There are 90 million Americans, which is 32% of the population, now listening to podcasts. From influencers to journalists, celebrities and your friends, podcasting is taking the world by storm.
Irrespective of the subject you pursue or the length of the podcast, there’s a subject matter for virtually everyone. Podcasts allow people to share their craft, campaign or simply share their passions to large audiences.
Podcasting combines the instant information exchange of blogging with audio files that can be played on a computer or mobile device. The ease of producing a podcast is allowing people to expose their craft to anyone with an Internet connection. If you are podcasting, your audience can now follow you either through streaming or simply downloading them on the go and listen to them later.
2019 Podcasting Trends
The research published by Claritas, PRX and Market Enginuity “The Podcast Listener,” estimates 62 million of Americans (22%) listen to podcasts every week.
This presents great opportunities for individuals as well as small businesses to enter the segment. And as the revenue in ad dollars continues to increase, there will be even more opportunities.
Goldmine for Ad Revenues
With the growing popularity of podcasts, marketers are now looking towards tapping into this growing market. Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is projecting podcasting advertising revenue to surpass $1 billion by 2021, up from $479M last year.
Brand and advertisers are more willing to place ads or provide sponsorships to shows that have a large number of listeners. However, there is needs to be more diversity in the marketplace.
The growth of podcasting in recent years has introduced parity in the segment with many similar podcasts. Differentiation is key to keep this growth going.
For example, PRX has an estimated 10.7 million weekly listeners across the nation. This means that marketers would need to get a better feel of these audiences to integrate them within their media mix. PRX’s audiences spend 10% more on average on their credit cards than the average consumer. Making them an important target for advertisement offerings.
Gauging the Podcast Audience
Your advertisement is nothing unless you know what to measure and how to measure it. It is especially important for marketing because you depend on your audience to generate revenue. Getting to know the audience for your content is complex, especially for new media like podcasts. Marketers might find using a targeted marketing mix somewhat elusive when it comes to podcasts- given its relative young age.
Promotion and marketing in podcasting are still new to podcasting. And in the eyes of big advertisers, podcasting is an unproven medium. This is because podcasting is “audio-on-demand” so there is no formal way to measure the metrics. In radio and television the numbers, feedback, and response can be tracked which makes it easier for advertisers to see their return.
However, with podcast subscriptions gaining huge traction the advertising world is starting to take notice. They’re now realizing some independent podcasts are discovering new audiences for their products and services.
Advertisers want to know your audiences and how your podcast can make a difference in getting people to their business. You can measure your podcast’s downloads in many ways. But when it comes to target groups, radio continues to holds an advantage with the ratings system in place.
Navigating this New Frontier
To help navigate through this murky field. Claritas has provided PRX with what it calls a description of PRX’s ‘podcast enthusiasts’.
Claritas was able to create an in-depth profile of PRX listeners. By looking across 10 major shows on PRX, Claritas was able to generate data of its podcast followers. The exercise was able to gain insight into listeners such as shopping preferences, voting behavior, consumer demographics and psychographics.
The research found PRX’s listeners are between the ages of 25 to 44 years old. They also don’t consistently engage across a single medium be it TV, radio or print. They do however have a psychographic preference for information, peer review and recommendation over being sold products and services.
With Claritas’ research, an overlooked ad cash cow seems to be the new frontier.
Image: Depositphotos.com