In this episode of the analytics series, Ed Barker, founder of Studio 1878, takes on the question that haunts almost every branded podcast project before a single episode is recorded: how do you prove the ROI?
The tension between creative ambition and business accountability is real, but measuring a podcast strictly like a performance ad, chasing direct attribution and conversion, tends to produce something transactional, short-lived, and not worth listening to. The episode makes the case for treating a podcast as brand infrastructure: a compounding asset that builds trust, accelerates pipelines, and supports retention over time. That framing changes what you measure and how. A practical framework is outlined for tracking success in a way that satisfies business accountability without stripping out the human quality that makes a show worth coming back to.
