Study Finds Podcasts Deliver Unique Reach Beyond Streaming Audio.

As Magellan AI pushes into broadcast radio, working with iHeartMedia to bring broadcast radio into the attribution equation, the audio advertising analytics company is also challenging long-held assumptions about how audio works in the media mix. A new white paper from Magellan and True Native Media argues the ad industry now needs to catch up.

“Podcasting has matured. Buying habits have not,” the report says, framing a widening gap between the sophistication of today’s audio marketplace and the way campaigns are still being planned and evaluated.

At the center of that shift is a finding that first surfaced in an earlier Magellan analysis: podcasts and streaming audio don’t compete for the same audience — they expand it.

That earlier research, conducted with Ad Results Media using household-level delivery data from iHeartMedia and SiriusXM, found the two channels function more like complements than substitutes.

The analysis found that most households reached by each channel were not shared. Magellan reported 86.5% of podcast household reach was unique to podcasts, while 13.5% overlapped with streaming audio. For streaming audio, 75.2% of household reach was unique to streaming, and 24.8% overlapped with podcasts.

The new white paper builds on that, arguing many media plans still treat audio as a single bucket despite clear evidence that listener behavior varies by format and context.

“Listeners move between formats based on context,” the report says, noting podcasts tend to capture more intentional, lean-in listening while streaming fills more passive, habitual moments.

That distinction has implications for media buyers. When podcasting is layered into a broader audio plan, it doesn’t just add impressions but it also extends reach into audiences that streaming alone may not capture.

The report also takes aim at one of podcasting’s most common planning shortcuts — genre targeting — arguing it often masks more than it reveals. Data shows wide inconsistencies within categories that buyers typically treat as uniform. For instance, 28% of Comedy shows over-index with listeners 25–29 while 15% under-index, and in Sports, 20% of shows over-index among investors while 29% under-index. Similar splits appear in other genres like Society & Culture and History, where audience interests vary significantly from show to show.

The takeaway is genre labels may offer directional guidance, but they are unreliable proxies for audience behavior, reinforcing the need for show-level data and more precise targeting. Magellan data also shows wide variability within those groupings across demographics, income, and purchase behavior. The report instead calls for “signal-informed planning,” using show-level performance data, audience insights, and market intelligence to guide decisions.

That data-driven approach is also reshaping how podcast performance is measured. For years, advertisers have leaned on promo codes and vanity URLs to track response. But the white paper argues those methods capture only part of the picture. It says pixel-based attribution, now being layered into podcast campaigns, is revealing a much broader view of listener behavior.

In one case cited, pixel tracking identified more than 30% additional conversions beyond what promo codes alone captured, while expanding measurable impressions to more than 95% of delivery.

Yet the report cautions no single metric tells the full story. Instead, it recommends marketers combine multiple elements like attribution data, brand lift studies, and competitive intelligence to understand true campaign impact. Magellan and True Native Media suggest that becomes even more important as podcasting increasingly operates alongside streaming audio and video in cross-platform campaigns.

“The future of podcast advertising is intelligence-driven, not just impression-driven,” the report says, underscoring that better data — and better use of it — will determine where dollars flow next.

Download the white paper HERE.