Podcast advertising continues to be a good investment for marketers according to Podsights’ latest quarterly analysis of how their ad spending plays with listeners. Its latest benchmark report says brands received an average $2.23 return for every $1 of their podcast advertising investment as the medium scored high on converting listeners into buyers with a 97% lift rate on purchases after hearing a podcast ad.
“Individuals are twice as likely to purchase after being exposed to a podcast ad, which is an excellent testament to the podcast space,” said Matt Drengler, Director of Partnerships at Podsights. “I don’t know very many channels that can tout those kind of numbers.” He said during a webinar Thursday that the average purchase conversion rate for podcast advertising is three and a half times higher than the average for e-commerce overall. Beverage, Arts, Media & Entertainment, and Pharmaceutical advertising had the biggest gains.
Podsights says the average purchase conversion rate for podcasting was 0.062% during the second quarter. While that may sound like a small number, in reality it is actually very strong when compared to other media. The latest quarterly figure was also on par with the fourth quarter when holiday spending typically boosts consumer buying. “To see the strength in purchase conversion rates staying the same across these various quarters is incredible,” said Drengler. He thinks it may be tied to Americans now spending some of the $1.6 trillion they saved during the pandemic. “There’s a lot of buying power that’s being cooped up right now,” said Drengler. “It seems podcast media does a really good job at engaging that new consumer behavior.”
The average conversion rate – which measures people who were exposed to an ad and then visited a brand’s website – was 1.58% in the latest quarter. That is better than the click through rates for Google, Facebook, Tik Tok or Twitter, despite podcast ads requiring someone physically typing a website address into their browser. “Podcast media really does have a seat at the big kid’s table,” said Drengler.
Digging deeper, the Podsights data shows some key advertising categories have much higher conversion rates, such as restaurants with a 3.5% conversion rate and brick and mortar retail with a 2.7%.
“When I look at restaurants sailing above everything else, it makes sense. A lot of the country is starting to open up and we have a lot of states opening up to close to 100% capacity. So seeing that we have a lot of engagement with the restaurant industry aligns with what we think is happening in the marketplace,” said Drengler. “Brick and mortar [retail] is another one of those, as retailers start to open up their stores more and as consumers start to think as brick and mortar also as an ecommerce play.”
Podsights also measures install conversion rates, tracking the number of people who are exposed to a podcast and then download a related app. During the latest quarter it saw a noteworthy shift as gambling emerged as the industry with highest average install rate. Drengler said not only did online gambling rise during the pandemic, but more states are legalizing gambling, and that is being reflected in how people are responding to podcast advertising.
The Podsights Benchmark Report is based on a rolling average of 12 months of data including about 4.5 billion ad impressions and 2,800 campaigns for 700 brands that spent an estimated $154 million combined on podcasting.
Download a copy of the latest Podsights Benchmark Report HERE.