May 4, 2023, Los Angeles, CA – Customer experience (CX) platform DISQO released new insights about podcast advertising in its report, “Proving the Power of Podcast Ads.” DISQO found that forty-five (45%) of daily podcast listeners pay more attention to podcast ads as compared to other mediums.
The new report offers timely insights for brands seeking to understand customer experience with sponsorships and other commercial messages in podcasts – actionable knowledge they can use to propel brand and outcomes lift from their podcast ad investments. DISQO found that podcast ads are a unique opportunity to engage highly sought-after consumer audiences with loyalty-driving brand messages.
Key CX findings:
- Podcasts are an engaging platform for brand marketing with 45% of daily listeners saying they pay more attention to podcast ads as compared to other mediums.
- Podcasts drive brand loyalty with about 33% of listeners saying they like a brand more when it’s advertised within a podcast they like (or by a host they like). This number rises to approximately 45% among daily podcast listeners.
- Ad enjoyment is highly correlated with age. More young adults (age 18 – 44) said they liked podcast ads than those over age 44, by 10 points.
- Podcast listeners are more likely to be younger, male, highly educated, and have a higher income. Among these groups, 35-45% of consumers are listening to podcasts weekly or more often, compared to only 25-35% of their counterparts.
- Podcast discovery: content holds more weight than star power. About two-thirds state that their search behavior for podcasts is driven primarily by topic, and the remaining one-third said they looked for content by host and topics.
- Recommendations: listeners trust their friends and family (52%) and social media (47%) the most to recommend new podcast content, but also get recommendations from the streaming platforms themselves (30%).
- Online behavior shows that higher income and older adults are driving podcast growth.
- Age: Consumers aged 55-64 saw a 10-point increase in platform visitation in the past year, but consumers aged 25-54 are still 16 points higher on platform engagement overall.
- Income: Platform visitation grew most strongly at the highest levels of income ($125k or more; +6 pts), reinforcing existing biases in podcast engagement, in which high-income adults are 8 points higher on platform engagement overall.
- Age: Consumers aged 55-64 saw a 10-point increase in platform visitation in the past year, but consumers aged 25-54 are still 16 points higher on platform engagement overall.
“Podcasts continue to show strong popularity across a wide range of consumer segments, and can be uniquely engaging from an advertising perspective. In fact, about two-thirds of consumers say that they either don’t mind, or actually enjoy podcast ads,” said Patrick Egan, Director of Research and Insights, DISQO. “The intimate nature of podcasting offers marketers a unique avenue to drive attitudinal and behavioral lift for their brands.”
DISQO surveyed 34,841 nationally representative consumers from its proprietary audience. DISQO also metered and analyzed opted-in audience members’ online behaviors to see which podcast websites and apps consumers visited. Visitation to Spotify and Audible sites and apps, along with visitation to podcasts.apple.com and podcasts.google.com were compared between February 2022 and February 2023.