Navigating The Podcast Atlas, Miroma Acquires Ad Results Media, & More

Sounds Profitable Maps the Creator Economy With The Podcast Atlas

This Wednesday, Sounds Profitable released The Podcast Atlas, a new study built on a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. consumers that maps today’s creator ecosystem into five distinct territories: audio, video, short-form clips, newsletters, and social platforms.

This Thursday, writing for Sounds Profitable, Tom Webster used the Atlas data to build the case for audio specifically as an ad environment in The Format That Travels. A quote from the article:

“It builds the trust the advertising runs on, and it does it in moments no other format can reach.”

He points to data showing audio wins every hands-busy moment of the day, exercising, doing chores, commuting, cooking, by margins as wide as 24 points, and captures 78% of those moments compared with video’s 55%.

The trust numbers back it up: audio listeners rate their own medium more accurate and factual than users of any other platform rate theirs (58%, against 55% for video and 36% for Facebook), extend more benefit of the doubt to advertisers (just 31% say they question ad claims most of the time, the lowest of any platform), and finish what they start (71% say they complete episodes almost always or more than half the time).

Miroma Group Acquires Ad Results Media

Here’s a brief but big one from this week: on Tuesday, Miroma Group acquired audio advertising agency Ad Results Media. CEO Jordan Fox announced the deal in a LinkedIn post, adding he “cannot wait to grow together during this next phase.” Fox pointed to the agency’s growth over the past two years as the rationale: 26 new client wins, expanded service capabilities, and a rebuilt technology and data infrastructure.

The acquisition marks a major U.S. expansion move for Miroma Group, folding ARM’s podcast-native performance advertising expertise into its broader agency portfolio.

The Purchase Funnel by Ben Robins

This Tuesday, Ben Robins published the fourth installment of his series examining the Sound Insights and Sounds Profitable UK Advertising Landscape study. This edition focuses on what happens downstream of podcast ad trust: repeated purchasing. Among UK listeners age 18 to 34, 44% made a purchase after hearing a podcast ad, compared with 29% across all ages, averaging 1.13 purchases per listener over the past three months.

TikTok posts a higher purchase mean at 1.52, but it’s heavily age-skewed, dropping from 1.71 among 18-34 listeners to 0.84 among those 55 and up. Facebook, by contrast, holds a flat conversion rate around 1.1 regardless of age, what Robins frames as settled habit rather than growth.

Podcasting’s own 55-plus purchase mean sits at just 0.36, a gap Robins flags as a meaningful opportunity given that age group’s disproportionate share of discretionary spending. Eighty-seven percent of UK podcast listeners take some action after hearing a podcast ad, with search, conversation, and social visits typically coming before the purchase itself.

Cannes on a Budget, and Where Niche Podcasts Win Big

Now that everyone’s back from Cannes Lions, let’s look back at a couple things originating from the beaches of France. First up: Next Audio co-founder and chief commercial officer Lemya Soltani detailed on LinkedIn how her MENA audio network hosted a Cannes networking event without VC funding: splitting a boat rental for over 80% in savings, sourcing catering locally for another 80% off, and picking supermarket wine by Vivino rating for over 90% savings.

“You don’t need the biggest budget to make an impact but a clear objective, creativity, discipline, integrity, and a willingness to roll up your sleeves.” Bryan Barletta added onto Soltani’s point by discussing how Sounds Profitable was able to fly out podcaster Ti King and put him up in an AirBNB (with only two week’s notice) for just $3,100. The team at Audion was able to put together a 40-person happy hour event for a price tag that wouldn’t “raise an eyebrow at any other event.”

On the subject of Cannes: the Sounds Profitable YouTube channel has uploaded the panel Riches vs Niches: The Value of Community in Podcasting. Featuring Mike Reznick of SoundStack, Chris Peterson of Red Seat Ventures, Billy Hartman of ART19, and Elsie Kaplan of ADOPTER Media, the 37-minute discussion argues that smaller, niche-owned podcasts can outperform broad-reach shows on the metrics advertisers actually pay for. Metrics like audience engagement, premium ad rates, and subscription revenue. Category ownership, not audience size, is becoming podcasting’s more durable business model.