Running a Subscription + Review Boosting Contest
Apple Podcasts' rankings are based on new subscribers over a rolling seven-day period, with more recent subscriptions (ie. today) being weighted more heavily than older subscriptions (ie. six days ago).

What this means, is that for our contests to be effective, we want to drive as many subscriptions, reviews, and traffic to Apple Podcasts as possible, in a short window of time, ideally one day. 


Recommended Contest Parameters
To qualify for entry, participants must:

  • Subscribe to the podcast
  • Leave a rating and review
  • Take a screenshot of the review
  • Send it to [Insert Email Here] 


How to Enter the Contest:
Create a quick video like this one that shows your listeners exactly how to enter your contest.


Contest Prizes

We've seen a wide variety of contest prizes offered, some ideas include:

  • Putting together a prize pack that's specifically targetted to your show's audience. We've seen some hosts have great success partnering with aligned brands and suppliers who supply elements of the prize pack at no cost in exchange for sponsoring the contest. 
  • Free coaching sessions
  • Access to digital products
  • The sky's the limit here, use your imagination!
  • Keep in mind that you should check in with local sweepstakes on regulations. In many places, if you have a prize over $600, you may need to issue the winner a 1099 form upon acceptance of the prize.

We've also seen some of our hosts run promotions where instead of being entered into a draw, EVERYONE who subscribes, rates and reviews the show gets a prize, maybe a t-shirt, discount on a product, etc.


Resources
You can run a basic contest entirely on your own using email submissions, or you can get a little fancy and use one of the following tools to facilitate the contest: