Podcast and audio budgets grew for most brands this year, but the momentum may not last. Oxford Road’s latest survey of advertising buyers finds optimism cooling for 2027, with other channels, measurement gaps, and the listening environment forming barriers.
Oxford Road’s What Brands Want 2026 report draws on responses from attendees of its CAO Summit in July and other brand experts specializing in podcasting, audio, and creator media.
The survey found 59% of brands increased podcast and audio budgets in 2026, but only 40% expect to do so in 2027. A separate 40% named “other channels delivering better ROI” as the single biggest obstacle to growing spend. Of respondents, 93% buy podcast advertising, and the survey shows brands expanding into YouTube creators and video podcasts. Two-thirds of brands said they would spend more if video podcasting reached parity with audio, and nearly 25% do not spend on video podcasting at all.
AM/FM is the most underrepresented channel among respondents, the report states.
Measurement is the largest barrier. 57% named measurement gaps as one of their top three challenges. The concern is strongest among large advertisers. Measurement is a top concern for more than 90% of brands with media budgets above $100 million, compared with fewer than half of brands under $100 million.
On attribution, 38% of respondents say they under-attribute results in podcasting, audio, and creator media, while 14% say they overattribute. The most-used method is the vanity URL at 63%, followed by pixel-based attribution without incrementality and “how did you hear about us?” surveys at 56% each, marketing mix modeling at 51%, and promo codes at 46%. Geo-holdout testing is used by 27% of respondents, but 82% of those users rank it among their three most trusted methods. Promo codes (68%) and vanity URLs (62%) follow in trust.
The advertising environment is the second barrier. More than 40% of respondents cited it as an obstacle, pointing to growing ad loads, ad repetition, and the increased “productization” or “radioification” of ad reads. Almost 25% cited operational complexity. More than half said guaranteed performance opportunities, such as extra impressions to meet goals, would convince them to invest more, along with flexible out clauses, lower minimums, category exclusivity, or pod-position guarantees.
Host-read ads remain the preferred format. Brands hitting or beating their podcast goals run a wider mix of creative, including branded spots (72% vs 38% for brands missing goals), announcer reads (61% vs 31%), and integrations (39% vs 25%).
AI stays in the background. Of respondents, 62% use AI somewhere, mostly for scripts (32%), host briefing and prep (30%), and audience or campaign planning (24%). AI-voiced ads (14%) and full ad production (3%) are rarer, and 0% clone host voices. Programmatic buying is used by 22% of brands, while 37% have no plans to buy that way. In October, Radio Ink covered Oxford Road’s ORBIT analysis of top-performing B2B podcasts.
