Digital Audio Ad Spend Sets New Record At $8.4 Billion.

Despite concerns about economic and geopolitical uncertainty, digital advertising revenue reached record levels last year. That momentum propelled the digital audio ad market to new highs according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The IAB says in its just-released 2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report that digital audio ad spending was up double-digits last year, with the fastest growth coming in podcasting.

The IAB, which compiled its data with PwC, says the digital audio market reached $8.4 billion last year. That is a 10.2% increase from a year earlier. “Audio is also becoming an increasingly important part of the broader media landscape,” the report says.

Podcasting again outpaced the broader audio category. The IAB says podcast revenue grew 17.6% in 2025 compared to the prior year, with total spending of $2.9 billion. While still smaller than other formats, the IAB says podcasting remains a “consistent contributor” to audio revenue, with expansion continuing even as the definition of a podcast begins to shift.

Podcast ad spending may in reality be somewhat higher since the 2025 tally includes only traditional audio podcast spending. The IAB acknowledges the definition of what is a podcast is expanding as video consumption grows. And while it says streaming video continues to solidify its role in digital advertising, the trade group expects 2026 growth will be increasingly tied to accountability — including for podcasters.

“As streaming video continues to expand across formats, its next phase of growth will depend not only on engagement, but on proving that streaming advertising delivers incremental impact compared with linear TV and other digital channels,” the report says. “This will also present new challenges for publishers and media buyers to plan, buy and measure across traditional ‘audio’ and ‘video’ channels.”

Podcasters will be helped by overall increases in digital video spending. Digital video revenue jumped 25.4% in 2025 to $78 billion, the fastest growth of any major format. The shift is likely to shape how podcast inventory is valued and bought, particularly as campaigns span both audio and video environments.

Even as traditional media ad budgets showed little growth last year — the report say the traditional audio sector grew 1.3% while TV advertising declined 13.4% — the story for the overall digital ad sector is one of expansion. IAB says digital ad spending totaled $294.6 billion in 2025, a 13.9% year-over-year increase.

Consumer habits are driving much of the shift in spending patterns by marketers, as the IAB notes last year didn’t have any big cyclical events to propel digital spending higher.

“While overall revenue is stronger than ever, consumer usage patterns have changed materially over the last year,” said Jack Koch, Senior VP of Research & Insights at IAB. “The ability to integrate data, media, and commerce is becoming a defining advantage — companies that can provide seamless, personalized, and commerce-enabled experiences are where the attention and investment are moving.”

The report also underscores how concentrated the digital ad market has become, with the top 10 tech giants now controlling 84.1% of total revenue. Digital audio remains a relatively small slice of the pie, with 2.8% of overall digital ad spending.

The digital audio industry has been increasingly focused on programmatic sales, and that effort is well advised as IAB calculates overall programmatic advertising rose 20.5% year-to-year in 2025, with marketers placing to $162.4 billion of ads through automated buying systems. The trade group expects those numbers to continue climbing current efforts lay the groundwork for AI-driven media buying.

Just as important for podcasters is creator advertising has become a core media channel. Creator advertising spending reached $37 billion in 2025 with the segment growing faster than the broader advertising market. And IAB projects it will reach $44 billion in 2026 as brands embed creators into long-term media strategies and even product development.

“This revenue growth reflects a market that has reoriented around performance channels,” said IAB CEO David Cohen. “As expectations for measurable outcomes rise, investment is concentrating in areas that can directly correlate spend to business results.”

Download the full IAB report HERE.