Podscribe: Podcast Ads Delivers Twice The Impact of Streaming, Especially For Niche Advertisers.

Audio advertising continues to drive incremental impact of campaigns, with a new report from Podscribe showing that podcasting delivers more than twice the bang for a marketer’s buck than streaming audio ads. Podscribe’s quarterly Podcast Performance Benchmark report reveals brands that invest in podcasting get a median 37% lift in listener attributed events — like searching for it online — compared to a 16% boost for brands that direct ad dollars to streaming audio.

Podscribe says the gap between the two audio formats is likely because podcast listeners are harder to reach elsewhere, making each ad exposure more valuable. In converse, streaming audiences can be reached across different channels — like AM/FM radio — thereby reducing the impact of the ad exposure.

“The smaller advertisers are picking and choosing specific channels that work for them. Most see a lot of great incrementality. They’re rewarded with incremental performance because they are focusing on the podcast channel, because that audience is so hard to find,” said Head of Partnerships Matt Drengler. But he explained on a webinar last week that for larger brands that have more to spend, the impact is less pronounced because those audiences are exposed to their ads elsewhere.

The data shows that the smallest tier of podcast advertisers see a 56% lift in a brand’s unique site visitors per month, with the biggest getting a 13% bounce. It’s similar for streaming audio, where the smallest advertisers get a 58% increase in site visitors, compared to a 15% lift for big brands.

“We believe that both podcasts and streaming audio are very effective drivers of performance for those advertisers,” Drengler said. “We believe that the audio channel, specifically podcast and streaming audio, are very strong performers in terms of driving incrementality.”

Podscribe’s quarterly Lag Report, which measures how soon listeners respond after hearing an ad, shows a slight improvement from its prior report released in March. It shows 17.3% of website visits happen within 24 hours of ad exposure, while 42.3% happen within seven days. Eight in ten happen within 22 days.

The latest PPB report also offers new insights into which groups respond best to podcast ads. Using its new alliance with TransUnion, Podscribe is able to say that more affluent audience segments perform 25% better with an advertiser’s purchase index than less affluent demos. And listeners with higher education degrees convert up to 17% more, likely because they are more likely to be among the high earners.

The report also shows that while single show campaigns deliver stronger visitor and purchase conversions per impression, runs of network buys still offer greater efficiency. In the latest data, those network buys had 27% lower media cost per acquisition costs than a single show campaign by a $136 media for network buys to $107 for single show campaigns. Podscribe says it shows that network buys help brands test broadly across a publisher’s inventory and then optimize it to improve performance.

For all that has changed in podcasting, including more video episodes, Podscribe says host-read ads still tend to convert better in both visitor and purchase rates. But when considering the cost, the gap is smaller. Mid-roll ads are more efficient per impression, but pre-rolls come out ahead in per-dollar efficiency, according to the analysis.

It also shows the longer the host ad read runs, the more efficient it is in terms of money spent and on a per impression basis. At the same time, producer-read ads also see greater efficiency with longer ads.

“Longer ad reads allow for more storytelling, more value to be articulated, and building audience trust with the host or with the producer,” said Camden Weber, Senior Director of Partnerships at Podscribe.

The number of advertisers whose ads run on YouTube thanks to their podcast placement continues to climb. Podscribe reports 20% growth last year in the number of episodic campaigns that have a video simulcast component.

“It speaks to the fact that not only are shows going more simulcast, but also advertisers are buying it, CEO Pete Birsinger said. During a webinar detailing the new report last week, he said in situations where the ads have placement in both channels, nearly two-thirds (64%) of the consumption comes via YouTube. “That’s a staggeringly high number for one platform to have,” Birsinger said. He added that once a podcast starts posting on YouTube, that split stays “roughly stable” month after month.

Podscribe’s second quarter PPB estimates it takes 500 million ad impressions per month to reach 75% of monthly U.S. podcast listeners. And it requires more than one billion impressions per month to hit 100%.

The PPB report draws on data from more than 67,000 audio campaigns, 270 advertisers, and over 20 billion impressions based on a rolling 12-month average, offering industry benchmarks across both the U.S. and international markets. For the first time, the report includes conversion performance insights from five additional countries: Germany, France, Australia, the UK, and Canada. “As podcast advertising scales globally, advertisers need clear, trustworthy benchmarks to guide their decisions,” said Birsinger.

Download the latest PPB report HERE.