Podcast advertising

Podcast advertising is a fast-growing audio marketing technique through which brands place paid commercial messaging before, during, or at the end of podcast episodes.

There are a number of benefits to podcast advertising in an increasingly fragmented media environment. These benefits include the ability to:

Podcast advertising can be an effective technique for building brand awareness among relevant audiences. Because many podcasts focus on niche topics, they are often an effective medium for reaching customers with specific interests, professions, hobbies, and lifestyles.

Podcast advertising provides brands the opportunity to drive incremental reach, including among cord-cutters (who are often younger audiences) and ad blocker enablers. For example, nearly half (49%) of listeners on Wondery (Amazon’s podcast studio and network) cannot be reached via live TV,¹ and 34% of Wondery listeners cannot be reached via streaming TV.²

Podcasts are known to draw engaged audiences who are less apt to skip or tune out ads. In particular, they often reach consumers during screen-free moments when they are more likely to be in an attentive state. This correlation is underscored by an Amazon Ads study on the topic of consumer quality time, which found that more than a third of podcast listeners plug into their favorite podcasts while partaking in physical activities or spending time outdoors. ³

Because podcast listeners are often highly engaged, they are likely to remember and/or act on the ad content they consume. In fact, roughly a quarter of podcast listeners report that ads during podcasts help them discover new content to enjoy, as well as new brands and products to learn about.⁴

Brands can purchase podcast ads directly from networks or podcast creators, or via an advertising agency or demand-side platform. These sales are typically structured on a cost per mille (CPM) basis, with the advertiser paying a set amount for every 1,000 impressions.

Podcast ads come in a variety of formats and placements, which contributes to their appeal among a broad cross-section of brands with different marketing objectives and core demographics. The main types of podcast ads include:

Host-read ads are paid commercial messages delivered directly by a podcast host (often about their personal experiences using a brand or product). This format can help create an organic feel and foster customer trust.

Dynamically inserted ads use programmatic advertising technology to integrate scripted, pre-recorded ads within podcast episodes. They can offer brands greater creative control and scaling opportunities, which some marketers consider an advantage.

Branded content integrates commercial messaging within the editorial content of podcasts. Examples of branded content include branded segments and branded episodes, as well as video, social, and event extensions.

Ads that play at the beginning of a podcast episode are known as pre-roll ads, ads that play in the middle of an episode are known as mid-roll ads, and ads that play at the end of an episode are known as post-roll ads.

Brands of all sizes and industries are increasingly leveraging podcast advertising. In fact, podcast ad revenue is projected to exceed $3 billion by 2027, according to estimates from eMarketer.⁵ This trend reflects an uptick in podcast consumption in recent years. In 2024 alone, the average time spent listening to digital audio in the U.S. increased by 26.4%.⁶ Overall, U.S. adult podcast audiences spend an average of 50 minutes per day listening to programming⁷—a figure that suggests strong engagement with the medium.

Not only are audiences tuning into podcasts in record numbers, but they are also being impacted by the ads they hear. Research from Dentsu and Lumen found that audio ads are uniquely positioned to boost brand awareness, generating +8% greater brand recall and +56% greater attentiveness scores compared with Dentsu norms.⁸ A separate study conducted by Edison Research found that podcast ads also drive lower-funnel movement. Based on its research, nearly half (46%) of podcast listeners purchased an item or service in 2023 as a result of hearing a podcast advertisement⁹—representing a 34% jump from when the research company first started asking the question in consumer surveys in 2020.¹⁰

Consider taking the following steps to create a podcast advertising campaign.

In any advertising campaign, it’s important to start with a clear understanding of your core audience demographics and where they consume content. This step is especially important in the podcast space, as many podcasts are designed for clearly defined niche audiences.

Determine your key campaign objectives (including brand awareness vs. direct response), budget, and campaign duration. This information will help you narrow in on which podcast providers, shows, and hosts are the best fit for your strategy.

Choose how long you want your ads to be, whether they will be host-read/announcer-read or dynamically inserted, and where they should be placed within a podcast episode.

Develop the script for your ad—either in the form of fully written lines (which is typically done for dynamically inserted ads) or as key messaging points (which is often done for host-read/announcer-read ads). If you need to hire voiceover talent, you can make casting decisions at this time.

If you’re developing a pre-recorded ad, you can now record and edit your podcast ad. The ad can then be distributed via the podcast programs and/or services you’ve identified.