US Podcast Revenues, 2015-2021 [CHART]

Chart: US Podcast Revenues

The podcasting industry continues to explode with potential for advertisers, and the numbers show it: Marketers spent $479 million on podcast ads in 2018, and podcast advertising revenues are projected to surpass $1 billion by 2021, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC.

In an analysis of the US podcast advertising industry, IAB and PwC calculated self-reported podcast advertising revenues from 22 companies and found that revenues grew 34% in 2018, compared with the $257.4 million in self-reported revenues in 2017.

The IAB and PwC predict that revenues will grow 42% this year.

Most (65.7%) ad revenues captured by the industry in 2018 went to news/politics/current events, comedy, business, education and arts and entertainment podcasts, per IAB/PwC.

Podcasts have historically drawn more direct-response advertisers, direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies in particular, but that is changing. IAB/PwC found that podcast ads are currently split between brand-awareness ads and direct-response ads—another indication of how podcast advertising is becoming more mainstream.

A large majority (73.7%) of ads are bought by brands in D2C retail, financial services, business-to-business, arts and entertainment and telecommunications.

The same study said that host-read ads continue to be the preferred ad type, making up 63.3% of ads in 2018. Announcer-read/pre-produced ads made up 35% of last year’s ads.

Many brands often prefer host-read ads to provide an added boost or endorsement to the advertisement. Such ads are also more contextually relevant, given that they’re read by the same voice rather than simply swapped out for an entirely different audio experience. Read the rest at eMarketer.