Podcast Advertising: A Fresh Face in Marketing

There are over 750,000 podcasts actively streaming worldwide, covering topics from ghost stories and true crime to love advice and fitness tips. This growing community of educated, loyal listeners with consumer power are creating an ideal platform for word-of-mouth marketing tactics. Podcast streaming services allow embedded ads which have become increasingly popular with brands trying to connect with a massive, growing fan-base of attentive listeners.

Podcast messaging is distinctly successful in reaching consumers because oftentimes listeners don’t want to skip the ads. They are embedded in the show, short snippets of time and typically there are no ad-markers. Many listeners find themselves listening to the ads because they don’t want to miss part of the show: 40% of surveyed listeners said they pay attention to the entire episode of a podcast. This allows for the 10 to 15-second ads to be digested and heard by those tuned-in—67% of podcast listeners recall specific promos and products from a podcast ad.

The audience active podcast consumers is speedily increasing, as well. It is predicted, by 2022, over 132 million U.S. people will identify as a podcast listener. As of June 2019, 50% of homes identify as podcast enthusiasts, and 16 million people in the U.S. identify themselves as an “avid podcast fan.” This audience is also very attentive to the content they consume, with 69% of listeners reporting that the ads they encountered during podcast streaming made them aware of a new product or service.

Podcasts are quickly blossoming into a great media tool to encourage positive word-of-mouth awareness. Embedded advertisement capabilities and avid, growing fan-base have transformed podcasts from a creative outlet and entertainment source to a new face in potential marketing channels for a wide variety of brands. Consider this next time you turn up the volume and tune into your favorite true crime show or pop culture coverage!