What began as a niche community has become a foundational element of the modern media buy. A new study from Advertiser Perceptions and the Cumulus Podcast Network marks the 10-year transformation of podcast advertising from fringe to fundamental.
The latest wave of the Advertiser Perceptions Podcast Advertising Study, conducted in June, surveyed 302 agency and brand professionals to understand current usage and attitudes toward podcasting. The findings show just how far the medium has come since the study began tracking the space in 2015.
The data traces a long arc of increasing confidence in podcasting as a scalable and effective ad platform. From 2015 to 2025, advertiser discussion of podcasts as a potential media investment rose 50 percentage points. Consideration and intention to spend grew by similar margins over the same period. Current usage, up from 15% in 2015 to 78% in 2025, has seen a fivefold increase.
While growth was steady across the decade, the most significant surges occurred post-COVID, accelerated by the format’s perceived intimacy, rising listener numbers, and the development of more sophisticated attribution tools. The trend line indicates that advertisers now view podcasting not just as an experimental channel, but as a mainstream component of omnichannel media plans.
The survey found that 91% of agencies and advertisers have discussed podcast advertising as a potential media investment in 2025 – the highest level in the study’s 10-year tracking history. That figure represents a sharp rise from 77% in June 2023 and 41% when the question was first posed in September 2015.
Consideration for near-term investment is also growing. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they would definitely consider advertising in podcasts in the next six months, up nine points from the prior year and more than four times the rate from 2015.
Actual spend intention is closely tracking that momentum. Sixty-nine percent of respondents now say they definitely will advertise in podcasts in the coming six months. That marks a nine-point gain over 2024, a 21-point increase over 2022, and a nearly sevenfold increase since the 10% figure recorded in 2015.
The full data is available via Cumulus Media/Westwood One’s Audio Active Group.
