Influence, not reach, is what podcast advertisers are really buying, according to an agency executive placing those buys. Adopter Media’s Adam McNeil joined Audacy Head of Podcasts Leah Reis-Dennis for a webinar expanding on Audacy’s State of Audio report.
The meeting built on the company’s fall State of Audio report, produced in partnership with Podscribe, Adopter Media, and Oxford Road. In September, Radio Ink reported the study found 75% of respondents named podcast hosts the most authentic voice in advertising, 21 points ahead of social media influencers.
Reis-Dennis said the biggest changes in podcasting over the past 12 to 18 months are the rise of video and more sophisticated measurement, while the relationship between hosts and listeners has held steady. “I think what hasn’t changed is the engagement and the host connection that podcasters have with their audiences, and that is unique to podcasting,” she said. “And I don’t see that going away anytime soon.”
Audacy now sells audio and video as a package, Reis-Dennis explained, adding that fears of one format eroding the other haven’t played out. “I think there used to be a situation where we thought, ‘So if we’re investing in YouTube, is that cannibalizing our audio audience?’ We found that’s not the case.”
She credited YouTube’s recommendation engine with drawing Gen Z into the medium, citing Audacy’s recent signing of Smosh. “So, you know, if you’re someone who likes to spend time on YouTube, it’s really hard to avoid podcasting, even if you don’t think of yourself as a podcast person,” she noted. Reis-Dennis also said women now make up a larger share of the network’s hosts than men, pointing to shows including Unpaused with menopause expert Dr. Mary Claire Haver and Aspire with entrepreneur Emma Grede.
McNeil, Adopter Media’s SVP of Client Services, said his agency looks past channels to what a host can actually move. “When we’re talking about host partnerships, the thing that we’re trying to commoditize and trade in is influence,” he stated. That often points buyers toward smaller shows, where hosts tend to have closer relationships with listeners. “But a show between 10,000 and 100,000 downloads an episode is like my sweet spot of what I really love to buy a lot of,” McNeil said. He added that recent YouTube changes to engaged views and public play counts have made it harder for buyers to know what they are getting on the platform.
“I’m going to say this, and this might offend some people out there, but podcast ads have become really easy to buy,” McNeil said. “And unfortunately, that has led it to a point in which a lot of dumb money is coming into the industry and funneling its way into probably buys that I would look at and go, I don’t think that buy should have probably happened, and it’s probably burning cash for that brand.” His advice to newcomers was to study where established brands keep investing. “Brands don’t keep spending money where they’re not making money. So follow where the money is.”
On measurement, McNeil said promo codes typically account for 25% to 50% of attributable results. “They’re like the bread and butter of podcast attribution. They’re also probably the worst form of podcast attribution,” he observed. He said vanity URLs capture up to about 15% of results, and he favors post-purchase surveys alongside pixel-based attribution and lift studies. “I think the biggest misconception is that podcast ads aren’t measurable,” McNeil said. “I think actually podcast ads are far more measurable than most other channels, realistically.” He added, “TV is a far worse place to measure performance than podcast ads.”
For brands entering the category, McNeil said Adopter’s minimums typically run $50,000 to $75,000 a month, but a brand testing on its own should plan on $20,000 to $30,000 a month for at least two to three months. Host-read endorsements can carry a 40% to 50% premium or more over announcer-read spots, he said, while well-known brands may be better served by programmatic buys at $8 to $12 CPMs.
