“Podcasting has emerged as one of the fastest-growing advertising channels, and its trajectory remains on an upward curve,” says Dave Hanley, Chief Revenue Officer of Libsyn AdvertiseCast. The IAB projects industry revenue will climb 25% year-to-year when the 2023 tally is done, and by 2025 revenue will reach $4 billion. Hanley is offering his five predictions for podcast advertising in 2024, highlighting when he thinks podcasting momentum will continue.
Hanley thinks persistent brand safety concerns will be “put to rest” in the coming year as advertisers become more comfortable with brand safety in podcasting, thanks to the variety of tech-focused tools now available to help steer brands away from content they are not comfortable with. Hanley says it will send a “don’t sit on the sidelines in 2024” message to ad buyers.
Artificial intelligence is not only helping on the brand safety front, but also in expanding ad inventory. Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast expects a rise in adoption of AI and predictive contextual targeting in the year ahead, and that will help brands discover and unlock a wealth of relevant inventory that they have missed in the past.
Hanley also thinks more regional and local advertisers who have mostly been on the sidelines will enter the podcast advertising space, driven by the growing interest in data-driven targeting. Helping in that effort is the fact that advertisers can now geo-target with increased precision, and at scale, to connect with desired local podcast audiences across hundreds of audience segments.
Programmatic sales are also expected to climb according to Hanley, who says since Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast added the feature in August 2022 they have seen a threefold increase in advertisers utilizing its automatic ad solution. “With greater access to sophisticated audience-based targeting and attribution measurement, new advertisers are capitalizing on the expanding opportunities to achieve their brand goals, be it direct response or brand awareness,” Hanley says.
The growth of video podcasts may be further blurring the lines with audio podcasts, but Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast – which already offers a “simulcast” ad product to advertisers – thinks it will also help grow ad demand for the medium as video helps with the ongoing discoverability struggle for shows. Hanley also thinks that cause-based advertising remains an “untapped opportunity” for the industry to work with mission-focused marketers. He sees an easy jump for them to collaborate with podcast hosts and take advantage of their position as influencers in order to promote social and environmental causes. Beyond cause-based campaigns, Hanley also sees that strategy being applied for political advertisers gearing up for the 2024 election cycle.