US podcast revenues forecast to grow by 150% in next two years to US$2b

The fourth annual IAB US Podcast Advertising Revenue study, prepared for IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”), has found that podcast advertising will grow as much in the next two years as it did in the past decade.

Driven by a particularly strong fourth quarter (+37% YoY), Podcast advertising revenues climbed to $842 million in 2020, up from $708 million in the year prior.

Key findings include:

• The use of dynamically-inserted ads, which enables ad placement at the point of listener download, increased share of revenues from 48% to 67%.
• Announcer-read / pre-produced ads, which also put more control in the buyer’s hand, increased share from 27% to 35%.
• Half of podcast ads lasted longer than 30 seconds in length.
• News continued to be the top content genre for podcast advertisers (22% market share).
• Direct-To-Consumer brands maintained the top advertiser category market share (19%), while Pharmaceuticals more than doubled in share YoY (9%).

2020 US podcast advertising revenues rose to $842m—a 19% increase YoY. The channel is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2021, and $2 billion by 2023.

Podcasting spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, in audience size, in content offered, and in ad buyer interest and investment.

Read the report here (registration required).