The online mental health company BetterHelp spent nearly triple that of any other podcast advertiser during March. So despite a two percent dip month-to-month in its investment in the medium, the brand remained the industry’s biggest spender. The ad tracking firm Magellan AI says Better Help spent an estimated $7.7 million on podcast ads, running ads on 662 shows, more than any other advertiser, with the Comedy genre its top destination.
A three percent month-to-month increase in spending by the nutrition supplement maker Athletic Greens advanced it to second place with an estimated $2.7 million in spending. It targeted its ads to 233 different shows. Magellan says that pushed back HelloFresh to third place, despite increases in its podcast spending by two percent month-to-month with ads detected on 256 different podcasts.
ZipRecruiter advanced from No. 8 in February to No. 4 in March as Magellan estimates it spent more than $2.6 million, a 23% increase from a month earlier. Sports was ZipRecruiter’s most-used genre as its ads turned up in 159 different shows. Progressive insurance held onto fifth place last month with more than $2.4 million in estimated podcast ad spending, a two percent decrease from a month earlier. It went deeper than many others with ads detected on 436 podcasts.
Magellan says four of the top ten podcast advertisers spent most heavily in the Comedy genre during March, with Society & Culture the go-to for three marketers, with two others going to News.
Overall, Magellan estimates the top 15 podcast advertisers spent a combined $36.77 million during February. That compared to a total $36.86 million spent by the top 15 during February.
Magellan’s list of movers and shakers – the brands that increased their podcast spending during the month – was led in March by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. It ran ads totaling an estimated value of $879,000.
There were also some seasonal ads turning up with Monsanto investing an estimated $303,000 to promote its Roundup brand. And while it did not make the movers and shakers list, Magellan says in a blog post that the beginning of spring brought other similar brands to podcasting. That includes the lawn company Sunday, which nearly tripled its spend in March. “Based on historical trends we would expect both companies to continue spending on podcasts through June,” said Magellan.
The crypto exchange Coinbase also spent the most ever in podcasts last month, as it invested an estimated $402,000 on ads during March. Magellan says it is notable because last month Coinbase spent around 75% of what it spent during all of 2021. “What also makes Coinbase unique is that it tends to advertise on the same shows, up to two months on average,” it noted.
Magellan analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. Magellan’s proprietary model is used to estimate advertising spend. It includes factors such as the number of ads and variation in ad load detected for a given episode, number of downloads for each episode, and estimated CPMs as reported in select media kits and estimated based on popularity.
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