The popularity and staying power of podcasts is no longer up for debate. With the latest Infinite Dial Report from Edison Research counting 135 million monthly listeners in the U.S.—and 47% growth in the past five years—it goes without saying that the medium is a major part of people’s lives.
But more has changed in this time than just the number of people tuning in. Who is listening, why, and how they listen, and what they’re looking for has also changed. And so has the opportunity for advertisers.
Podcasts have entered a new era.
Audience is diversifying
More than ever, podcasts offer reach that transcends age, race and gender, allowing brands to connect with more consumers more consistently. In the not-so-distant past, the terms “podcaster” and “podcast listener” both conjured images of white, 35-50-year-old men. That demographic is still listening, but so are many others.
Podcasts are a global phenomenon, resonating with powerful and unexpected audiences, extending beyond the boundaries of language, region, culture and time, attracting more attention year after year. And increases in monthly listening are outpacing both white and male listeners among female, Black and Latino audiences. And audience growth continues to skew younger.
Content is evolving
In the ever-widening feedback loop of the creator-listener relationship, podcast content is quickly becoming as diverse as its audience. For example, as more women get behind the mic, more women turn to the shows they create, with nine in 10 women who listen to podcasts monthly saying they listen to at least one show hosted or produced by a woman. Similarly, 66% of Latino listeners have tuned into a podcast by a Latino creator in the last month, and 50% of Black listeners say it’s important that the podcasts they listen to have a Black host.
Publishers are not only diversifying podcast slates to meet audience demand for new voices and different perspectives, but they are also curating content collections to help advertisers reach distinct audiences with brand messages that will resonate.
SiriusXM Media recently released its Diverse Voices collection to both support BIPOC creators and connect brands to their growing audiences. Collections like these, developed around audiences and niche interests will provide advertisers more opportunities to develop custom messaging that aligns with the content it supports.
Innovation drives adtech and measurement forward
Publishers are also finding new and better ways to help advertisers leverage the podcast ecosystem to reach more audiences across shows, genres, and networks—all with the technology, targeting, safeguards, and measurement they’ve come to expect from other media. Here’s how:
- Scalable ad formats. Dynamic ad tech can insert consistent brand messages into shows to scale across a podcast network.
- Advanced targeting. Advertisers can reach audiences based on genre, inventory sources (e.g., the audiochuck network), niche topic, and audience listening habits and behaviors.
- Brand suitability controls. Brands can control the types of podcast content their ads run on down to the episode level with measurable accuracy.
- Programmatic buying. Buyers can take the streamlined efficiency of programmatic and apply it to the podcast space to scale campaigns.
- Ad measurement certification. The IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines allow publishers to align with industry standards, and certification tells advertisers whether that publisher meets them.
- Campaign effectiveness. Full-funnel campaign measurement solutions across metrics from brand awareness to conversion.
These innovations and solutions allow advertisers to move more flexibly through the medium with confidence.
360-degree activations take podcasting further
As podcasting continues to expand, so do the ways brands can connect with fans through the medium. For podcast listeners, the experience doesn’t end with the episode, season or series. Hosts are creating cross-platform, cross-media content activations to keep audiences actively engaged. Increasingly, creators see their podcasts as the hub from which to grow fandoms through video and social content and live events. Publishers are creating new formats and packaged opportunities to support creators, satisfy listeners, and connect advertisers with passionate audiences at pivotal moments.
As podcasts continue to transcend, entering new eras, so will the opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences through the medium.
