Podcast Ad Spend Grows 21% Year-Over-Year in Q1 2025

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, May 8, 2025 | 11:15am CT

Magellan AI

Podcast advertising continued its growth trajectory in the first quarter of 2025, with total ad spend rising 21% compared to the same period last year, according to Magellan AI's latest Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report.

Magellan AI analyzed nearly 93,000 podcast episodes to produce the report, which highlights several notable shifts in advertiser behavior, genre trends, and industry growth.

Key takeaways:

• Ad Spend Up, But Down From Q4: While Q1 ad spend was 21% higher than Q1 2024, it was 6% below the Q4 2024 level, reflecting expected seasonal trends.

• Top Advertisers Spent $107 Million: BetterHelp led all advertisers with $14.9 million in spend, followed by T-Mobile and DraftKings. HelloFresh and LinkedIn entered the top 10 for the first time this quarter.

• Recruiting Leads Industry Growth: Advertising spend in the recruiting sector surged 72% quarter-over-quarter, with Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn driving the increase. Other growing industries included quick-service restaurants ( 53%) and VPN services ( 42%).

• New Brands Invest More Heavily: Over 1,000 brands advertised on podcasts for the first time in Q1, with an average spend of $42,000-double the amount from a year ago.

• Ad Load Decreases Slightly: Total ad load dipped to 8.01% of episode content, down from 8.22% in Q4 and 8.73% in Q1 of the previous year.

• Sports Most Popular Genre for New Advertisers: About 1 in 5 new brands placed ads on Sports podcasts, followed closely by News and Comedy.

Podcasts in the top 500 ranked by popularity captured nearly half of all podcast ad revenue, with advertisers spending an average of $300,000 per month on these shows. Episodes 501-3000 averaged $33,000 monthly. Meanwhile, shorter True Crime episodes under 15 minutes had the highest ad load, averaging 42% of content.

Magellan AI also found that 5% of all Q1 episodes were dominated by a single advertiser, most commonly in Business, Technology, and Education genres.

Looking ahead: Magellan AI highlighted six brands to watch in Q2, including bet365, Thumbtack, and Delta Airlines, each having dramatically increased their podcast ad budgets compared to Q2 last year.