By now we all have seen the stats—both listeners and advertisers alike have hopped on the podcast bandwagon. While podcasts have been around and popular for well over a decade now, they have truly taken off in the past few years and hit critical mass.
What was once a bit of a niche format has become mainstream, and with that mainstreaming comes fresh audiences who have changed the dynamics of the conventional podcast listener profile.
Are listeners who are fresh to the medium all that different from more long-term listeners? To dive into the podcast consumer journey, SXM Media and Publicis Media partnered with Signal Hill Insights on an in-depth nationally representative survey of 1,500 past month podcast listeners. This study uncovered key distinctions and commonalities between the newest arrivals—those who started listening to podcasts in the past year—and the veterans who have been listening for six or more years.
Distinct in discovery and affinities
Beyond their obvious difference in listening tenure, new and veteran podcasts listeners have many points of distinction. From a demographic standpoint, this newer audience is much younger and more diverse, and a bit less educated and lower-income than veteran audiences. Veteran listeners are more mature, skew male, are less diverse, and are more educated and affluent. Audiences across the spectrum of age, gender, ethnicity and income levels are now actively engaging with podcasts.
Speaking of engagement, the way that listeners interact with podcasts is quite distinct depending on their tenure. New and veteran listeners have different entry points and gateways into the medium, and varying discovery paths to find new shows that pique their interest.
Podcast ads are accepted and enjoyed by those who are just starting to tune in, and this receptivity deepens even after years of listening.
When thinking about how they’ve discovered a new show over the past six months, new listeners were much more likely to hear about it through family and friends or through offline media sources. Veteran listeners were 39% more likely to discover their latest new show by hearing about it on another podcast.
Even content and topic preferences vary by tenure—new arrivals are more likely to name celebrity conversations, fiction/audio drama and religion/spirituality as their most listened to genres. Seasoned listeners are more likely to cite topics like news/politics, sports, comedy and science/technology.
More broadly, newer listeners are not as entrenched in the medium and are still forming the habit. Those who started listening in the past year are more casual, lighter listeners, spending an average of 4.4 hours per week with podcasts. Those with a tenure of six or more years are heavier, more frequent listeners, consuming an average of 7.1 hours per week.
Alike in ad acceptance
While new and veteran listeners may deviate in terms of demographics and behaviors, where they tend to agree is on their perceptions of podcast ads. More than three in four listeners of ad-supported podcasts agree that hearing ads is a fair bargain for the free content they get, and nearly two in three wouldn’t mind hearing a few more ads per show if it meant that their favorite podcast could continue.
Despite being fresh to the medium and still building their loyalty to shows and hosts, in some cases new listeners are even more receptive to the ads. Over half of those who are new to podcasts say that they like hearing about new brands on the shows they listen to, and they are 14% more likely to say that they go out of their way to support podcast sponsors.
Listeners are exposed to no shortage of ads in their daily lives, in virtually every form of media they consume. When asked to compare different forms of advertising on a variety of characteristics, podcast ads consistently ranked first for every positive attribute, regardless of listening tenure. Podcast ads are much more likely to be described as informative, interesting, relevant and trustworthy compared to ads on social media, TV, online video and AM/FM radio.
Given such high praise, it’s unsurprising that podcast ads were also least likely of all ad types to be described as repetitive, annoying and intrusive. While half of respondents described TV as having too many ads, less than one in four listeners said the same about podcast ads.
Three in four listeners say that they like when podcast hosts have fun with the ads they read, and that’s particularly true for veteran listeners. While host-read ads are still considered the gold standard in the industry—and they do have the highest perceived fit among listeners—newer listeners are less wedded to them and are more receptive to announcer-read ads.
Podcast ads are accepted and enjoyed by those who are just starting to tune in, and this receptivity deepens even after years of listening. As the format has matured, many even feel that the ads are improving—about half of all listeners think that the ads are getting more relevant to them or are simply getting better. Many brands are now testing out podcasts, for everything from brand messaging to direct-response, and listeners are noticing—over half are hearing ads for new types of brands lately.
“There is no denying the potential for advertisers in podcasting: With listenership on the rise, and newer, younger, more diverse audiences tuning in, brands can reach virtually any target audience across a broad spectrum of identities spanning ages, genders, ethnicities, income levels and more,” explains Shelby Saville, chief investment officer, Publicis Media US.
“As it pertains to user favorability and listener sentiment—regardless of demographic—podcasts are truly in a class of their own, a perceived one-to-one experience that is informative, interesting, and relevant,” shares Saville. “Finally, podcasts aren’t only a direct-response medium or a space for newer brands—established brands looking to drive brand health metrics are also seeing strong results. We are working with clients to take advantage of this positive perception and momentum to leverage podcasts as a key part of their media mix.”
As podcasts continue to grow, evolve and diversify their audience, brands’ messages will be heard by fresh listeners and long-term devotees—and we now know that both are equally embracing ads in this environment.
