Understanding Subscriber Retention

At Supporting Cast, we're dedicated to helping podcasters build sustainable subscription businesses. After getting their subscriptions up and running, we encourage creators to turn their attention to churn — the loss of paying subscribers.

Based on our benchmarks, during a subscription's first year, a healthy monthly churn rate would be below 1% per month, or, ideally, even below 0.5%.  As a subscription matures, churn will naturally increase as subscribers’ habits change. Once a subscription has been around for 5 to 10 years, we are generally working to keep monthly churn below 3%. These benchmarks can help you evaluate the health of your subscription business and identify opportunities for improvement.

Our CEO, David Stern, shared these figures with Digiday for a recent story that explores how podcasters are addressing subscription churn and describes how Supporting Cast helps partners retain more subscribers long-term and grow their revenue.

Building on our expertise, we've developed specific tools and practices that can help our podcast partners keep their audience engaged and subscribed for the long haul.

Six Strategic Ways We Help You Manage Churn

1. Seamless Subscription Experience – We make it incredibly easy for listeners to subscribe and access premium content directly within their favorite podcast apps, removing friction that might otherwise lead to cancellations. If subscribers aren't able to get the benefits they're paying for in a way that aligns with their existing habits, they're not going to stay subscribed for long.
   
   
2. Personalized Retention Messaging – Our platform enables podcasters to send targeted audio messages to subscribers, whether it's a thank-you message for joining, a reminder about an expiring credit card, or an exclusive preview of upcoming content. These personalized touchpoints help maintain the connection between you and your subscribers.
   
   
3. Fallback Feed - Building on that, all cancelled subscribers will automatically have their private feeds replaced by a "Fallback Feed," which is typically the free ad-supported version of the feed. Then, promos from hosts appear as mini-episodes encouraging a listener to rejoin to access subscriber-only benefits, sometimes offering a subscription discount.
   
   
4. Aggressive Annual Pricing – We recommend including at least two free months in an annual subscription. We may even recommend more aggressive incentives depending on your goals, which we review with you during your onboarding process. Annual subscriptions typically reduce overall churn by converting subscribers to a longer commitment period.
   
   
5. Listener Insights and Engagement Metrics – Podcasters can track listening behavior and subscriber trends, helping them fine-tune their content and engagement strategies to better serve their audience. These insights allow you to make data-driven decisions about your content and marketing.
   
   
6. On-Going Subscription Audits & Meetings - We meet with partners regularly to monitor churn rates and develop an action plan if churn is high. We can also help you set up a survey to poll any departing subscribers on why they are cancelling. This provides better insights and helps you run successful win-back campaigns for these lapsed users (which we will of course help with!).
   

The Supporting Cast Difference

Our approach to churn management is based on years of experience working with podcasters across different genres and audience scales. While every show has unique needs, we've found that implementing these strategies consistently helps creators build more stable, profitable subscription businesses.

By working with our team, you'll benefit from both our specialized platform and our accumulated knowledge about what works in podcast subscriptions. We continuously analyze trends across our network to refine our recommendations and keep our partners at the forefront of subscription best practices.

Ready to Strengthen Your Subscription Business?

By providing these proven tools and insights, Supporting Cast helps creators strengthen their relationships with subscribers, boost engagement, and ultimately reduce churn. We're committed to helping you turn your podcast into a thriving, sustainable business.

Take the First Step: Contact our team today to discuss how Supporting Cast can support your podcast subscription goals. We'd be happy to review your current setup or help you launch a new subscription program designed for long-term success.