Podcast Advertising Fuels Consumerism: Acast Study

• More than 50% of podcast listeners from emerging markets and nearly 40% in established markets plan to increase their time spent with the medium in the next six months
• Nearly 70% of daily podcast listeners in established markets spend more than 6 hours a week with the medium
• 81.2% of podcast listeners in the US are engaged or highly engaged when consuming podcast content, compared to 78% who say the same for streaming TV
• More than two-thirds of podcast listeners in the emerging India market have made a purchase after hearing a podcast ad

A new global podcast listener report from Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company, reveals that over 95% of podcast listeners expect to spend the same amount of time, or even more, listening to podcasts in the next six months. Looking at daily podcast listeners across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Sweden, nearly 50% expect to increase their time spent with the medium over the next six months. This compares to just 27% who said the same for radio.

As the global leader in podcasting Acast released this report in celebration of International Podcast Day, and it includes two research studies across 13 international markets and 2,600 podcast listeners. These two studies are divided into emerging and established markets with India, Brazil, Singapore, Italy, Japan, Indonesia, The Netherlands, and Spain categorized as emerging markets. Established markets include Canada, The United States, Sweden, Australia, and The UK. The countries were divided into these emerging and established categories based on the advertising spend and market maturity in each region.

According to the results, in both emerging and established markets podcasts have among the highest engagement rates of any tested medium. In emerging markets nearly 80% of audiences say they are engaged or highly engaged when listening to podcasts. This compares to the 73% and 58% of audiences in the same regions who say the same about scrolling social media and listening to audio books, respectively. The most engaged audiences of emerging markets reside in India and Indonesia, where nearly 52% of audiences in each country say they are highly engaged when listening to podcasts.

Similarly, almost 81% of audiences in established markets say they are engaged or highly engaged when listening to podcasts. Looking at the US specifically, more than 40% of respondents said they are highly engaged when listening to podcast content, compared to just 26% who say the same for radio.

“While podcasting is still comparatively new in emerging markets, our research shows just how quickly it’s evolving in these regions and catching up to more established regions. This is especially true in how audiences engage with podcast creators beyond audio, which creates infinite opportunities for brands to reach these highly engaged audiences in every corner of the globe,” said Acast CEO Ross Adams. “At Acast, we uniquely understand the regional and cultural nuances of our medium. We’re able to meet the needs of both our creators and advertisers to reach the right audiences in the right way – wherever they are in the world.”

According to the report, 51% of audiences in emerging markets say they would attend a live event from a podcast host. Importantly, this number increases to 64% when looking at daily listeners in these regions. In established markets around the world, more than 30% of daily podcast listeners say they have attended a live event from a podcast host. This is led by more than one-third of all podcast listeners in the US who say they have attended a live event from a host before.

In both emerging and established markets social media continues to be an essential part of audiences’ relationships with podcast creators. Among daily podcast listeners in emerging markets, 75% say they follow a podcast creator on social media. In regions like India and Indonesia, this increases to 86% and 83% of all listeners, respectively. In established markets, nearly 73% of daily listeners follow a podcaster on social media and 62% say they have considered purchasing a product promoted by social media influencers.

This research also discovered that audiences are more likely to tune into ads on podcasts than other forms of media. In fact, in established markets, audiences are 12% more likely to listen to ads more than half of the time on podcasts than they are on streaming music.

Acast’s research also shows that this consumption drives purchases globally. In fact, 60% of daily podcast listeners in emerging markets say they have made a purchase after hearing a podcast ad. In established markets, more than half of daily podcast listeners say they have made a purchase after hearing a podcast ad.

As podcasting grows worldwide, Acast continues to lead the industry through data-driven decision making. Earlier this year, Acast announced its approach to multi platform and integrated marketing campaigns to enable advertisers to reach these highly engaged podcast audiences beyond audio through social media, live events, retail, and more. Additionally, AI-driven solutions from Acast’s Podchaser brand allow advertisers to reach new, relevant audiences for their campaigns across more podcast content. Importantly, this also creates more monetization opportunities for podcast creators across niche content.

To download this full report, please click here.