Podcast Advertising Grows In April As FanDuel Emerges As Leader.

Podcast advertising spending edged higher in April despite gyrations in the economy, offering the latest indication that marketers continue to hold their ad plans intact. Magellan AI says the top 15 podcast advertisers last month spent a combined $51.9 million. That was a 1.4% increase from what the biggest advertisers spent a month earlier.

While there wasn’t a lot of movement in the total spent, there were plenty of changes in the ranking of the biggest spenders. The sports betting site FanDuel topped Magellan’s list for the first time as its increased spending 59% month-to-month, with an estimated $5.6 million in total investment on podcasts during April.

BetterHelp boosted its budget by 5% to $5.4 million, as it held second place, while Amazon pumped 73% more into podcast ads last month, according to Magellan estimates. That pushed it up to third place after landing at No. 10 in March.

The advertiser that sits in tenth place is T-Mobile, which was No. 1 in March. Magellan estimates the mobile carrier spent $2.7 million on podcast ads last month, down 54% month-to-month.

Overall, Magellan’s monthly update again reveals the usual springtime return to spending. Among the 15 biggest spenders, only five brands spent less in April compared to March. That list includes Toyota, who is among the foreign automakers that have been jolted by tariffs. It spent an estimated $4.1 million on podcast ads last month, down 15% from March.

Among the big spenders, Magellan says Sports was the most-used genre by nine brands. Four used Comedy podcasts the most, while two others used News podcasts the most, according to the analysis.

Magellan AI’s monthly ranking of brands that deliver the largest increases in spending in the medium — its list of movers and shakers — is led by Google. Its spending soared from $77,000 in March to $2.3 million April, a jump big enough that Google ranked as the 13th biggest podcast advertiser last month overall.

The spring season is for doers, or so said the Home Depot ads last month. The home-improvement retailer’s estimated $1.6 million in total spending was more than four times what it spent during March.

Peloton, which in the fall launched a new marketing campaign to promote its full range of services and target audiences the firm hasn’t been reaching — like Millennial men — ranked third on Magellan’s movers and shakers list last month. The home fitness brand spent an estimated $1.4 million on podcast ads, up from just $7,800 in the prior month.

Magellan says its list of movers and shakers spent a combined $11.1 million in April.

Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. Magellan AI’s proprietary model is used to estimate advertising spend. It includes factors such as the number of ads and variation in ad load detected for a given episode, number of downloads for each episode, and estimated CPMs as reported in select media kits and estimated based on popularity.