Podcast Valuation

CPM is the cost you’ll pay per 1,000 impressions or downloads, and CPA is the cost you’ll pay to acquire a customer. Most ads are priced on a CPM model for Podcasts. 

Quick Facts

• Industrywide, the average CPM rate is $18 per 1,000 listeners for 30-second ads and $25 per 1,000 listeners for 60 seconds ads. 
• Podcasts with audience sizes ranging from 500 to over 100,000 listeners charged a CPM rate between $21 to $27 for 30-second ads. For 60-second ads, the CPM rate was between $23 and $37.
• U.S. podcast audiences listen to four to five podcasts per week.

Podcast Advertising Rates 2022

The amount you pay for podcast advertising will vary depending on the length and type of the ad.

It’s essential to know that podcasts offer different pricing structures. Ads are sold on a cost per mille (CPM) or cost per acquisition (CPA) rate. CPM is the cost you’ll pay per 1,000 impressions or downloads, and CPA is the cost you’ll pay to acquire a customer. Most ads are priced on a CPM model.

The current average cost of podcast advertising is a CPM of about $25.

AdvertiseCast notes that the average CPM for 30-second ads is $18, and the average CPM for 60-second ads is $25.

Podcast advertising costs 2022

Early Indicators

Use podcasting for brand awareness, not lead generation. Therefore we may not be seeing as many correlations with transactions, but we could tie Podcast correlations with Goal spikes and other source detections such as search, pages, and sources. 

Rebekah Bek: As a UX writer for Ahrefs, Bek was responsible for podcast sponsorships. She writes her advice for podcast advertising strategies in this Medium post. Here are the key takeaways:

• Rather than being a tool for lead generation, podcast advertising is a tool for gaining exposure and brand awareness.
• It’s not always about measurable ROI.
• Organic, not scripted, mentions performing best.
• Understand that your audience may have eclectic tastes.

Midroll: Midroll, a company that matches advertisers with shows, gives their advice to advertisers. Here is the key takeaway:

• It’s wise not to adhere too strictly to a category. Don’t assume that comedy audiences aren’t also entrepreneurs or that listeners to a sports podcast aren’t interested in a comedy special. You may be surprised at how broad and eclectic your audience’s tastes and needs are.
• Ads read by the host perform better than third-party ads.

Jason Hoch: Former Chief Content Officer at HowStuffWorks, Hoch revealed what type of ads work best for their brand in an interview with DigiDay. Here are the key takeaways:

• Ads read by the host perform better than scripted, third-party ads placed in the podcast.
• Listeners feel like they are being shouted at with third-party ads.
• Consider producing organic mentions for better results.
• Test and measure the success of your campaigns.

Kurt Kaufer: Partner and CMO at Ad Results Media, a podcast advertising agency; Kaufer wrote a survival guide for podcast advertising in this Forbes post. Here are the key takeaways:

• Measurement is the key to determining success in a podcast advertising campaign. Use promo codes, custom links, and post-checkout surveys to track success. To help, Alembic has provided you URL link shortener solution. 
• Be comfortable knowing that not every ad will work at first and that the breadth of shows will need to be tested to determine what works and doesn’t.
• Measuring the success of your podcast campaigns is best done with a tool like Casted that gives you an overarching view of critical metrics. With the device, you can access behavior metrics, demographic data, and traffic information that helps you understand your content’s actual value. 
• You don’t need to sponsor the biggest podcasts; you can reach the same people on smaller shows.

 

Former HubSpot podcast marketer Sam Balter wrote about his podcast advertising learnings in this post’s top podcast advertising strategies. Here are the key takeaways:

• Pre- and post-roll ad spots are generally cheaper than mid-roll and take less time. In addition, most ads have some call-to-action that prompts listeners to go to a specific URL or use a discount code to get a discount.
• Podcast popularity and listenership will only continue to rise, and so will the opportunity to connect with people in a new and novel way.
• When sponsoring podcasts, trust the host to deliver a message in their voice.
• It’s better to go for frequency than reach. Pick podcasts where you can purchase three to five ads versus one on a large podcast.

Podcast Advertising Statistics 2022

1. There are around 2,000,000 podcast shows and over 48 million podcast episodes as of April 2021. (PodcastInsights, 2021)
2. 75% of the U.S. population is familiar with “podcasting,” which has been up 5% since 2019. (Infinite Dial, 2020)
3. Half of the Podcast ads lasted longer than 30 seconds in length. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)
4. A survey of 300,000 listeners found that 63% of people bought something a host had prompted on their show. (AdvertiseCast)
5. Cost per mille (CPM) or cost per 1,000 listeners is the most common pricing method for podcasts. (AdvertiseCast, 2021)
6. Dynamically-inserted ads increased the share of revenues from 48% to 67%. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)
7. Streaming audio and podcasting is projected to be one of the channels with the most significant growth in 2022, with a 17.8% increase. (Inside Radio, 2021)
8. Host-read and pre-product ads increased the share of revenues from 27% to 35%. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)
9. Local advertising for streaming audio and podcasting will outperform targeted banner advertising and broadcast T.V. (Inside Radio, 2021)
10. U.S. Podcast Ad Revenue is set to exceed 2 Billion by 2023. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)

Conclusion

Podcast advertising is a marketing tactic that is continuing to grow. As most people have listened to a podcast and increased engagement rates, brands can no longer ignore podcast advertising. The sheer reach of personalities like Joe Rogen (11 million listeners per episode) makes podcast marketing a viable option for influencing future consumer purchasing behavior.

Alembic is well served to be able to support multiple “mention” keywords. The scalability of trying to track this at a in-house brand will be a significant cost and scale issue.