Regardless of whether it is a measure of a slower ad market or an industry realizing it risks turning off listeners by feeding them the same ads over and over, podcast ad frequency levels during the third quarter held steady after setting records at the start of the year. The latest Podsights Benchmark Report shows ad frequency rates were on par with second quarter, resulting in higher purchase and lead conversion rates for marketers.
During the third quarter, Podsights says the average ad campaign had an ad frequency of 4.75 compared to 4.76 during second quarter. Frequency is the number of times a household is exposed to an ad, so that means based on Podsights data, among the campaigns it analyzes, the typical listener heard the ad about five times.
The current quarter came in at the top end of the recommended two- to five-times range that Podsights recommends marketers embrace. And the average frequency during Q3 is 18% higher than it was a year ago. But the frequency rate is down substantially from the first quarter when it hit a record 6.32.
Frequency rates have been under scrutiny since Podsights data has been suggesting the return on ad spending was not as high as it has been for marketers. The latest report shows those figures continue to move in the right direction for marketers keeping tabs on their podcast ROI.
The average conversion rate – which represents those who visited a site – rose 12% between second and third quarters to 1.31%. That is also up five percent from a year ago.
Podsights says among the campaigns it analyzed, the average purchase conversion rate jumped 19% quarter-to-quarter. Several categories outperformed the average too, including fashion, retail, restaurants, education, and health and wellness. There was also a four percent increase in the conversion rate from attributed visitors who were driven to a website as the result of a podcast commercial. Of that group, Podsights says an average 4.81% clicked on the buy button.
The gains were even more noteworthy among lead conversion rates, the measure of people who took an action like signing-up or sharing their email. That average jumped 38% quarter-to-quarter to what Podsights says is an all-time high. That was driven by what it says was a bounce back in the lead conversion rate from attributed visitors – or those who took the action after hearing the podcast ad. It rose to nearly 12% during the third quarter.
The data shows that advertisers running ads with more than one publisher continue to have higher conversion rates. Those who run podcast advertisements on between two and ten publishers or networks saw the highest average conversion rate of 1.43%. Podsights says that brands running more than eight million impressions are seeing higher conversion rates.
The quarterly update also examined how dynamically-inserted ads performed compared to embedded ads. Podsights says dynamic ads came out on top with an average 1.12% conversion rate compared to 0.93% for embedded ads. The parenting and gambling ad categories had the highest dynamic ad conversion rates, while automotive saw a 72% increase and dominated embedded conversion rates. The numbers may be influenced slightly by the ads Podsights looked at. It notes that dynamic ads make up 84% of the ads that run on Podsights.
The data comes from Podsights’ Quarterly Benchmark Report, based on a rolling average of 12 months of data including about 10.8 billion ad impressions and more than 4,200 campaigns for a thousand brands that spent a combined $545 million on podcasting. The company estimates it captures one of every four dollars spent in the space, given that podcasting is estimated to have $2 billion in total ad sales this year.
Download the latest Podsights Quarterly Benchmark Report HERE.