Insight: Podcasts Seem Pandemic Proof

Despite the global pandemic, podcasting has remained a vibrant media option for advertisers. 

According to Edison Research’s “Share of Ear,” podcasting’s ad-supported audio shares among persons 25-54 more than tripled from 4% in Q3 2016 to 15% in Q4 2020. With podcast listening up, CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One partnered with Magellan AI, the definitive source of podcast advertising analytics, to analyze podcast advertising occurrence data from the top 400 podcasts in the U.S. through Q3 2020 to see if advertisers were also growing their investments. 

This week’s Westwood One blog outlines the findings.

• Podcast advertising is pandemic proof: Ad volumes quickly recovered and surged to record levels: Compared to January 2020, September 2020 total podcast ad occurrences were up an incredible +58%.
• Despite the pandemic, the number of podcast advertisers soared +42% in September off April lows: While the pandemic did depress the number of podcast advertisers in April 2020, by May the number of unique podcast advertisers was nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. September 2020 saw a record 855 advertisers, a stunning +42% increase from April.
• Podcast over-commercialism has not arrived: Throughout 2020, the average number of ads per podcast hovered slightly under three ads. September saw the number of ads per podcast to jump to 3.3, a +22% increase from April.
• Financial and insurance category spotlight: Year over year, podcast investment in the financial category is up +72%. Overall, podcast spend in the insurance category is up +83% year over year.