Magellan: June Podcast Spending Holds Steady As Toyota Leads The Way.

Toyota crossed the finish line in first place last month as Magellan AI says the automaker spent more on podcast ads than any other brand. Toyota spent an estimated $5.7 million in the medium, a 23% increase from the prior month. It lifted Toyota to its first first-place finish, ahead of Amazon and BetterHelp, which have been trading the top spot for much of the year.

Magellan says Amazon remained in second place in June, spending an estimated $5.2 million. That was a 10% decline from May. The pullback could reflect a decision by the e-tailer to reserve its advertising firepower to promote this month’s Prime Days sales event.

The update shows May’s No. 1, BetterHelp, slid back to third. Magellan says the online mental health provider spent an estimated $5.2 million last month. That was an 11% decrease month-to-month.

But the luxury e-tailer Quince was among the brands spending more. It rose to No. 4 on Magellan’s June ranking of top spenders, with $4.7 million in estimated spending. That reflects a 16% increase from what Quince spent on podcast ads during May.

T-Mobile rounds out June’s top five, moving up from tenth place a month earlier. Magellan says that jump came as T-Mobile increased its spending 23% between May and June. The investment in podcast ads is paying off: T-Mobile reported this week a surge in subscribers, while the other big wireless carriers reported softer numbers.

Overall, Magellan says the top 15 podcast advertisers spent a combined $60.1 million during June. That was nearly flat — slipping 0.1% — from a month earlier, when $60.2 million was spent by the top 15. Eleven of the biggest June advertisers spent the biggest share of their dollars in Sports podcasts. A handful of others spent the most in the Comedy, News and TV & Film genres.

Magellan AI’s monthly ranking of brands that deliver the largest increases in spending in the medium — its list of movers and shakers — is led by supermarket chain Albertsons. Its June spending more than quadrupled May’s as it invested nearly $1.5 million in podcast ads, according to Magellan estimates.

Some other big brand names were also more heavily investing in podcast ads last month, including IBM, Starbucks, PayPal, Domino’s Pizza, Lululemon and Dell — all of which significantly ramped up the amount of dollars they put into the medium. The prize for the biggest gains arguably goes to Domino’s. It spent $1,400 on podcast ads in May. But in June, it spent an estimated $619,000.

Overall, Magellan says its list of movers and shakers spent a combined $11.8 million in June. That compares to the $8.7 million spent by those on the list in May.

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, the number of downloads for each episode, and estimated CPMs as reported in select media kits and estimated based on popularity.