I have a simple question: 

How do you learn what audiences think about your podcast, video, branded content or ad campaign?

Here’s the simple answer: 

You ask them.

That’s not just simple, but so logical and straightforward you’d think we could stop there. So, why am I writing about it?

First, it still surprises me how many creators, publishers and brands would rather read tea leaves than go to the source. Whether it’s an advertiser trying to gauge brand awareness by checking site visits or a podcaster obsessing about download numbers and Apple Podcasts ratings, I see so many doing everything to measure their success but surveying their audience. I’m not saying that stats like web landings and downloads aren’t important – what I am saying is that they don’t tell you what a listener or customer thinks about your show or brand.

Second, I find there is often a narrow view of surveys, that they’re only good for one or two things — like the annoying “how did we do today” survey you get every time you set foot in your neighborhood drug store. In fact, surveys are a powerful tool for understanding audience and consumer sentiment, with the opportunity to dig deeply into why and how real people engage with your content or brand – and for measuring the return on your investment. 

One of the most effective ways to survey audiences is through direct appeal, reaching out personally to listeners, readers or viewers, asking them to participate. We do this dozens of times a year at Signal Hill Insights, gathering insights from thousands of people.  We call this our “CTA” method because we use a “call-to-action” just like an advertiser would – only instead of making a purchase, we’re asking consumers to take a survey. 

What we love about the CTA method is that it allows us to connect with audiences  who were organically exposed to ads or content, with no intermediary. 

Here are four applications to put this powerful tool to work.

Audience Surveys for Demographics

When you survey your audience using a CTA, you get first party data. This is fundamentally more accurate than third party data – trying to match identifiers to large datasets – no matter how good that third party is. You can learn, direct from the source, their age, gender, and other information about their consumer behavior and preferences. This is all information that a podcaster or creator can use to help match with advertisers and sponsors, all while providing a more granular picture of that audience. 

This case study offers an example of how Red Hat took full advantage of listener surveys to gain more information on their audience and optimize their brand’s podcasts. 

Audience Surveys for Content Testing

But you’re not limited to demographics. A survey is a great opportunity to get unvarnished feeback about what audiences think about your podcast or content, learn how they discovered it, get more context around their overall media diet, and see where yours fits in. You can discover how to better serve existing listeners, viewers or readers, while also testing out ideas for new formats, segments, topics or guests. 

Most important, a well crafted CTA survey can help you zero in on why your most active audience chooses to spend time with your content over the endless variety of options no more than a click away. This is particularly crucial in a hyper-fragmented niche environment like podcasts. 

What is it about your podcast that sets it apart from all the other podcasts on the same topic? By understanding that, you can not only fine-tune what’s working and what’s not, but also get guidance on how to make your podcast stand out from the herd in your marketing. 

Taking this one step further, you can also invite your audience to offer their feedback on a moment-by-moment basis, giving you forensic insights on how your content is performing.

Pre-Post Audience Surveys for Brand Lift and Impact

Whenever practical, advertisers prefer measuring the ROI of their campaigns based upon the organic action and feedback that comes directly from audiences and consumers. While that’s a goal, the real world is more complicated, especially with growing public concern over privacy and the concomitant rise of legislation. 

CTA brand studies – sometimes called “pre-post” studies – fulfill that goal of direct metrics while sidestepping many privacy concerns. These surveys are opt-in – nobody accidentally takes a survey. Listeners, readers and viewers have complete control and choice to participate or not, and can decide what they’re willing to share. 

The brand metrics obtained from a customized CTA survey provide a clear view on how well consumers understood and remembered your campaign, along with how it impacted their opinion of your brand and their intent to take action.

Audience Surveys for Branded Content Measurement

Branded content is opt-in, just like a CTA survey. Unlike a traditional ad that interrupts the content, the audience chooses the branded content they consume. That’s the reason well-constructed branded podcasts or creator partnerships perform so well and are top-of-mind for content marketers and CMOs. 

But measuring their impact is a challenge with traditional digital methods like attribution, because the best examples of branded content are focused on upper funnel measures, building awareness, favorability and consideration rather than driving conversion. 

A direct audience survey taps into those measuresfrom organically exposed consumers, the audiences that choose your content and engage with your brand and its ambassadors. 

 Why is it valuable to work with a third-party market researcher on your survey?

I often tell clients that it’s easy to design a survey to get the results you want. It’s harder to design one that gives you the results you need.

That’s because the biggest threat to valid survey results is bias. It comes in a lot of forms, but one of the most sneaky and pernicious is the bias of researchers themselves. No matter how hard you might try, it’s difficult not to have hopes and expectations for the results, and that can accidentally seep into the design of your questions. A neutral third-party will help you avoid that trap and provide results that stand up to scrutiny, while bringing time-tested best practices to the table. 

And there are practical concerns to keep in mind. It’s important to understand the role of sample size to be sure that your results are generalizable, and determine if they’re reliable rather than random. Also, even though the vast majority of survey respondents are genuine and honest, inevitably there are a few who aren’t so focused, thoughtful or serious. 

Experienced market researchers know the signs to look for to be sure your sample is clean and the results are significant, so that advertisers, brands and other partners have the assurance that your data is stable and trustworthy. 

How can audience surveys serve your needs and objectives? We’d love to help you figure this out.