Getting Reviewed: The Importance of Ratings and Reviews (and How to Ask for Them)

The power of podcast reviews and discovery

In this episode of The Podcast Cave, we discuss why reviews and ratings are essential for any content creator. While it is easy to assume that five star ratings are just for a creator’s ego, the reality is far more practical. Ratings serve as a critical signal to platforms like Spotify and Youtube that a piece of content is high quality, which directly influences discoverability and determines whether the algorithm will recommend the show to new listeners.

Why engagement matters for creators and listeners

The team explores the different ways audiences can interact with content across various platforms. On Youtube, users primarily use the thumbs up or thumbs down system, while Spotify utilises a five star rating scale. Beyond just boosting the algorithm, comments provide a vital feedback loop. Carl highlights that listening to audience feedback is necessary to sharpen content and steer future generations toward what the audience actually wants to hear. 

Psychological factors and viewer behaviour

There is a distinct psychological element to how potential listeners choose what to watch. If a platform recommends a new show, a user is significantly more likely to engage with it if it already has high ratings and a large community. However, most listeners are naturally apathetic and unlikely to leave a review unless prompted. Interestingly, people are often quicker to leave an angry comment than a positive one, making it even more important for creators to actively encourage their happy supporters to speak up.

Strategies to encourage interaction

To combat listener apathy, we suggest several strategies:

  • incentivise interaction through competitions or surveys.a
  • ask specific, strategic questions rather than generic calls to action.
  • use subtle visual cues, such as banners or straps, throughout the video.
  • prompt for reviews midway through the episode before listeners bail at the end.

Ultimately, sharing an episode with friends or a professional network is considered the highest form of engagement. By being transparent about why these interactions matter, creators can invite their audience to help grow the show together.

EP 40_v2.txt

English (US)

 

01:00:03.480 — 01:00:18.120 · Speaker 1

If you enjoy our show about heaven left us a review. You are officially a ghost listener. Welcome to the podcast cave. I’m joined today by Jan and Carl. Hello. Um, Jan, why do I care about reviews? Why should I care about reviews and ratings?

 

01:00:18.160 — 01:00:20.000 · Speaker 2

It’s actually not for your ego.

 

01:00:20.520 — 01:00:21.560 · Speaker 3

I thought it was.

 

01:00:21.600 — 01:00:23.800 · Speaker 2

No, although I mean it. It’s not.

 

01:00:23.800 — 01:00:25.120 · Speaker 4

It’s pretty good when you get a five star.

 

01:00:25.160 — 01:00:46.400 · Speaker 2

It’s nice. Um, no, it’s actually quite important to get reviews or ratings and to ask for them, because that is how the platform knows that your piece of content is good enough to show to other people. So it’s about discoverability.

 

01:00:46.640 — 01:00:51.360 · Speaker 1

All right. Do you have any feelings on that call or is it fully ego related for you?

 

01:00:53.280 — 01:01:28.190 · Speaker 4

No, I shouldn’t be funny. Um, no, it’s it is important, but not I think it goes beyond that is it’s not just ratings. It’s listening to the people that’s watched. Your podcast is really important to steer the content generation and sharpening of your content to attract even bigger audience. Yeah, so that’s really important.

 

So reviews are really great, and it’s obviously if I’ve got five podcasts to pick from and there’s one that’s five stars and the one’s there’s a one star.

 

01:01:28.230 — 01:01:28.830 · Speaker 3

Yes.

 

01:01:29.190 — 01:01:30.750 · Speaker 4

I’m hitting the five star first.

 

01:01:30.790 — 01:01:31.230 · Speaker 3

Yes. Yeah.

 

01:01:31.270 — 01:02:03.930 · Speaker 2

So I think there’s some psychology here for the the people that are viewing your content and haven’t heard of you before. So if you have been recommended by the platform. So if you go on Spotify or YouTube and you see something in your feed that you’ve never followed yourself, yeah, it’s been recommended by that platform.

 

If it’s got very low ratings, you’re less likely to watch it. You know, there’s that that feeling of belonging if you join a group.

 

01:02:04.170 — 01:02:05.350 · Speaker 3

Of a.

 

01:02:05.350 — 01:02:08.009 · Speaker 2

Thousand other people that really love a podcast.

 

01:02:08.690 — 01:02:14.850 · Speaker 1

How what platforms have what kind of ratings and ways to review your rates?

 

01:02:14.890 — 01:02:30.570 · Speaker 2

So on all of them or most of them, you can leave a comment as a viewer, which is obviously tremendously valuable for that. That channel for the reason you’ve just given call where you’re getting that feedback from the listener.

 

01:02:30.610 — 01:02:30.770 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:02:30.770 — 01:02:32.290 · Speaker 1

So you could act on the feedback.

 

01:02:32.330 — 01:02:32.770 · Speaker 3

Exactly.

 

01:02:33.130 — 01:02:59.450 · Speaker 2

You know, and then on the other side of things, there’s the Spotify rating and the thumbs up that you will give a piece of content on YouTube. Those feedback into the algorithm in terms of how popular a piece of content is. And the more popular a piece of content is that that’s sort of the feedback that you are giving.

 

The algorithm is that that algorithm should share that further.

 

01:02:59.690 — 01:02:59.970 · Speaker 3

Okay.

 

01:03:00.010 — 01:03:03.170 · Speaker 2

So you want both, but for different reasons.

 

01:03:03.480 — 01:03:05.640 · Speaker 1

And Spotify. Is that a rating out.

 

01:03:05.640 — 01:03:05.920 · Speaker 3

Of.

 

01:03:06.200 — 01:03:09.240 · Speaker 1

Five? And YouTube is just a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

 

01:03:09.280 — 01:03:09.720 · Speaker 3

Yes.

 

01:03:09.760 — 01:03:11.240 · Speaker 1

Okay. And both have comments.

 

01:03:11.280 — 01:03:11.760 · Speaker 3

Correct.

 

01:03:11.760 — 01:03:17.720 · Speaker 1

So it’s a pretty easy thing to do if you enjoy someone’s content is to just what do they say? Smash that like button.

 

01:03:17.760 — 01:03:18.360 · Speaker 3

Yes.

 

01:03:18.400 — 01:03:20.080 · Speaker 1

Like comment and subscribe.

 

01:03:20.200 — 01:03:20.720 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:03:21.120 — 01:03:28.040 · Speaker 1

Uh, so yeah, if you guys do see videos that you like, it does really, really help to rate it.

 

01:03:28.120 — 01:03:28.600 · Speaker 3

Mhm.

 

01:03:29.120 — 01:03:34.399 · Speaker 2

I would like to just say though that the average listener is

 

01:03:36.320 — 01:03:38.240 · Speaker 2

not going to do that.

 

01:03:38.280 — 01:03:38.840 · Speaker 1

I’m guilty.

 

01:03:38.840 — 01:03:42.240 · Speaker 3

Of that. Yes. Really we’re quite apathetic. Yeah.

 

01:03:42.280 — 01:04:16.940 · Speaker 2

Um, you know that that sort of scroll mechanism now is so built in. I mean, we saw this tremendously in Facebook, the drop off of the lack of a piece of content. It you know, now we look at whether or not it’s been delivered into the feed and has someone scrolled past it, and we’re just happy if that’s happened.

 

So I do think that There are some techniques that you should employ as a podcaster in order to get people to comment. Um, or Rachel show. Um, because in general,

 

01:04:18.100 — 01:04:25.740 · Speaker 2

the problem is, in general, we don’t rate highly the content we enjoy, but we’re very quick.

 

01:04:25.980 — 01:04:26.420 · Speaker 3

To.

 

01:04:26.460 — 01:04:30.580 · Speaker 2

To, to angrily write something. And so you want to try and stay ahead of that.

 

01:04:30.620 — 01:04:30.820 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:04:31.300 — 01:04:46.060 · Speaker 4

But I think the opposite is also true. I think there’s certain types of audiences that will rather give a commentary to things they like, and not watch what they don’t like.

 

01:04:46.100 — 01:04:47.020 · Speaker 2

Oh, right. Yeah.

 

01:04:47.060 — 01:05:18.650 · Speaker 4

So so I think it also really depends on the type of content. You’ve got to decide for yourself what you want to encourage your audience to do in that comment section. Yeah. Is it there to clarify the content that you’ve just shared? Is it there to help you improve the channel? Is it there to see how big you can grow your ego?

 

Right? And that’s how you steal your audience to interact with you. So if we want comments about how do we improve then we must ask for those comments.

 

01:05:18.690 — 01:05:41.930 · Speaker 2

And I think unfortunately, it’s much more difficult to get that kind of feedback than to get simple feedback like, hey, what’s your opinion on a simple topic? A people love to give their opinion, but they’re less likely to go, oh, you know, I really liked what you did in the first two minutes of your episode, but then it got boring.

 

01:05:42.130 — 01:05:53.410 · Speaker 1

I think potentially if you ask for it, you’re more likely to get it. Also, I think we talked about podcasts being very neat, like if your audience is niche, I think there’s much more. There’s a higher chance of engagement.

 

01:05:53.450 — 01:05:53.730 · Speaker 3

Yes.

 

01:05:53.770 — 01:05:55.810 · Speaker 1

And less trolls.

 

01:05:56.210 — 01:05:56.650 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:05:56.690 — 01:06:00.490 · Speaker 1

Because the content should be appearing on people’s feeds that actually want to see it.

 

01:06:00.530 — 01:06:01.090 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:06:01.130 — 01:06:13.110 · Speaker 1

Um, so I think you touched on it earlier that we used to be all stoked with larks and things on Facebook. I think because of just the throwaway nature of that now, it’s become much more focused on like engagement and.

 

01:06:13.110 — 01:06:14.190 · Speaker 3

Things like that.

 

01:06:14.470 — 01:06:22.190 · Speaker 1

Um, so I think leaving a comment as the alt is, is a really good way to show appreciation and to share something is the ultimate.

 

01:06:22.230 — 01:06:22.830 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:06:22.950 — 01:07:03.230 · Speaker 2

So I think that a, a viewer wants to reciprocate when they feel like they are getting great value. Right. So there’s no way for me to say thank you to someone on, on Instagram who’s an influencer that I love to follow it. Right. But what I could do is I could comment on all of their posts and like all of their posts.

 

Like, that’s my way of kind of like giving back. So I think if you can just consider when you’re a creator, consider the value of your content, is it really valuable because then there is a likelihood that someone will reciprocate?

 

01:07:03.550 — 01:07:03.870 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:07:03.910 — 01:07:06.470 · Speaker 2

And and and their way of saying thank you will be to.

 

01:07:06.510 — 01:07:08.100 · Speaker 3

Raise or if that works.

 

01:07:08.100 — 01:07:16.780 · Speaker 1

Quite well with the last episode about AI is are you likely to say good job to a robot? Great content robot man, that was awesome.

 

01:07:16.820 — 01:07:19.300 · Speaker 4

Are you still hung up on the AI episode?

 

01:07:20.100 — 01:07:21.660 · Speaker 1

Just seemed relevant.

 

01:07:22.740 — 01:07:23.340 · Speaker 4

Can’t keep.

 

01:07:23.340 — 01:07:24.340 · Speaker 3

The AI.

 

01:07:24.660 — 01:07:28.900 · Speaker 1

So Jen was saying who cares about AI? Now you’re saying your content’s got to be valuable?

 

01:07:29.020 — 01:07:30.620 · Speaker 3

Yeah, look at me.

 

01:07:30.660 — 01:07:31.540 · Speaker 2

Look at me.

 

01:07:32.260 — 01:08:38.320 · Speaker 4

Yeah, but to bring it back to the topic. Um, absolutely right, I think. But there’s there’s also something to incentivizing your audience to do something. I mean, if you think about running competition. So traditionally in marketing, when we want to know a specific thing about our audience, we’ll develop a competition or a survey or incentive data collecting mechanism of some sort to find out if our assumption is correct or get a piece of data.

 

Yes. And we incentivize that through competitions or whatever it is. So the ones we do often obviously with being television background is. Let’s see how many people are watching our ad by running a competition with a different code on this one, and then run the same thing there. You get my idea. Yeah. So I really think people’s behavior can change and be encouraged.

 

If there’s incentive incentive. One of those incentives is if they know they’re going to hear from the creator, if they know you’re going to comment back. Yeah that’s an incentive. Mhm. Um so that’s really important.

 

01:08:38.360 — 01:08:49.360 · Speaker 2

I will mention them. You know another one that I absolutely love is answering questions. You know we are we are going to do a and ask me anything episode and.

 

01:08:49.600 — 01:08:50.040 · Speaker 1

Related to.

 

01:08:50.040 — 01:08:50.960 · Speaker 3

Podcasts.

 

01:08:51.320 — 01:08:52.280 · Speaker 2

Obviously related.

 

01:08:52.280 — 01:08:52.479 · Speaker 3

To

 

01:08:53.760 — 01:08:55.040 · Speaker 3

anything.

 

01:08:55.240 — 01:08:56.600 · Speaker 4

And when I try to make the.

 

01:08:56.600 — 01:08:57.080 · Speaker 3

Question.

 

01:08:58.960 — 01:09:13.110 · Speaker 2

But I think, you know, those are the kinds of things like you’ve just mentioned now getting a response or getting a specific mention. Those are wonderful ways for you to get that commentary on your on your pieces of content.

 

01:09:14.350 — 01:09:18.190 · Speaker 1

So more comments will make you will make the algorithm.

 

01:09:18.190 — 01:09:19.670 · Speaker 3

Prefer you write. Yes.

 

01:09:19.670 — 01:09:24.150 · Speaker 1

What? What is more important? Algorithmic success or

 

01:09:25.910 — 01:09:26.590 · Speaker 1

comment or.

 

01:09:26.590 — 01:09:28.550 · Speaker 4

Luck depends on your objective.

 

01:09:28.590 — 01:09:34.510 · Speaker 2

Well, I think you want you want the feedback so that you can make adjustments, right. If that.

 

01:09:34.630 — 01:09:35.550 · Speaker 3

Feedback objective.

 

01:09:35.590 — 01:09:42.310 · Speaker 2

Yes, it’s honest and the critique is fair. You want that? Um, assuming that you want to make a better product.

 

01:09:42.350 — 01:09:46.590 · Speaker 4

Yeah. But there’s the opposite is also true. People also rage. Bad comments.

 

01:09:46.830 — 01:09:47.590 · Speaker 3

Oh, totally.

 

01:09:47.630 — 01:09:54.270 · Speaker 4

Just to feed the algorithm? Yes. To spread the video further and become famous. That’s not about improving the content at all.

 

01:09:54.510 — 01:10:00.950 · Speaker 1

No that’s not. A lot of people purposely leave mistakes in the episode because people cannot help.

 

01:10:00.990 — 01:10:03.510 · Speaker 3

Can’t resist people? Yes. Oh, I saw it.

 

01:10:03.990 — 01:10:05.310 · Speaker 4

I think we did that, didn’t we?

 

01:10:05.350 — 01:10:20.530 · Speaker 1

Yeah, maybe we did do that. Uh, yeah. Um, I would say that maybe the algorithm helps put you on feeds. That’s right. And perhaps your your reviews and your likes actually convince people to watch the video.

 

01:10:20.570 — 01:10:22.090 · Speaker 5

Well, that is that is true.

 

01:10:22.130 — 01:10:41.250 · Speaker 2

So I think if you if you are going into someone’s feed as something to be discovered. Right. So I haven’t actually followed this channel. And now I’m being presented the show and I can choose to watch it or not. I will look at the reviews at that point and then decide whether or not it’s worth my time.

 

01:10:41.290 — 01:10:41.810 · Speaker 3

Mhm.

 

01:10:42.010 — 01:10:47.490 · Speaker 2

Um, so I do believe that you need both but they offer different things.

 

01:10:47.570 — 01:10:48.210 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:10:48.450 — 01:10:51.610 · Speaker 1

And then how should one ask for reviews.

 

01:10:52.610 — 01:10:54.650 · Speaker 2

This is where it can get a bit cringey.

 

01:10:55.210 — 01:10:59.170 · Speaker 4

It can. But I also feel it’s getting a bit more commonplace.

 

01:10:59.250 — 01:11:02.410 · Speaker 2

Yes. Um, and I think you should ask.

 

01:11:03.290 — 01:11:03.810 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:11:03.850 — 01:11:17.360 · Speaker 4

But in ask and also give. Why? Like I said, incentivize the interaction. Tell your audience, I want to learn more about what you guys need commenting this way.

 

01:11:17.400 — 01:11:18.040 · Speaker 3

Yeah.

 

01:11:18.320 — 01:11:31.520 · Speaker 4

Don’t just go like and scrub and comment. I mean, that’s that’s like throwing away. Be be strategic and specific about what you want in your comments. And if you don’t ask you don’t receive. Yeah.

 

01:11:31.600 — 01:11:41.880 · Speaker 2

You’ll notice that on our episodes there’s a little nudge that just comes up while we’re talking. And it’s a little banner. What is the technical term for that call? It’s a little.

 

01:11:42.000 — 01:11:42.520 · Speaker 3

Visual.

 

01:11:42.560 — 01:12:51.740 · Speaker 2

Strap a little strap that pops up and it says, subscribe to our channel. And it’s got our YouTube channel name. So you can be subtle about it like that. And we always finish off at the end of an episode asking a question, asking people to put their questions into the comments. And that’s an opportunity for us to get that feedback, but also then to answer those questions and to determine what what we should be creating in the future.

 

You know, when people have burning questions, this is always. This is an example you you’ve heard a ten bajillion times. You know, if you’re driving past a billboard and you see an ad, it’s hard for you to ask that brand a question as you drive past in your car. If you have a question that brand don’t know, yeah, but if they’re available on social media and you’ve got a question you could answer, you could ask and potentially have that answered.

 

And in a podcast, if we are asking our listeners, hey, what questions do you have about techniques for getting reviews? Yeah, they can ask us and we can respond.

 

01:12:51.780 — 01:13:10.860 · Speaker 1

I was just thinking it might actually be quite a good idea to ask for the reviews and ask for common stuff midway through your episode, because I think waiting to the end, a lot of the time, you know, the the end music started to play and people have already bailed. Yes. So leave us a comment below. Let’s see who can rage beat us the most.

 

01:13:11.580 — 01:13:12.300 · Speaker 3

It would actually be very.

 

01:13:12.300 — 01:13:13.020 · Speaker 4

Interesting to.

 

01:13:13.020 — 01:13:13.460 · Speaker 3

See.

 

01:13:13.930 — 01:13:16.490 · Speaker 4

If this episode does better.

 

01:13:16.530 — 01:13:18.530 · Speaker 2

Gets more comments because we’re.

 

01:13:18.810 — 01:13:30.090 · Speaker 4

We’re explaining ourselves a little bit more. Yeah. And we’re inviting the audience into understand why comments are important. Um, it’ll be interesting to see.

 

01:13:30.130 — 01:13:58.450 · Speaker 2

Yeah. And then I’ve also got another suggestion. So, you know, typically we are doing these things because we want to grow our audience. Another recommendation I have is that you ask your listeners to share your podcast with other people that have similar interests. So if you ask people to share an episode or share that podcast or that channel with their friends and family.

 

01:13:58.530 — 01:13:59.490 · Speaker 4

Or the network.

 

01:13:59.490 — 01:14:01.050 · Speaker 3

So yeah, for us.

 

01:14:01.050 — 01:14:13.530 · Speaker 4

Example, if you’ve got marketing friends that are interested in this topic, share it. You know, let them know that there’s an interesting different conversation going on here. Take it or leave it. But here it is. Take a.

 

01:14:13.530 — 01:14:13.810 · Speaker 3

Listen.

 

01:14:13.850 — 01:14:16.790 · Speaker 1

I think that’s the most valuable form.

 

01:14:16.790 — 01:14:17.310 · Speaker 3

Of.

 

01:14:17.630 — 01:14:18.430 · Speaker 1

Interacting, of.

 

01:14:18.430 — 01:14:19.710 · Speaker 3

Engagement, sharing.

 

01:14:19.750 — 01:14:58.750 · Speaker 2

That’s true. Yeah. But again, I think you should ask for it. You know, we are hesitant to ask for it because it feels awkward. And on the other side, the listener is busy and maybe they’re driving or, you know, they they don’t have that that moment or they don’t feel like it in that moment. Um, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue to ask because, you know, when you are delivering good content and good quality, it’s that reciprocation that the viewer can give.

 

It’s their way of giving back by saying, yeah, I like that piece of content, or that was interesting or funny or silly or whatever.

 

01:14:58.990 — 01:15:00.310 · Speaker 4

Or total junk either.

 

01:15:00.310 — 01:15:00.470 · Speaker 3

Way.

 

01:15:01.150 — 01:15:01.270 · Speaker 4

Yeah.

 

01:15:02.550 — 01:15:13.670 · Speaker 1

So guys, please leave us a comment. Please leave us a comment or a like the very least like you really loved it. Send it to your granny. See you guys soon.

 

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