Podcasting’s top 15 advertisers spent $46.755 million during September, according to Magellan AI estimates. That is a two percent drop from August. The decline can largely be attributed to perennial number one spender BetterHelp, which after spending a record $10.5 million in August, scaled back its investment in the medium to just over $9 million in September, which is more in line with what the online mental health provider typically spends in podcasting. Its ads appeared on 1,244 shows according to Magellan AI tracking.
Amazon, while ranking second in terms of dollars spent, turned up on more podcasts as its commercials ran on 1,513 shows. But Amazon cut its budget by a quarter month-to-month, according to Magellan AI estimates. Those numbers are likely to see a bounce when it reports October figures since Amazon had another of its Prime Day events last month.
The return of the NFL season resulted in a bounce back into the top five for DraftKings. The online sports betting company spent $4.7 million in September on podcast ads.
Google increased its spending 12% in September versus August, running 1,393 ads – second only to Amazon, according to Magellan AI’s tracking.
Among the top 15 brands, Magellan AI says Comedy was the most-used genre by a half dozen brands, and another six used Sports the most, while three made Society & Culture their most-used category.
The shopping app Drop was anything but dropping when it came to podcast advertising last month. It leads Magellan AI’s list of movers and shakers – the monthly ranking of brands that deliver the biggest increases in spending in the medium. The cashback app is looking to capitalize on the year-end shopping frenzy, spending $1.1 million on podcast ads during September, after spending nothing in August.
Fall travel also led United to boost its podcast investment. Magellan AI says United had a nine-fold increase in its podcast spending between August and September. It was among a list of blue-chip marketers that had significant hikes in their podcast ad buys in September, according to Magellan AI data. Ford Motor Co. spent nearly ten-times more month-to-month. American Express podcast ad spending was up eight-fold. And Peloton roared back to podcasting, spending more than $400,000 after investing just $7,000 a month earlier based on Magellan AI estimates.
Other well-known brands that also increased their spending in September include Bose, Peet’s Coffee, Royal Caribbean, Serta, and ExxonMobil.
Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. Magellan AI’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.