Report: Podcast Ad Revenue Jumps 86 Percent

Podcast advertising revenue in the U.S. grew at a substantial rate in 2017, hitting $314 million, according to the latest Podcast Advertising Revenue Study, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC.

That figure is up 86% from 2016, when the study found that podcast advertising captured $169 million in revenue. The study projects that by 2020, podcast revenue will top $650 million.

Significant findings included:

• US podcast advertising revenue is expected to grow more than 110% by 2020, to $659.0 million.
• Reported revenues by surveyed companies increased 275% from 2015, the first year surveyed, to 2017.
• Host-read ads were cited as the preferred ad type, representing more than two-thirds of ads in 2017.
• Direct response ads transacted on a cost per thousand basis made up the majority of campaigns, followed by brand awareness ads (29%).
• Ads integrated or edited into programming accounted for 58 percent of the podcast ad inventory in 2017.
• A spending analysis by ad category included in the report found that financial services took the top spot with an 18 percent share, followed by direct-to-consumer retailers, which accounted for 16 percent, and arts and entertainment, at 13 percent.

Also of note, Of the 14 podcast content genres measured, the top four generated more than half of the advertising revenue in 2017:

• Arts/Entertainment (17%)
• Technology (15%)
• News/Politics/Current Events (13%)
• Business (11%)

“This report confirms that podcasting is an extremely viable option for advertisers,” said Mark McCrery, CEO of Authentic and Podtrac. “More and more advertisers are discovering that podcast advertising delivers great impact for their campaigns and and repeat advertiser confidence is high with 38% of podcast ad spending coming from annual upfront buys.”