at Pacific Content:

Performance Horizon

Like many online retailers, Apple runs an affiliate program. The program is administered by a company called Performance Horizon, and it’s primarily intended to let publishers earn affiliate commissions on iTunes purchases:

The affiliate program provides a unique way for your website or app to link to millions of songs and thousands of apps — as well as books, movies, TV shows and more, while earning commissions on qualifying sales.

But what many people don’t know is that you can also use the affiliate program to make your Apple Podcasts links trackable, which can help you understand which Apple-specific podcast marketing efforts are most effective.

Make your Apple Podcasts links trackable

Here’s a link to Choiceology with Dan Heath on Apple Podcasts:

This link won’t let us know how many people clicked/tapped on it.

But if we add a Performance Horizon affiliate ID (in the form of an at query string parameter), then any clicks will be recorded in our Performance Horizon dashboard:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1337886873?mt=2&at=1010lbVy

We can take this even further by including a campaign tag (as a ct value) to attribute clicks to specific marketing efforts:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1337886873?mt=2&at=1010lbVy&ct=schwab_pccmedium

The ct parameter can be any arbitrary text you choose, but it cannot exceed 40 characters, and cannot include ? / or &. Here are a few ideas for campaign names:

• Use email-newsletter20180329 to track clicks from a specific email blast
• Use website-applepodcastsbadge to track clicks from the official Apple Podacsts badge on your website
• Use website-applepodcaststextlink to track clicks from a companion text link on your website
• Use email-misenersignature for the link in your email signature

By using a distinct campaign tag for each method of promoting your podcast, you can compare which channels are most effective at driving traffic to Apple:

You can use this click data to correlate Apple-specific marketing efforts with all sorts of things, including movement on the charts. This is how Pacific Content learned that driving meaningful traffic to Apple can impact a show’s chart position:

Remember

• The Apple Affiliate Program is primarily intended for publishers to earn affiliate income, but podcasters can also use it to track the performance of their marketing efforts.
• You can use Performance Horizon data to compare podcast marketing channels (social, email, website) and campaigns against each other.
• For paid social, you can use Performance Horizon click data to sanity-check reporting from Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Once you discover which channels are most effective at driving traffic to your show on Apple, pour gas on them 🔥
• You can sign up for Apple’s Affiliate Program here.

Sign up for the Pacific Content Newsletter: audio strategy, analysis, and insight in your inbox. Once a week.