While AM/FM still outpaces podcasting in monthly and daily reach, the medium is emerging as the primary gateway to spoken word audio for 18–34-year-olds, marking a generational shift in how younger audiences engage with talk content and an opportunity for radio.
In the first installment of Sounds Profitable‘s new multi-phase research series, The Advertising Landscape, the group measures the monthly, daily, and “prime” usage of 22 ad-supported media platforms, including podcasting, radio, social media, and streaming video. In collaboration with Signal Hill Insights, the study surveyed 5,005 U.S. adults aged 18 and older.
Part one of the data, which will be released across multiple reports in the coming weeks, focuses exclusively on reach, with future reports diving into attentiveness, effectiveness, and consumer trust in various ad environments.
According to the study, 31% of Americans 18+ consume ad-supported podcasts monthly, placing podcasting in the middle tier among the 22 media channels measured. AM/FM radio landed higher, with 66% of respondents using it monthly, while YouTube with ads (65%) and Facebook (72%) topped the list.
Although podcasting continues to see consistent monthly reach, its conversion to daily or near-daily use is less robust. Among monthly ad-supported podcast listeners, only 61% say they use podcasts daily or near-daily, below the average of 70% across all platforms. For comparison, 87% of Facebook’s monthly users engage daily, as do 84% of Instagram’s.
Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster noted that podcasting’s longer-form, episodic nature and weekly publishing cadence contribute to its lower daily engagement, especially when compared to platforms like TikTok or Instagram that facilitate micro-interactions. “You can dip in and out of social media for 30 seconds,” he said. “Podcasting is a deeper investment of time.”
A surprising finding was that 42% of monthly podcast listeners don’t believe they consume ad-supported podcasts, even though many are likely hearing ads without registering them as such. This perceptual disconnect complicates efforts to measure and market podcast advertising’s true scale. The study reveals that ad-supported podcasting skews younger and slightly more female than the overall podcasting audience. Among ad-supported podcast listeners, 39% are aged 18–34, and 38% fall into the 35–54 age group.
Webster also highlighted the growing, and much-talked-about, role of video in podcast consumption. When surveyed about New Heights with the Kelseys, a podcast with both audio and video formats, respondents were evenly split between those who primarily listened and those who primarily watched.
News and sports podcasts saw stronger engagement among ad-supported listeners, likely due to their daily publishing cadence. Genres like health and fitness, tech, and education also outperformed general podcast averages. Conversely, pop culture and celebrity interview content showed little difference from the broader podcast audience.
Webster closed with a call to action, urging podcasters and networks to build deeper engagement strategies and increase podcasting’s “stickiness” in daily life.
Gateway to Talk Audio
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