Plus Pages

Monday, November 4, 2019

Report: Podcast Ad Enthusiasm Dampens

In the past, podcast listeners have been receptive to advertising during their favorite podcasts, with significant portions claiming to make a purchase after hearing an ad. Yet data from the latest Podcast Download report from Westwood One might put a slight dampener on podcast ad enthusiasm, as it finds that listeners are becoming less amenable to podcast advertisements.

According to Marketing Charts, Westwood One surveyed 601 US adults (18 years and older), all of whom listen to at least one hour of podcasts per week. Among these respondents, three-fifths (60%) agree that they would not mind a couple of extra ads per show in order for their favorite podcast to continue. This is down from the 65% who agreed with this statement one year earlier.

Indeed, listeners’ feelings about the ads they hear on podcasts are somewhat less positive than previously found. Some 41% of respondents agreed that most ads they hear on podcasts are engaging (compared to 45% in 2018) while 39% say that the ads they hear on podcasts are relevant to them (also down from 45% in 2018).



Support for brands has also fallen, with the one-third (33%) of listeners agreeing that they go out of their way to support brands that advertise on their favorite podcasts a step down from the 40% who said the same last year. This is at the same time that the use of brand-related (as opposed to direct response) podcast ads has increased.

There are a couple of possible reasons for this decline in receptiveness. One is the influx of ad dollars being poured into podcasts, with PwC estimating that podcast advertising will double in the next 4 years.

Meanwhile, past research shows that listeners felt that advertisements read by the podcast host were considered to be more authentic and believable.

A demographic that advertisers may want to pay attention to is the growing number of women who listen to podcasts. Some 57% of weekly podcast listeners who started listening to podcasts in the past 6 months are women. In fact, women are spending more time with podcasts than in previous years, with women listeners spending 5.4 hours per week this year, up a full hour from 2017.

The average number of podcasts women listen to has also risen to 4.5, up from 3.9 in 2017.

No comments:

Post a Comment