Nielsen: Podcast Ads Drive Big Brand Lifts As Listening Holds Strong.

Podcast advertising continues to outperform expectations, with new Nielsen data showing ads in the medium deliver significant brand impact across awareness, intent, and sales. Drawing on nearly 2,000 case studies, Nielsen’s Podcasting Today report says podcast ads typically generate a 10-point lift in brand awareness, and 8-point lift in information seeking — which was up a point from a year ago. The report also finds podcast ads are responsible for a 6-point lift in purchase intent.

“Quarter after quarter, podcasts prove to be one of the most effective channels for building brands and motivating consumer action,” Nielsen says.

The latest benchmarks also break out category-specific gains, showing podcasts deliver strong results across verticals. Auto ads, for instance, generate 8-point lifts in both brand affinity and info-seeking, while consumer packaged goods and financial services drive solid boosts in purchase and recommendation intent. Media, retail, tech and travel categories also see consistently high lifts across multiple measures.

The report shows podcast listeners are also generally happy with what they are hearing in terms of advertising. Seven in ten recalled hearing a brand, and two-thirds say they felt the brand they heard was a good fit for them. The Nielsen data also shows that marketers can rely on podcast ads to deliver measurable impact in brand fit, affinity, and purchase behavior.

The report also offers fresh insights into what listeners think of podcast advertising. It finds 37% say the ads are “interesting” and “believable,” while 36% label them “natural” and 32% think they are “authentic.” Just 11% think podcast ads are “forced” with 7% believing they are “intrusive” to the content.

Host-read spots in particular are described as more authentic and engaging than other ad formats, with 62% of listeners rating hosts as “likeable,” 42% saying they are “credible,” and 39% calling them “relatable.” On the flipside, Nielsen says 11% call podcast hosts “boring” and just 2% label them as “untrustworthy.”

On the audience side, Nielsen leans into Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” data. It shows podcasts commanded 19% of daily ad-supported audio time among U.S. adults during the second quarter, second only to AM/FM radio’s 64%. The medium is particularly strong with 18- to 34-year-olds, who devote nearly one-third of their daily audio time to podcasts, and with Hispanic audiences at 24%.

“While advertisers are constantly tracking changes in consumer audio trends in order to improve their cross-channel marketing, podcasts share of daily time has remained stable and noteworthy in recent years,” the report says.

Download the full report HERE.