Podcasters are operating in the best place to be in the coming year. That is according to a new report from Baird Equity Research. It projects online advertising spending will climb 13% this year and tack on another 11% growth in 2024. That is slightly stronger gains for digital advertising than Baird projected earlier.
The latest update reflects continued health in the second half of this year. “Near-term, we expect industry growth to reach 14% YoY in Q4, roughly in line with Q3 growth, which contemplates easier growth comps,” the report says according to MediaPost.
But even as many economists are now questioning whether predictions of the U.S. economy will tilt into a recession, Baird also acknowledges that many risks remain for prognosticators. “As we've articulated throughout the year, we see a number of potential risk factors to our forecasts for both ecommerce and online advertising, including a softening labor market, but also increasingly geo-political tensions,” its update for clients says.
The report also includes results of Baird’s latest quarterly survey of which apps and websites U.S. consumers are using. It sees “largely stable” trends for most, including TikTok and Instagram. And while things are mostly the same at Meta’s Facebook, analysts say the survey shows holiday season gift-giving could give sister Instagram a lift in fourth quarter usage as people look online for gift ideas.