Podcast Ad Seller Gumball Saw Triple Digit Sales Growth During First Half of 2022.

Gumball, the Headgum-owned marketplace for advertisers, says it sold more than 4,800 ads during the first half of 2022. “Campaigns that ran in the first half of the year delivered a total of nearly 200 million ad impressions, a 146% increase from the same time period in 2021,” the company says in a blog post.

Gumball’s available inventory of impressions also grew 258% year-over-year as it added 77 podcasts to its roster during the first half of the year. That list includes the high-profile signing of comedians and actors Tig Notaro and Cheryl Hines who took their indie podcast Tig & Cheryl: True Story to the comedy podcast network Headgum last month.

“They represent a large range of audiences across listeners young and old, as well as every podcast category you can think of — history, true crime, fantasy, comedy, literature, dating, fitness, and much, much more. That means more shows for advertisers to choose from and more options that fit their specific campaign needs,” Gumball said.

Gumball also raised $10 million in new financing in March, led by Union Square Ventures and Good Friends, that will allow it to expand its programmatic marketplace for host-read ads. “We’re already seeing the impact of the funding, which has allowed us to grow our team and continue building features that creators and advertisers need and love,” says the blog post.

One way that money is being spent is Gumball says it has hired 17 new team members so far this year in areas including marketing, partnerships, sales, and tech.

Launched in 2019, Gumball says during its development for the past two years it worked with more than 500 brands and delivered more than 15,000 host-read ads. They have included advertisers such as Casper, CBS, Netflix, OkCupid, Squarespace, Warby Parker, Brooklinen, AMC, LinkedIn, and StockX.