MediaRadar says advertisers it tracks increased their spending on podcasts by 23.8% during the first five months of 2021. It says marketers spent $221.8 million on podcasts versus $179.2 million a year earlier. The data – which was released by WARC – shows the market was gaining traction as the year progressed. May was the top-billing month with $51.8 million compared to $36 million in January, traditionally the lightest month of the year for all media outlets. All told, between January and May there were about 3,500 advertisers on podcasts according to MediaRadar’s analysis.
The tally suggests the podcast industry may not cross the $1 billion threshold for total advertising revenue in 2021 as predicted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and others, although it is unclear how complete MediaRadar’s collection of podcast ad spending is. By way of comparison, Magellan AI previously said it estimated the top 20 podcast advertisers during May spent a combined $27.22 million.
WARC says as more brands are confident they are able to measure the return on their investment in podcast ad dollars, it is helping convince more marketers to spend with the medium. It says research that shows podcast audiences are more engaged with the content than TV audiences also helps.
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