Forecast: Podcast Revenue To Grow 47% this Year

U.S. podcast ad revenue is estimated to grow 47% to $2.1 billion, according to MediaPost citing a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and consulting firm PwC.

It is projected that podcast ad revenue will tack on another 45% to $3.1 billion in 2023, and 37% more to $4.2 billion by 2024.

In 2021 financial services represented the biggest ad category with a 15% share, while retail direct-to-consumer and art/entertainment/media were also at 11%, followed by CPG at 8%; retail (brick-and-mortar/ecommerce) at 6%; and pharma at 5% as well as Telco. Automotive came in at 4%.

Retail direct -to-consumer had a lower share than in 2020 (19%) but volume increased.

Automated advertising messaging -- through dynamically inserted advertising -- continued to rise, now 84% of all podcasts advertising, with 16% of advertising edited into podcast content after the fact.

The bulk of ad revenues in 2021 continues to be mid-roll messaging-- at a 64% share (76% in 2020). Preroll is now at 32% (it was 22% the year before). And post roll was 4%(2% in 2020). Fifty-five percent of podcast ad messaging is between 16 and 30 seconds in length.

The research says 52% of podcast ads were direct response; 46%, brand awareness; and 3% branded content -- virtually the same levels as they were the two previous years.

Biggest content genre for podcast ad revenue is news programming, 19%. Comedy is next at 13%; society/culture; 12%; sports; 11%; true crime, 10%; and business 7%. Seventy percent of ad revenue comes from weekly or bi/weekly podcasts.