Podcast monetization platform Acast is showcasing its sales growth in its second-quarter earnings report, posting a 24% increase in net sales. The Swedish company says the highest-performing regions were North America and Europe, which saw net sales growth of 26% and 25%, respectively.
Despite a 15% drop in listens, attributed to Apple’s iOS 17 update altering podcast measurements, Acast’s Average Revenue Per Listen rose by 45% year-over-year.
Apple’s new system limits automatic downloads to five episodes and prevents further automatic downloads if the feature is temporarily disabled and reenabled. This move addresses longstanding concerns from advertisers about the reliability of download counts as an indicator of true engagement.
Other points of interest for Acast include an econometric study conducted in June on the efficiency of podcast advertising in the Swedish market – yielding a return on ad spend of 4.9x – and the company’s focus on multichannel strategies is enhancing engagement and monetization opportunities, demonstrated by their success at the Campaign Audio Advertising Awards.
Overall, podcast advertising revenue saw a modest increase in 2023, rising 5% to $1.9 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Although this represents a slowdown from the rapid growth of previous years, the medium is expected to surpass $2 billion in 2024 and potentially reach nearly $2.6 billion by 2026.
