Westwood One has released new data about the resiliency of podcasting after partnering with Magellan AI to analyze podcast advertising occurrences from the top 400 podcasts. The goal was to see if advertisers were also growing their investments. Here’s what they discovered…
Despite the pandemic, the number of podcast advertisers grew 42% in September off April lows when the COVID-19 pondemic was new and the country was approaching lockdown status.
While the pandemic did depress the number of podcast advertisers in April 2020, by May the number of unique podcast advertisers was nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. Then in September of last year a record 855 advertisers were using podcasts to get their message across.
Podcasting is still a medium that isn’t overloaded with commercials. Both radio and Television are known for cramming as many commercials as possible into every hour of programming. According to Magellan AI, advertising represents about 5% of podcast program content. That helps an advertiser stand out much m ore than paying for an ad that runs 4th, 5th or 6th in an 8 or 10 minute commercial break.
Throughout 2020, the average number of ads per podcast hovered slightly under three ads. September saw the number of ads per podcast to jump to 3.3, a +22% increase from April.
Read more about the Westwood Magellan AI study HERE.
