2022 was a banner year for the podcasting industry. We saw positive moments in virtually every metric that matters. Audiences continued to grow, maintaining a trend that withstood even the hardest pandemic months. Studios invested in content, either through acquisitions or by inking deals with household names. Technologists built products that are essential for the long-term growth and monetization of podcasting as a business.
These factors – which aren’t an exhaustive list – aren’t merely good for podcast creators but also for advertisers. And so, we expect this momentum to continue into 2023, bringing with it new opportunities for growth and innovation.
Here are five things we’re looking out for:
1. Audio advertising will rival visual advertising in 2023
As the net consumption of audio content rises, advertisers will increasingly appreciate the benefits and measurable impact of audio advertising, including the ability to effectively personalize ads while using less data than other digital media, and high recall rates bolstered by a connection to the audio consumers are listening to. With content ranging from low-calorie material – like podcasts and audiobooks – to high-brow business and educational content, more creative audio content creation is on the horizon to raise audio advertisements’ efficacy. Digital audio and ad spend increased by over 50% last year and 2023 will continue to see this category-leading momentum. Expect audio advertising to be just as or even more effective than visual advertising in 2023.
2. Companies that have heavily invested in podcasting will continue to reap the rewards
Podcasts as an advertising vehicle have yet to reach their full potential. To do so, the marketplace needs to build the capabilities of any modern scaled media channel – automation, measurement, attribution and brand safety. In order to scale and build the programmatically traded podcast market, advertisers need to start producing creative with personalization at the heart. Over the next 12 months, audio advertisers will bring those inventory sources together with a unified measurement and attribution product. Not only will this guarantee podcasting’s long-term sustainability, but its success – giving early investors the healthy returns they are hoping to realize.
Spotify, for example, has spent big on podcasts, inking deals with Joe Rogan, Gimlet, and The Obamas to name a few. Spotify is serving ads on its podcast even to those consumers who maintain a paid subscription to the company. This makes the channel an enticing prospect for advertisers because while listeners may have walled themselves off from other potential avenues for advertising, the fact they have paid membership to a streaming service like Apple Music or Spotify suggests they’re a high-value audience for advertisers.
In 2023, we’ll see more investment in monetizing the podcast business as brands need to start providing measurable ROI.
3. Audio advertising becomes a full-funnel channel
While the industry navigates through the looming recession, we will see a shift and refocus of budgets instead of slashes in 2023. Advertisers will steer away from focusing on only one part of the funnel and turn to mediums like audio that cement into a consumer’s subconscious and ultimately drive awareness and, more importantly, sales.
During a recession, advertising budgets are the first to be slashed. Awareness-building campaigns are sacrificed in favor of performance campaigns that drive sales. This has historically been an issue for audio advertising, as it suffers from the perception that it’s an upper-funnel awareness channel. But during the pandemic, many brands made that reflexive jump to performance and back again already – so brand building may stay front and center for many.
Throughout 2022, podcasting has overturned those long-held beliefs. Most podcast ads are a direct response medium. Think about those that end with ’use this promo code at checkout for 10% off’. And this means brands have something to measure their efficacy. They can track the number of leads a campaign generates.
