PodEngine, a Cardiff-based podcast intelligence platform founded by Joe Tannorella, has partnered with Interview Valet, a U.S. podcast interview marketing agency, to introduce the Podcast Authority Score, a new metric designed to measure podcast quality, credibility, and audience trust with greater transparency than ever before.

For brands, creators, and PR professionals who rely on podcasts to reach engaged audiences, the Score offers a long-missing benchmark for evaluating where true authority resides, according to Joe. 

Joe believes that traditional podcast measurement indicators, such as downloads, listens, and estimated audience sizes, often misrepresent reach, since major platforms such as Apple and Spotify don’t disclose full listener data. 

“Unless you’re the host or the player, you just don’t know how many people listen,” Joe says. “It’s like guessing how many people walk through someone’s front door; you might see them sometimes, but you never really know.”

For creators, agencies, and brands, this lack of visibility creates uncertainty about where to invest time, sponsorships, or guest appearances. Joe saw an opportunity to address that gap. “There’s no accurate measure of how many people listen to a podcast,” he explains. “Even if you had that number, it’s defined differently everywhere. What really matters is trust, influence, and alignment with your goals. That’s what the Podcast Authority Score captures.”

The partnership between PodEngine and Interview Valet combines both perspectives: the data infrastructure that powers PodEngine’s search and analytics, and Interview Valet’s experience helping brands book thousands of podcast guest appearances each year. Together, they’re aiming to replace guesswork through measurable criteria, allowing creators and marketers to make better decisions about where real influence lives.

From a Data Problem to a Scoring System

The idea behind the Podcast Authority Score began as Joe and his team noticed recurring questions from agencies using PodEngine’s tools. Many asked for listener estimates, but the data simply didn’t exist in a reliable form. “When we started talking with Interview Valet about this, we realized it’s not about how many people listen,” Joe recalls. “It’s about how trusted and authoritative a podcast is within its niche.”

Over nearly a year of development, the two companies built a framework that evaluates podcasts across several clear dimensions, including consistency of publishing, listener engagement, the strength of their YouTube presence, and their social media influence. The result is a unified score that reflects both reach and quality, giving agencies and creators a way to compare podcasts within context.

Joe explains that the process is fully transparent: “We’re not saying this is the best podcast in the world. We’re saying, given your goals, these are the podcasts that are most relevant to you, and we’ll show you exactly how we reached that conclusion.”

By making the underlying criteria visible, PodEngine hopes to set a new standard of accountability in the field. “We’re saying: here’s the data, here’s how we calculated it, and here’s what you can do to improve,” Joe says.

Built with the Industry, for the Industry

For Joe, collaboration has been central to the Score’s design. Interview Valet had been a PodEngine customer long before the partnership began, and the two teams found common ground in their approach. 

“They’ve got a great reputation and a great team,” he says. “We share the same values. They care about doing things with integrity, and so do we. When we started talking about listener numbers, we realized both sides were telling clients the same thing. It’s really about quality, not quantity.”

That shared perspective shaped a product meant to serve both sides of the podcast equation. For agencies and brands, the Score provides a measurable way to identify podcasts that align with their audience goals. For podcasters, it’s a tool for improvement. 

Any show can sign up for PodEngine for free, view its Authority Score, and access specific recommendations to raise it. “We show you exactly what would take your show from an average score to a high one,” Joe says. “A lot of it is best practice, publishing consistently, improving visuals, engaging more, but having it measured makes it actionable.”

Why the Score Matters to the Creator Economy

In the broader creator economy, where authority drives collaborations, sponsorships, and audience growth, podcasting has become one of the most effective channels for influence. Yet many professionals still struggle to determine which shows are worth targeting. 

Joe says that’s changing quickly. “We work with PR agencies that have never done podcast bookings before. Now their clients are asking for it, and they don’t know where to start. PodEngine gives them a clear roadmap, and the Authority Score helps them prioritize which shows actually matter.”

The Score also addresses a persistent problem in podcast marketing: the mismatch between visibility and impact. A smaller, highly focused show can hold far more sway in a specific niche than a well-known one with a broad, disengaged audience. Joe puts it simply: “Just because a podcast isn’t famous doesn’t mean it’s not authoritative. I’d rather have a hundred excited fans who love what I do than a million people who’ve just heard of me once.”

Transparency as a Driver of Growth

For Joe, transparency isn’t just a feature of the Score; it’s the principle behind PodEngine’s entire approach. “There’s a lot of money going into podcasting, but without proper measurement, much of it’s targeted in the wrong ways,” he says. “We’re bringing accountability to that ecosystem.”

Podcasters benefit as well, he adds. The Score serves as a benchmark to track progress over time, helping them understand where they stand among peers and how to strengthen their presence. 

“Any podcaster can now see not just their score, but also the actions they can take to improve,” Joe explains. “We’re giving people the tools to get better without spending any money.”

Beyond Booking: The Intelligence Layer

The Score builds on PodEngine’s broader technology platform, which uses AI to transcribe and analyze new podcast episodes as they’re released each day. Since launching in 2024, the company has become a key partner to agencies seeking to streamline guest booking. 

“We’ve seen agencies secure significantly more podcast interviews in less time,” Joe says. “That’s not marketing language. We’ve seen clients book interviews within an hour of using PodEngine.”

Beyond its Software as a Service platform, PodEngine licenses its data to enterprise partners through Application Programming Interfaces, powering podcast insights for larger media and PR technology providers. “We can’t name most of them because we’re under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement),” Joe says, “but we’re behind the scenes of some of the biggest names in the industry.”

As the company expands, it’s developing new ways to help users discover podcasts within tightly defined topics. “Apple and Spotify genres are too broad,” Joe explains. “We’re building a new taxonomy so you can find podcasts focused on very specific subjects, like WordPress or dog training, and then rank them by authority within that niche.”

What Comes Next?

The next phase of development will include integrating estimated listenership as a contextual data point, presented transparently alongside the Score’s existing criteria. 

Joe emphasizes that this addition won’t replace the Score’s qualitative focus, but will complement it. “If you caveat it properly, it’s still useful,” he says. “But ultimately, the Score should become as recognizable as listenership is today.”

Behind PodEngine’s technology is a small team led by Joe in Cardiff and his co-founder, Luke Belbina, in Portland. The company remains mostly bootstrapped and prioritizes integrity over fast expansion. “We’re not trying to be a billion-dollar startup,” Joe says. “If you want a company that listens to feedback and you see that change reflected in the product the following week, that’s us.”

When it comes to defining authority in podcasting, Joe is clear. “A podcast with authority is one that’s trusted by its audience,” he says. “Podcasts occupy your ears for 45 minutes straight. If you trust what you’re hearing, that’s real influence.”

His advice to podcasters hoping to build that kind of influence is equally straightforward. “No podcast with 500 episodes is unsuccessful,” he says. “It’s the ones that stop at five that fail. Keep showing up, even when no one’s listening yet.”

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