Podcast Advertising Effectiveness is Soaring

Seventy five percent of podcast listeners were happy with the purchase they had made from podcast ads, a study from Voices, the #1 voice marketplace

This study used survey data from 1,002 podcast listeners in the U.S. Respondents ranged from 18 to 69 years old with an average age of 31. Fifty four percent of respondents identified as male, while 46% identified as female.

YouTube (58%), Spotify (54%) and Apple Podcasts (41%) were the top 3 preferred platforms for podcasts, while Audible (15%), Spotify (21%) and Sticher (21%) were the platforms that had the lowest percentage of listeners annoyed by ads.

Our study also found that over 80% of podcast listeners did not believe advertisements negatively affected the overall quality of the podcast.

“This new data shows just how effective advertising on a podcast truly is,” says David Ciccarelli, Founder and CEO of Voices. “Anecdotally, we’ve heard lots about consumer satisfaction and its correlation to podcast advertising specifically, and finally we have a sample size of data to back that up.

We believe one of the reasons this medium (podcasts) are so effective is because an ad on a podcast has a way of being curated but not invasive. That’s gold in today’s advertising world.”

Some other highlights from the survey shows:

Over 70% of listeners preferred that ads were read live during recording rather than played as a pre-produced segment.

Almost 53% wanted their podcast ads read by the host.

3 out of 5 podcast listeners would like the ability to interact with the ads and trusted the endorsements of their favorite podcasts.

More than 50% of the survey respondents said they listen to podcasts regularly, which is a major milestone considering 22% of Americans didn’t know what a podcast was in 2006.

News (39%), Politics (37%) and True Crime (37%) were the top 3 preferred podcast genres.

The biggest podcast ad pet peeves were: It interrupts the podcast’s flow (56%), too repetitive (56%) and too excessive (50%).

Fifty Two percent of Gen Zers have purchased something after hearing a podcast ad, compare that to 42% of millennials.

Read the full report here.