🚀The Oxford Road & Podscribe Study: Podcast Ads and Listener Engagement

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A study by Oxford Road and Podscribe analyzed that the rising number of advertisements within podcasts has contributed to a decrease in the value for podcast advertising.

Podcasts had been a number one destination for performance marketers in which interesting content would meet affinity groups. But as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads increased over time, this oversaturation presented a major obstacle that needed critical management.

The Revelations :

• Notably, the Oxford Road & Podscribe Study concludes that there is an audio advertising gap, whereby audio represents about 22% of Americans' daily media time while only commanding 4.5% of marketers' budgets on the audio channels. For that reason, this gap would rather pose a perfect opportunity for marketers since the audio channels are distinctly clean and low in clutter from advertising, unlike other channels.

• According to the PODLOAD REPORT: Ad Load Landscape from Oxford Road and Podscribe Study, there has been a 39% increase since Q1 2021 in Q1 2024, with the top 50 programs at an average ad load of 10.2% on the Apple Podcast Ranker.

• Sounds Profitable reported that 22% of podcast listeners skip ads, which is promising compared to other advertising platforms. However, 28% of podcasters engage with all ads. Ad-load landscape Download Oxford Road and Podscribe Study report: Podcast audiences are very tolerant of ads—only 9% could "barely tolerate" them, compared to 68% in traditional media.In an opposite trend, it is noticed that while listeners can tolerate their ads, as ad load increases in podcasts according to the Oxford Road & Podscribe Study, visitor rates decrease. Visitor rates start off at 0.3% and 0.2%, but with higher ad loads, they decreased by 25%, and their traffic poses a significant risk to channel efficiency.

The Data :

Campaign performance data was analyzed over six months from 164 advertisers going live on nearly 1,300 shows across more than 200 publishers using Podscribe's podcast ad analytics tool. Performance marketers from Health & Wellness to Technology, Finance, Food & Drink, Home Goods, and Personal Care have driven almost 1.7 billion impressions.

Why it matters:

Knowing what really goes into making the effectiveness of podcast advertising will certainly help marketers allocate marketing funds in the right manner and create a campaign strategy. This information can guide the future campaign strategies by revealing which industries are benefiting from podcast advertising most.

Our Take :

Knowing how effective podcast advertising is, the Podcast Producer is better placed to target their content to the most successful industries for podcast ads. Knowing what type of ads work best in different contexts can help creators optimize ad load and placement for maximum revenue potential.