Today in the Business of Podcasting
BetterHelp And Amazon Lead Monthly Ranking Of Top Podcast Advertisers.
According to Magellan AI’s monthly estimate, the top 15 advertisers in podcasting spent just under $47 million in September, a 2% drop from August. The small dip can be attributed to BetterHelp, one of the bigger spenders in podcasting, scaling back their spend by 1.5 million from August and running ads in 1,244 podcasts. Amazon came second in spend but ran in just over 1,500 podcasts. Among notable movers and shakers in podcast advertising are United Airlines, who increased their spend 876% last month for the beginning of the fall travel season. Shopping app Drop takes the cake, though, going from no podcast advertising in August to $1 million worth in September. [Source]
Radio beats TV: Audacy describes an audio blueprint for advertisers by Brad Hill
Audacy’s newest State of Audio report is here and it’s pushing the power of audio. The key finding, pulled from a Dentsu Norm study, finds audio drives more attention than both TV and Digital, scoring more than double the average attention seconds than TV. Audacy’s pitch to advertisers is simple: audio advertising’s reach and ability to grab audiences’ attention makes it a no-brainer when considering media mixes for future campaigns. [Source]
BBC Sounds Quarter 3 2023
BBC Sounds has published their quarterly consumption recap, with highlights including 602 million plays of all content, and an average weekly audience of 4.8 million users across the BBC Sounds app website, and voice activated devices. According to Podnews, on-demand radio and podcast plays within the BBC Sounds app are up 21% year-over-year at 226 million. Meanwhile podcast downloads on the open feeds have fallen 22% y-o-y, also hitting 226 million. For the first time since BBC Sounds’ launch, the app and open podcast numbers have met in the middle. Podcasting veterans will remember the app gold rush of the mid-to-late 2010s, when many podcast networks and individual shows would launch their own bespoke app. The health of BBC Sounds could be a sign that, with the right curation and promotion, bespoke podcast apps are still viable. [Source]
How podcast networks use existing feeds to improve engagement and discoverability for new shows by Sara Guaglione
An overview article covering the different ways networks cross-pollinate content across feeds. A common strategy is to post one episode of a newer property in the feed of a popular legacy podcast that will give the new show a ratings boost. Some produce always-on complimentary content specifically to boost the posting frequency of an existing feed, such as two complimentary biweekly podcasts on the Getting Curious feed that doubles its weekly output. Spreading content around is not without controversy, though. Last year The New York Times received backlash for converting former NYT journalist Kara Swisher’s Sway feed into a brand new show called Hard Fork. Effectively allowing the company to launch a different podcast with Swisher’s fanbase pre-subscribed. [Source]
…as for the rest of the news: AdvertiseCast has published their average cost-per-thousand impressions for a sixty second podcast ad in October, and MarketingBrew covers the various Halloweeny activities advertisers got up to last month.
Data Snapshot
Source: Edison Research Share of Ear Q2 2023 Analysis
What it says: In an hour of ad-supported US listening, AM/FM radio represents 41.4 minutes, while podcasts represent 11.4 minutes.
What it means: For podcasting to truly punch its weight in ad revenues, it should be pacing at better than a quarter of commercial AM/FM’s revenues.
Why it’s cool: Some good news – though podcasting’s share of time was flat from 2021 – 2022, IAB PWC ad revenues grew by 29%. This year? Podcasting’s overall share of time grew by 71% over 2022.
