The fourth quarter brought the expected seasonal uptick in advertising, but frequency – the measure of how many times a household is exposed to an ad – rose just four percent on average. That’s according to Podsights’ analysis of the podcast ad market. During the fourth quarter, Podsights says the average ad campaign had an ad frequency of 4.94 compared to 4.75 during third quarter. That means based on Podsights data, among the campaigns it analyzes, the typical listener heard the ad about five times.
The fourth quarter came in at the top end of the recommended two- to five-times range that Podsights recommends marketers embrace. But the average frequency during Q4 was 15% lower than it was a year earlier. The frequency rate is also 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 the average conversion rate – which represents those who visited a site – remained consistent between third and fourth quarters. It was down seven percent from a year ago, however.
Parenting advertisers had the best conversion rate during the fourth quarter, with a rate that was more than four-times the average. Its 4.46 rate was out front, followed by gambling ads (3.24), retail (2.35), education (2.15), and travel (2.11).
Podsights says among the campaigns it analyzed, the average purchase conversion remained steady quarter-to-quarter. But it was up 13% from one year earlier. Brick and mortar retailers had the highest purchase conversion rate during Q4, followed by education, beauty, fashion, and consumer packed goods.
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 5.15% clicked on the buy button, a seven percent increase from third quarter.
Pharmaceutical brands had the best conversion rates from attributed website visitors, with beauty and CPG brands also scoring at the top.
While bigger has in the past been better, the latest Podsights data shows that brands running between 40,000 and one million impressions had the highest conversion rates during the fourth quarter. That’s a flip from Q3 when brands with eight million or more impressions did the best.
During fourth quarter, pre-roll ads outperformed mid-roll placements by nine percent. Podsights says brands that ran pre-roll ads had an average 1.29% conversion rate compared to an average 1.18% conversion rate for brands that used mid-roll ads.
The data comes from Podsights’ Quarterly Benchmark Report, based on a rolling average of 12 months of data including about 12 billion ad impressions and more than 4,300 campaigns for a thousand brands that spent a combined $757 million on podcasting. The company estimates it captures one of every three dollars spent in the space, given that podcasting is estimated to have had $2 billion in total ad sales during 2022.
Download the latest Podsights Quarterly Benchmark Report HERE.
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