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In March, we at Edison Research published our annual “Infinite Dial” for the U.S. Among so many other findings, we noted that 35% of all Americans age 12 and over have listened to a podcast in the last week. That’s 100 million people reached by this still-new medium. Edison Podcast Metrics, our all-inclusive ratings report for podcast shows and networks, allows an advertiser to calculate the reach created by advertising on any combination of shows against this base of weekly podcast consumers. If an advertiser were to build a buy by simply advertising on the biggest shows, and then adding shows in rank order, the reach build would look like this:
As you can see, buying ads on only the 32 biggest shows would yield a combined reach totaling half of all weekly podcast listeners, or 50 million people. While advertising in these podcasts can be expensive, they are a powerful tool in reaching an attractive consumer pool. Advertisers would have to purchase spots in thousands of other podcast titles to reach the remaining one half of weekly podcast listeners. It’s important to recognize that effective podcast advertising strategies often leverage top shows to reach a broad audience in addition to utilizing smaller podcasts to access specific niche listeners with strong engagement.
These kinds of analyses will soon be available to advertisers through Nielsen Media Impact, the most-used planning tool among ad agencies. Edison Podcast Metrics data will be the first-ever podcasting information fused into the program, paving the way for more money to flow into podcast advertising. For more information about Edison Podcast Metrics or Nielsen Media Impact, contact us here.
