After BetterHelp was dethroned as the biggest podcast spender in December, ending a three-year run, the online mental health provider returned to No. 1 in January. Magellan AI reports BetterHelp spent $9.1 million on podcast ads last month, a 14% bump up from the end of 2023 when Amazon leapt into first place. With the holiday season now past, the online retailer cut its podcast spending last month to $6.8 million, which was a 17% decrease month-to-month.
The online gaming company VGW, behind such games as Chumba Casino, Luckyland Slots, and Global Poker, rose to third place spending nearly $5.1 million on podcast ads during January. That compared to $2.9 million in December, or a 76% jump in spending last month.
As the NFL playoffs captured attention leading up to the Super Bowl, DraftKings also hiked its podcast investment. Magellan AI estimates it spent $3.2 million during January, an increase of about a third from December’s spending as it rose to No. 6 from No. 10 in the prior month.
Overall, Magellan AI says the top 15 podcast advertisers spent an estimated $54,062,600 in January. That is up 3.5% from December in what is a positive sign for 2024 as spending shook off what is typically a seasonal slowdown in marketing investments at the start of the year.
Among the big spenders, Magellan says Sports was the most-used genre by 11 brands. Two used Comedy podcasts the most, while two others used News podcasts the most, according to the analysis.
Magellan AI’s monthly ranking of brands that deliver the biggest increases in spending in the medium – its list of movers and shakers – puts MGM Resorts International at the front of the pack. It spent an estimated $2.3 million on podcast ads during January, which was a 385% increase from December’s total.
Other big month-to-month gains were seen among Intuit, General Mills, Danone, and Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen.
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.
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