According to eMarketer, advertising spend on podcasts is set to pass the $1M mark next year.
This figure relates to the US market and follows sustained audience growth over the last few years.
The forecast also puts at 20% the level of advertising going to podcasts when compared to digital radio.
The growth predicted by eMarketer in advertising spend for the medium is very impressive.
This year it is forecast to grow by 10.4%, reaching $782M, while next year it should jump by 45% and exceed the $1M threshold.
Shelleen Shum, eMarketer forecasting director at Insider Intelligence, said “The continued growth in podcast advertising is no surprise, as investments have made podcasts accessible to a wider audience. The news genre, a focus of many podcast advertisers, has performed well during the pandemic. While some ad campaigns were paused in H1 due to the uncertainty from COVID-19 lockdowns, we expect a rebound in Q3 and Q4.”
One change highlighted by eMarketer’s analysis is the shift towards more programmatic selling of podcast ad inventory.
At present only 4% is bought programmatically but as the deployment of audience measurement technology increases this figure should rise to 8% by 2022.
Estimates put the US podcast audience at 105.6 million, about half the size of the digital radio audience.
In short, if you are planning to advertise on podcasts today is the day to do it!
All other things being equal, it will become more expensive over the next couple of years.