Podcast advertising accelerated in Q2 2025, with overall spend up 28% year-over-year and 17% over Q1, according to Magellan AI’s latest benchmark report. The data, drawn from nearly 95,000 episodes, shows steady monthly gains across April, May, and June.
Eight of the quarter’s top 10 spenders returned from Q1, while Unilever entered the rankings for the first time. BetterHelp remained the single largest podcast advertiser with $16.4 million in estimated spend. Amazon followed closely at $15.9 million, with Toyota ($14.4 million) bringing up the top three.
Collectively, the top 10 accounted for $128 million, a 20% increase from Q1.
Looking at overall spend, financial services held the top position at $104.3 million, up 56% year-over-year. Business services and software followed at $77.3 million, with consumer services and software not far behind at $70.7 million, marking an 82% increase. Industries driving the most growth included shaving, home goods, beauty, eyewear, and insurance.
The report also highlighted changes in advertising approach. Produced ads saw the fastest growth, with spending up 76% from Q2 2024. Host-read ads climbed 31%. Scale executions, including programmatic and run-of-network buys, held steady. Campaign objectives shifted as well, with brand awareness making up 55% of spend, direct response 43%, and tune-in promotions just 2%.
Ad loads inched up to 8.13% of podcast content, compared to 8.00% in Q1, though still lower than the 9.20% recorded in Q2 2024. By genre, technology podcasts saw ad loads increase from 7.17% last year to 7.75% this quarter. True crime programs under 15 minutes long registered the heaviest ad concentration, averaging 39% of runtime. Sports remained the top genre for attracting new advertisers, with one in five new podcast advertisers choosing the category in their media plans.
New advertiser activity continued to expand, with 1,196 brands launching podcast campaigns for the first time in Q2, a 17% increase from the previous quarter. These new brands averaged $41,600 in spend, with mid-roll placements of about 49 seconds being the most common ad format.
Spending patterns also varied by show ranking. Advertisers invested an average of $318,000 per month on top 500-ranked podcasts, up 6% from Q1. Mid-tier shows ranked between 501 and 3,000 averaged $39,000 in monthly revenue.
