The Breakdown: Why Podcast Ads Will be Available Sooner Than You Think

When will podcast advertising be available to everyday advertisers the way search and social advertising currently are?

The answer is: sooner than you may think.

Here’s why:

First, advertising investment naturally follows consumer attention, and podcast listenership only continues to climb. According to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial’s 2020 report, 24% of people in the United States (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly—up from 22% in 2019.

Second, an ad platform must offer a variety of specific audiences to target if it wants to incentivize everyday brands to use that platform. This is what Google Ads currently does with its in-market segments for Display. And, generally speaking, the only way to attract a wide variety of specific audiences is to dominate a consumer attention segment.

Consider that:

• Google dominates search advertising.
• Facebook dominates social advertising (and Linkedin the B2B side of this).
• YouTube dominates video advertising.

So… who dominates podcast advertising? Well, no one—yet. But Spotify certainly has the position and ambition to dominate this segment of consumer attention.

Concerning market share, Apple and Spotify currently lead the way, with podcast listener ownership at 52% and 19%, respectively. However, advertising is not a part of Apple’s core business and seems to run contrary to its messaging.

That leaves us with Spotify, who just recently signed exclusivity deals with high-profile podcasters like Joe Rogan and Kim Kardashian. Currently, Spotify seems well poised to dominate podcast advertising like Google does search ads and Facebook does social ads.

The final ingredient in the success of any advertising segment is an accessible ad platform. We have Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Linkedin Ads, and, now, Spotify Ad Studio. See where this is going?

Keep your eyes peeled for Spotify’s ad platform to take off. Usually, those who advertise before the crowds do tend to reap low cost-per-click rates.

Now, I want to hear from you: What are your thoughts on the potential of a podcast ad platform?