“Audio is going places where screens simply don’t go.” So declared Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster, as research from his firm finds audio podcast consumers more attentive, more trusting, and more likely to act on advertising than users of any other measured platform.
The Podcast Atlas, fielded in partnership with Signal Hill Insights among 5,061 ad-supported platform users 18 and older, maps buying behavior across the full podcast and creator ecosystem, including audio podcasting, video podcasting, short-form clips, social platforms, and newsletters.
The four top listening environments reported by respondents — exercising or walking, doing housework, commuting, and cooking — are all extended, low-distraction windows where screens are impractical or unavailable. In those screen-free moments, audio outperformed video 78% to 55%.
Seventy-seven percent of audio podcast consumers reported giving full or nearly full attention while listening; only 5% described it as background noise. Seventy-one percent said they almost always or more than half the time finish an episode. Webster called that “committed behavior” and drew a contrast with music radio, which he characterized as predominantly passive.
On credibility, 58% of audio podcast consumers agreed that content on the format is accurate and factual, compared to 55% for video podcasting, 50% for YouTube broadly, and 36% for Facebook. The trust gap carries directly into advertising: only 31% of audio podcast consumers said they question ad claims most or all of the time, compared to 38% for video podcasting and higher still for Facebook and X. Webster attributed the difference to parasocial host relationships and the prevalence of host-read advertising.
Forty-six percent of ad-supported platform users across the study reported making a purchase based on a creator’s ad recommendation.
However, Webster was direct that audio and video are not substitutes. Among consumers who use both formats, 29% prefer audio, and 37% prefer video, meaning creators or advertisers who invest in only one leave a third to half of their potential audience unreached. Video outperformed audio on transaction-adjacent behaviors such as immediate purchases and screenshot-taking, but Webster attributed much of that gap to the greater number of clickable surfaces on video platforms.
