With 120 million listeners tuning in monthly, according to Edison’s 2023 Infinite Dial Report, it’s abundantly clear that podcasting is no longer an emerging industry.
This medium has captured the undivided attention of a massive and coveted audience—which skews younger, more educated and more affluent than the average American. And they are leaning heavily into podcasts, listening longer (up 10%) and to more shows than ever before (up 61%), according to Simplecast.
Yet, there continues to be a barrier to entry for many brands that see the vast mosaic of podcast tile art and don’t know where to begin. Not to mention, generalizations around brand safety, measurement and scalability persist.
The 2023 Podcast Trends Report from SXM Media uses audience insights and real-world success stories to interrogate these assumptions and break down the podcast listenership in-depth. Here are a few key takeaways to keep in mind.
Genre-bending conversations resonate
Podcasting’s top genres may not come as a surprise. The list is dominated by familiar categories: news, comedy, true crime, health and wellness, and lifestyle and entertainment. But thanks to the intimate nature of the format, podcasts are breathing new life into these age-old themes.
Gone are the days of crude, slapstick humor. For instance, comedy podcasters like Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata pepper their punchlines into meaningful conversations that celebrate human connection on their show, Best Friends.
Meanwhile, podcasting’s top true crime titles offer more than just hair-raising stories. Hosts like CounterClock’s Delia D’Ambra spend months investigating unsolved cases with every hope of uncovering the truth, and audiences share that desire.
Podcasts simply hold space for discourse and exploration in a way that other channels can’t. And the resulting content is comprehensive, deeply personal and completely unique to this medium.
Listener segments are more than meets the eye
Just as each category has more to offer than only its topline ideas, so does each listener segment. It’s easy to make generalizations about who’s listening to what type of content, such as “men like sports talk” or “women like cold cases.” But when you dig deeper into the demographics, you see that these audiences are a lot more nuanced than one might assume.
Podcasts simply hold space for discourse and exploration in a way that other channels can’t.
For example, health and wellness is often thought of as a very female-focused topic. But in a post-pandemic world that’s left everyone thinking a little more about their personal well-being, both physical and mental, male listeners have taken an interest in shows that offer tangible tactics for self-optimization. This audience, which SXM Media fondly calls “The Self-Actualized,” is interested in the physiology and psychology of why people feel the way they do, and they’re an ideal segment for tech, financial services and healthcare brands offering real-life solutions to everyday problems.
Follow your target demographic
Yes, it can be disarming to consider aligning with content that doesn’t feel like a perfect representation of your brand. But don’t yuck a potential customer’s yum. Follow your target audience into the spaces they inhabit. Because what’s unfamiliar to you may be a massive part of their routine or even their identity. And being situated within that context can generate a powerful impact.
Just ask the popular diaper brand that tapped Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers to deliver a host-read ad to her audience of “Armchair Detectives,” who are primarily driven, young mothers. As a working mom herself, Flowers was able to incorporate a meaningful perspective from her own postpartum experience, resulting in an ad spot that resonated more deeply with listeners and felt native to the content.
The longtail holds the scale
Though it might be tempting to focus your ad spend solely on top shows with celebrity hosts, it’s essential to cast a wide net to fully tap into the diversity of the podcast listenership. Not to mention, working with different targeting levers to span across genres and publishers can give your brand personality and dimension that attracts consumers even more. For instance, SiriusXM Podcast Network data shows that nearly one in two comedy listeners cite their favorite podcast networks as a primary source for discovering new content.
So, by targeting the inventory source, your message can be reinforced across loyal fandoms like Earwolf, Team Coco and Your Mom’s House. Alternatively, brands can target the entire category to reach comedy listeners at large, most of whom describe the ads they’ve heard on podcasts with positive attributes, like fun, likable, relevant and relatable.
When you zoom out and take a macro approach to podcast advertising, the opportunities are endless.
