Podcast listening is becoming more mainstream over time. Now, more and more adults with opulent profiles are joining the podcasts, so there is a constant increase in the audiences of the podcast. According to research, 78% of podcast listeners say that they don’t get annoyed by the ads as they understand that it aims to raise awareness regarding a product or service. Moreover, 54% of podcast listeners have admitted that they are more likely to follow a brand they come across in a podcast ad. It can be established that podcast listeners understand the value exchange between sponsorships and podcasts.

This is a golden opportunity for advertisers and publishers, so they are also willing to invest more dollars in podcast ads. However, they need to maintain a relationship between the tone of the content and messaging of the ad to make it more effective. According to the recent eMarketer Data, the podcast ad spend has been increasing by 55.1% every year till 2021, and this pattern is expected to be the same for the upcoming years as well.

Although the growth of podcast ad spend is expected to be reduced by half this year, the ad spend is still predicted to rise by 28.6%. It will further reinforce the similar increase by almost 27.2% in the next year. eMarketer Data has forecasted that the growth will be slower in 2024, but the increase in the podcast ad spend is still going to be around 16.4%.

This year, podcast advertising will account for more than one-quarter of the digital audio ad spend due to the constant increase. However, it is going to be even more than that, as per the report. By 2024, it will account for one-third of the US digital audio ad spend, which includes satellite radio services, streaming music services, online radio stations, and national and local broadcast radio stations.

eMarketer is expecting the podcast advertising spend to reach $2.6 billion which is almost double the $1.34 billion, which was the expected podcast advertising spend for the last year. It is quite an optimistic estimate compared to the one offered by PwC last year. According to PwC, podcast ad market spending was expected to reach $1.6 billion by the end of 2025. Because of the change in the forecasted statistics last year, PwC might also adjust its forecast to accommodate a greater chunk of the digital audio ad spend.

Moreover, out of other domains, the broader digital audio services advertising market is going to play a major role in the overall increase of digital audio spending in the upcoming years. This statement is given by the eMarketer. If everything goes according to this prediction, the ad spend, which is 36.1% this year, will have 37.9% of its share in the US digital audio market in 2025.

According to a survey, more than half of the advertisers are planning to increase their podcast ad budgets this year. 46% of the advertisers say that they won’t make any changes in the budget plan for podcast ads, while only 1% are planning to reduce their podcast ad spend this year. According to Insider Intelligence, another insight about the podcast ad budget is that nearly half of the advertisers don’t have any specific podcast budget plan. They derive funds for podcast campaigns from their digital audio budgets.

Given the increase in podcast ad spending, more advertisers are now planning to erupt their podcast-specific budgets. It is quite helpful for the advertisers to have specific budget plans for podcasts to plan, measure, and optimize it properly in the long run.

To Sum Up

Podcast ad spending is expected to increase because it is attracting a larger audience, mainly adults with high profiles. The expected rise in the podcast ad spend is going to account for one-third of the US digital ad spend, which is too big to ignore. The advertisers are also acknowledging the importance of having separate budgets for podcast ad spending. This further reinforces the prediction made by the eMarketer regarding the podcast ad spend. There might be a few growth challenges along the way but it seems like little is going to hold back the ad dollars from free-flowing.