What Do the Top 20 Podcasts Tell Us About the Perfect Intro Formula?

I’m sure we’re all agreed on the idea that first impressions matter. Not just when you’re walking into a job interview or meeting your new partner’s parents for the first time. It matters when you’re creating content too. 

Think about it: The first page of a new book, the opening shot of a film, the intro paragraph to… an article about podcast intros (!). These openings all carry a lot of weight in determining whether you’ll keep consuming a piece of content or not. 

Still with me? 

Good. Because first impressions matter in podcasting too. 

In this year’s discovery survey, we learned that 40% of podcast listeners will give a new podcast less than 15 minutes before deciding whether to keep listening or ditch the show for good. 17% said they would give it less than 5 minutes. 

There’s a lot of pressure on those first few minutes to keep regular listeners tuning in and get new listeners hooked. 

But how do you know if you’re approaching your podcast intro right? As an experiment, I spent some time analysing the intros of the top 20 shows in the US Apple Podcast Charts to see what they can tell us about the perfect intro formula.

And what did I learn? Well, that there isn’t a really perfect formula, I’m afraid. But while this probably isn’t the quick answer you were looking for, my research did bring to the fore some interesting observations that could be useful when thinking about your own podcast openings. 

Here are some observations from my analysis and how to work out your perfect podcast formula for your listeners. 

4 Observations on the Top 20 Podcast Intros 

1. Shorter intros are trending 

Only 7 of the 20 top podcasts had intros of more than 30 seconds. When you consider the fact that 30 seconds is considered the ‘sweet spot’ for keeping folks’ attention (in advertising, at least), this isn’t so surprising. 

But what did come as a surprise was that a fair few of the most popular podcasts in the charts right now don’t have intros at all.

6 of the top 20 had nothing but a 3-second jingle and a ‘Welcome to the [podacast name] show’ at most. A distinct jingle was present in every podcast in the chart – even those that had no intro – so this is certainly something that matters, whether you include an intro or not. 

2. Ads in intros are more common than you think

Sticking an advert in your intro will seem risky to most. We all know advertising is necessary, but placing an ad in your show’s opening when you should be working hard to keep them listening would be considered quite bold.

So I was surprised to see a fair amount of promo going on in the intros of the top 20. Those shows that included third-party/sponsorship ads did seem to keep their intros short (15-30 secs), but when a host is promoting their own show/tour/merch these seem to be pretty long.

Podcast calls to action (CTAs) typically work best in the middle or near the end of your content. So, although these shows are clearly doing well, this probably isn’t something you want to mimic.

3. Ultra-long chatty intros have had their heyday 

Remember the days when most of the popular co-hosted shows would open with a friendly chit-chat that bore no relevance to the topic, but we didn’t mind because we loved to be in on the jokes? Well, it seems like those days are gone now. 

Morbid is the only podcast in the top 20 that has a long intro (5-10 mins) of host chat at the start, and people really hate on the intro in the reviews. In our Podcast Discovery survey, we also received a lot of comments from listeners about how these types of intros really put them off. As Lindsay says in the article, “small talk is only fun for the people having it”.

4. There’s no connection between intro and episode length 

One slight pattern I noticed defied logic (in my mind, at least). Namely, the length of a show didn’t impact the length of the intro. The two shortest episodes in the list (10 minutes and 20 minutes) both had intros of 1 minute, which was longer than most of the other podcasts in the charts. There was no rush to skip through the intro to get to the meat, despite having a short window to cover the show topic. 

The longest shows in the charts, on the other hand, (e.g. Joe Rogan Experience and The Shawn Ryan Show, which run at 2-3 hours long) have no intro, jumping straight into the content within a second or two of listeners hitting that play button.  

How To Work Out the Perfect Intro Formula For Your Podcast

So we know there’s no industry-wide ‘perfect podcast intro formula’. But that’s not to say there’s no perfect formula for your show. 

If you’re looking to optimize your intro to give the people what they want, try the following:

• Look at your drop-off data. You can find a good sample size of drop-off data in Apple Podcasts Connect. If you’re losing listeners at the start, have a think about how you can improve your intro.  If you tend to switch things up from one episode to the next, you can use the data to see if drop-offs are higher when your intros are longer, or when you include promotion, for example.
• Think like a listener. If you love your niche enough to make a podcast about it, you are your target audience. Think about what you like in intros (and what you don’t like!) and try to give your listeners what you expect from your favourite shows.
• Ask your listeners what they want. There’s no better way to cater to your audience than to ask them directly what they want to hear. A simple survey embedded in your next email newsletter would do the trick.  

Like podcasts more generally, there’s no perfect formula for getting your intro right.

From cold opens to outsourcing your jingles, there’s a tonne of different intro-related elements you can test out until you find a formula that works for your show. We can help you nail it in our podcast intro guide, which will help you optimise those vital opening few minutes of your next episode and beyond.