Podcasters and stations are always looking for ways to determine exactly how many people are listening. The fact is that there is no technical way to determine this to the exact number. Godcaster does however have better data than the industry (IAB) standard of only measuring downloads at the podcast hosting company. Our numbers are first party data from the player side (our web players, pwa and the Godcaster app) but this is still only as accurate as we can get based on technical limitations.

We also use the same IAB standard of filtering out suspicious click activity, which will always be a moving target.

Q: Does this metric reflect unique listeners or total actions taken by listeners?

This reflects total actions taken by listeners, not unique listeners.

It includes things like:

• Plays
• Resumes
• Shares
• Support clicks
• Other interactions tied to that program

Q: How should we interpret a higher interaction number for one program compared to another? The Bible Recap and Living on the Edge are really high this month. What should we make of that?

A higher number means more total engagement activity, not necessarily more people.

Specifically, it suggests:

• Listeners are coming back repeatedly
• There is deeper engagement per listener
• The content is resonating strongly right now

For The Bible Recap and Living on the Edge, this likely means:

• Strong listener habits (daily/ongoing engagement)
• High trust + consistent usage
• Possibly stronger promotion or seasonal relevance

In short: these programs aren’t just being sampled—they’re being actively followed and used.

Q: What qualifies as a play in the analytics?

A play is counted when:

• A listener presses play, or
• A session resumes

Q: Is a play counted immediately when someone presses play, or only after a certain amount of listening time?

It is counted immediately upon play or resume

• There is no minimum listening time requirement

Q: Does “Listen Live – The Well LIVE” reflect as a Play by Episode?

Yes

• The live stream is treated as a listening endpoint
• Each listener session contributes to play activity

Q: Does the location represent where the listener is physically located or where their internet service is routed through?

It represents IP-based location (network routing)

• Usually accurate to city/region
• Can be affected by:
  • VPNs
  • Mobile carriers
  • Corporate networks

Q: If someone listens multiple times from the same location, are all plays counted?

Yes

• • Plays are not double counted if the same user clicks play or resumes more than once in an hour timeframe. This is an important distinction. So if a user hits play and pauses 5 times in an hour to a program it is counted only as one play.

Q: If someone listens on multiple devices, will they appear in multiple platform categories?

Yes

Example:

• Phone → Mobile
• Laptop → Desktop

The same person can appear in multiple categories

• This shows device usage distribution, not unique users

Q: What qualifies as a download in the analytics?

A download is a request for the episode file via RSS. It is important to note that this the station's RSS feed, not the individual podcast's RSS feed.

This typically happens when:

• A podcast app fetches an episode
• A user downloads for offline listening

Q: Does a download mean the episode was saved to a device, or could it include automatically downloaded podcast feeds?

It can include both

• Manual downloads
• Automatic downloads from apps like Apple Podcasts

It does not guarantee the episode was listened to

Q: Are downloads tied specifically to The Well player?

Yes

• These downloads are coming from users who are subscribed to the stations RSS feed, thus attributable to the station.

Q: Does this represent the total number of times an episode file was downloaded?

Yes

• It is the total number of file requests/downloads for that episode

Q: Are these downloads specifically tied to The Well player?

Yes.

Q: If a listener downloads an episode more than once, is each counted separately?

Yes

• Each download/request is counted individually

Q: Does this mean they have given or just clicked the Support link?

This means they clicked the Support link

• It does not confirm a donation was completed

Think of this as:

• A high-intent action
• A listener saying: “I’m interested in supporting this”

Q: Is this tracking digital engagement only or is it able to track listener response to the on-air product?

This is digital engagement tracking, not direct over-the-air measurement.

It tracks:

• What listeners do inside the Godcaster environment
  (plays, engagement, support clicks, etc.)

It does not track:

• Traditional broadcast listening (AM/FM)
• Passive over-the-air audience metrics

However (this is the key):

It does track listener response to on-air content when that response happens digitally.

For example, if a listener hears something on-air and then:

• Visits the website
• Clicks “Listen Live”
• Plays an episode
• Clicks “Support”

That action is captured and measured.

How to interpret this:

• On-air = influence (not directly measured)
• Godcaster = response (fully measured)

Bottom line:
This doesn’t measure who heard the broadcast—it measures what people did because of it.