According to a survey, 80% of podcast listeners did not believe advertisements negatively affected the overall quality of the podcast.
According to research conducted by voice marketplace, Voices, seventy-five percent of podcast listeners said they were happy with the purchase they had made from podcast ads.
The study used survey data from 1,002 podcast listeners in the U.S. ranging from 18 to 69 years old with an average age of 31. Fifty-four percent of respondents identified as male, while 46% identified as female.
YouTube (58%), Spotify (54%), and Apple Podcasts (41%) were the top 3 preferred platforms for podcasts, while Audible (15%), Spotify (21%) and Sticher (21%) were the platforms that had the lowest percentage of listeners annoyed by ads.
The study additionally found that over 80% of podcast listeners did not believe advertisements negatively affected the overall quality of the podcast.
“This new data shows just how effective advertising on a podcast truly is,” says David Ciccarelli, Founder and CEO of Voices.
“Anecdotally, we’ve heard lots about consumer satisfaction and its correlation to podcast advertising specifically, and finally we have a sample size of data to back that up. We believe one of the reasons this medium (podcasts) are so effective is because an ad on a podcast has a way of being curated but not invasive. That’s gold in today’s advertising world.”
Preferred Podcast Genres
News, followed by politics, true crime, comedy, and science led the survey responses for what people most like to tune into with podcasts.
In terms of annoyances, the variety of ads was key, said the report, with over 55% of respondents being annoyed by hearing the same advertisement over and over again in the same podcast.
More than half preferred fewer ad breaks throughout the podcast, according to Voices, while three out of 5 listeners surveyed were not annoyed by ads at all, and despite over 80% wanting the option to skip ads, that didn’t necessarily mean they’d do so given the option.
Other Highlights
- Over 70% of listeners preferred that ads were read live during recording rather than played as a pre-produced segment.
- Almost 53% wanted their podcast ads read by the host.
- 3 out of 5 podcast listeners would like the ability to interact with the ads and trusted the endorsements of their favorite podcasts.
- More than 50% of the survey respondents said they listen to podcasts regularly, which is a major milestone considering 22% of Americans didn’t know what a podcast was in 2006.
- News (39%), Politics (37%) and True Crime (37%) were the top 3 preferred podcast genres.
- The biggest podcast ad pet peeves were: It interrupts the podcast’s flow (56%), too repetitive (56%) and too excessive (50%).
- Fifty-Two percent of Gen Zers have purchased something after hearing a podcast ad, compared to 42% of millennials.
You can read the full report here.
