Join Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster for the second half of The Advertising Landscape 2025, our newest flagship study of the ad-supported media landscape. This is the largest cross-media study of advertising in podcasting in America, and provides the most comprehensive picture to date of podcasting’s strengths and weaknesses as an advertising vehicle.
In this report we dive into the Reach story – what ad-supported media channels do Americans use every day, and how are those most active users different to each other? Main findings include:
- Podcast ads command attention: Despite reaching just 31% of U.S. adults monthly, ad-supported podcasts deliver an effective ad reach nearly equal to TikTok, proving that listeners actually hear—and remember—podcast ads.
- Best-in-class recall: 86% of heavy podcast users recall hearing an ad in the past week—the highest ad recall of any ad-supported medium, ahead of TV, radio, YouTube, and social platforms.
- The most trusted medium: Podcasts top the charts for audience trust in both content and advertising, with listeners more likely to view them as accurate, credible, and free from misleading claims.
- Authenticity drives impact: Nearly half of podcast listeners say the advertising they hear feels authentic and natural—a key differentiator from social media and traditional spots.
- Trust cuts across all demographics: Podcast advertising earns high trust ratings from men and women equally, with standout performance among Black, Hispanic/Latino, and 35–54-year-old listeners.
- Women pay attention: Podcasting is one of the few media environments where female ad recall matches male recall, making it an ideal channel for reaching and resonating with women.
- Podcast hosts are powerful messengers: Listeners trust the voices behind the mic, giving podcast hosts a unique edge in delivering persuasive and credible ad messages.
- Social media trails in credibility: Compared to podcasting, social platforms suffer from lower trust in content, lower ad authenticity, and weaker belief in advertising claims—creating real headwinds for marketers.
This project used a novel survey design that compares podcasting to fifteen other ad-supported media channels, from audio, to video, social media, and even gaming. This is also the first project to isolate the audience for ad-supported podcasts – which is different to the overall podcast audience – and how they perceive ads in other channels.
