It’s no secret that the audio world is rapidly evolving. As the industry continues to grow, it’s important to know what key trends are shaping the landscape. Below is a deep dive on everything we’re seeing in 2026—and what marketers should be keeping an eye on.
Podcasting remains one of the most engaging media formats in the marketplace. Recent audience research indicates there are now more than 584 million monthly podcast listeners worldwide, showing a 6.83% year-over-year increase and solidifying podcasts as a major global medium for connecting with consumers.
In the United States, over 55 % of adults listen to podcasts monthly, offering brands substantial domestic reach among key demographics. Podcasts also continue to gain traction with younger audiences. Research shows that 66% of listeners ages 12 – 34 tune in monthly, making the medium particularly attractive for brands targeting Millennials and Gen Z.
Across markets — from North America to Latin America and Asia — podcast consumption and listener engagement are on the rise. This broadening adoption, along with a rich diversity of content categories, has led brands to reevaluate podcast advertising as a strategic channel rather than an experimental one.
In podcast advertising, brands pay for ad space within a podcast show, which can either be pre-recorded or read live by the host. These spots are typically inserted into designated timeslots, such as pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll. Podcast ad placements can be bought from ad networks that collect ad inventory from multiple publishers, directly from podcast creators, or programmatically through agencies like ARM who work with demand-side platforms (DSPs) to use audience-based and outcome-based buying approaches.
Types of podcast ads include:
Traditional Ad Units
Ads can be purchased at predetermined lengths (usually fifteen-, 30-, or 60-seconds) and are delivered pre-roll, mid-roll, and/or post-roll. Alternatively, brands can buy host endorsements, whose lengths are at the creator’s discretion. Traditional ad units come in two forms:
Custom Segments
Custom segments refer to a custom brand integration that is woven throughout the show, rather than a typical 60-second spot that is read or provides an endorsement. This allows a brand’s message to fit seamlessly into a podcast episode’s narrative. For example, a tech company might sponsor a segment on new job opportunities created by emerging technology featuring brief interviews with industry experts who reference their product.
Presenting Sponsorships
Presenting sponsorships often include a pre-roll mention and both a mid-roll and post-roll ad read, lasting for an entire season or a predefined number of episodes. Sponsorships can also be negotiated to give an advertiser a 100% share of voice in these episodes.
One of the common misperceptions about advertising on podcasts is that the inventory is limited, making it difficult for brands to achieve meaningful scale. This is no longer the case. The rapid growth of the podcast listener base and shows has dramatically increased scale. In fact, the wealth of inventory gives brands the opportunity to connect with even niche markets at scale.
When evaluating the effectiveness of podcast advertising in 2026, audience behavior and adoption remain foundational to understanding podcast ad impact.
According to The Infinite Dial 2025, podcast consumption in the United States has reached all-time highs across multiple measures. In 2025, 70% of Americans age 12 and older reported that they have listened to a podcast, while 73% indicated they have consumed podcast content in either audio or video format, equating to roughly 210 million people in the U.S. with some form of podcast engagement.
Monthly engagement — a key driver for advertisers aiming for recurring audience exposure — also continues to expand. The study finds that 55% of Americans age 12+ are monthly podcast consumers, underscoring that more than half the U.S. population regularly tunes into podcasts.
A noteworthy shift in the media landscape is the growing significance of video podcasting alongside traditional audio. Edison’s data shows that 51% of adults have watched a podcast, reflecting how audiences are increasingly accessing podcast content through platforms like YouTube. This blending of audio and video consumption behavior is critical for marketers to consider because it broadens the contexts in which podcast ads can run and be discovered.
In addition to reach metrics, the report highlights strong habitual engagement: nearly half of surveyed Americans have both listened to and watched a podcast, indicating that audiences are not only familiar with the medium but consume it in varied ways. This deepens the connection between podcast content and listeners — a connection advertisers value because it enhances ad recall and responsiveness.
Podcast consumption also varies across demographic lines, with males showing slightly higher monthly consumption (57%) than females (52%), signaling meaningful base audiences for targeting across gender segments.
From an advertising perspective, these trends illustrate why podcasts remain an influential channel in 2026: large and growing repeat audiences, multi-format engagement (audio + video), and a strong habitual listening pattern all strengthen the case for podcast ad effectiveness. As consumption continues to diversify, advertisers must consider both traditional audio placements and expanded visibility on video platforms to fully leverage the reach and engagement podcasts offer.
Podcast advertising continues to stand out as an effective channel because it combines audience trust, attentive listening, and measurable performance. As podcast consumption continues to grow and evolve, the benefits of advertising within podcasts remain strong — and in many cases, even more compelling in 2026.
Podcast advertising remains a powerful driver of lower-funnel outcomes, including lead generation and sales. Well-crafted podcast ads often act as a pivotal touchpoint in the conversion journey, influencing both immediate action and future purchase consideration.
Recent listener studies show that a significant majority of podcast listeners have taken action after hearing a podcast advertisement, such as visiting a website, searching for a brand, or making a purchase. Edison Research and Sounds Profitable data also indicate particularly strong response among younger demographics, including Gen Z, who report high levels of brand interest and site visitation after ad exposure.
These findings reinforce that podcast advertising not only builds awareness, but reliably moves listeners further down the funnel toward intent and conversion.
Podcast advertising continues to be a highly effective channel for building brand awareness and lifting key brand metrics. Heading into 2026, podcasts are no longer viewed as an experimental line item, but as a core component of many marketers’ media strategies.
Because podcast audiences engage intentionally and often develop strong affinity with hosts and shows, brands benefit from storytelling-driven ads that feel native to the content. Research from Sounds Profitable and Nielsen continues to show that podcast advertising delivers meaningful lifts in brand awareness, ad recall, and message association, reinforcing its role as an effective awareness-building medium when paired with consistent messaging and relevant targeting.
Podcast advertising allows brands to reach new and niche audiences through content-based and audience-driven targeting, making it particularly effective for incremental reach. As podcast consumption expands across demographics and platforms, advertisers are increasingly using podcasts to complement existing media plans rather than replace them.
Recent cross-media research shows that adding podcast advertising can meaningfully extend reach beyond traditional channels, particularly among younger and harder-to-reach audiences. Edison Research data indicates that podcast listening remains strong among adults 25–54, a critical demographic for many advertisers, while also growing among younger listeners who are less likely to be reached through linear TV or radio alone.
By aligning with shows that speak directly to specific interests or communities, brands can connect with audiences that may otherwise be missed, building familiarity and trust over time.
Podcast advertising continues to demonstrate strong performance in terms of brand safety and positive brand perception. Listener research shows that podcast audiences are generally receptive to advertising and often separate ad messaging from surrounding content in a way that protects brand sentiment.
Recent brand-safety and listener perception studies indicate that a majority of podcast consumers report no negative change — and often a positive lift — in brand perception when brands advertise on podcasts, even in shows labeled as explicit. This suggests that contextual relevance and host trust play a larger role in perception than content labels alone.
For advertisers, this means podcasts remain a relatively safe and effective environment to reach audiences without compromising brand equity, provided placements are thoughtfully selected.
As the podcast ecosystem continues to mature, advertising opportunities have become increasingly cost-effective and accessible for brands of all sizes. In 2026, advertisers benefit from more flexible buying options, a broader range of inventory, and improved measurement capabilities, making podcast advertising viable across a wide range of budgets.
Industry benchmarks indicate that average podcast CPMs in the U.S. generally range from the high teens to around $50, depending on factors such as audience size, content category, and ad format. When paired with the medium’s high engagement and recall, these CPMs remain competitive compared to other digital and audio channels.
Advances in programmatic audio and dynamic ad insertion have also lowered barriers to entry, allowing advertisers to scale campaigns efficiently while maintaining control over targeting and creative execution.
The flexibility of podcast advertising gives brands room to tailor creative to both campaign objectives and audience expectations. Podcast listeners tend to prefer ads that feel conversational and authentic, making host-read and integrated placements especially effective for storytelling, education, and deeper product explanation.
Listener perception studies show that podcast ads are widely viewed as less intrusive than many other ad formats. Nearly half of podcast listeners report that podcast ads do not feel intrusive, reinforcing the idea that advertising is more welcome when it aligns with the tone and flow of the content.
This creative freedom allows brands to experiment with messaging styles while benefiting from the inherently positive listening environment podcasts provide.
Podcasting offers brands access to both broad and highly targeted audiences. Beyond standard demographic targeting such as age, gender, and location, advertisers can now reach listeners based on interests, behaviors, and lifestyle attributes — including parents, gamers, business decision-makers, and frequent travelers.
According to The Infinite Dial 2025, 70% of Americans age 12+ have listened to a podcast, and more than half are monthly listeners, demonstrating both scale and consistency in audience engagement. On a global level, podcast audiences continue to exceed 500 million listeners, giving brands the ability to reach precise segments within a large and growing listener base.
This combination of scale and precision makes podcast advertising uniquely suited for brands seeking targeted reach without sacrificing audience size.
Podcast advertising has proven to be a strong amplifier within a broader media mix. When integrated with other channels such as search, social, radio, and television, podcast ads help reinforce messaging and improve overall campaign performance.
Industry research continues to show that brands incorporating podcasts into their media strategies experience measurable improvements in total campaign effectiveness, including increased website traffic, stronger brand lift, and extended reach among key demographics. Podcasts are particularly effective at enhancing performance among adults 25–54, helping brands reach audiences that may be fragmented across other media platforms.
Rather than functioning as a standalone tactic, podcast advertising increasingly serves as a multiplier that strengthens the impact of an entire media plan.
Podcasts foster a sense of community and listeners often feel an intimate connection with creators. Simultaneously, podcast creators have deep knowledge of their listener base, which allows them to forge partnerships with brands who products and services are highly relevant to their audience. This sets the stage for engagement evidenced in strong recall rates, low ad skipping, and high conversion rates.
With ongoing measurement advancements and new capabilities delivered by third-party providers, virtually any business model can create an effective test-and-learn campaign to establish a precise ROI for podcast advertising. In 2026, podcast ad performance is more measurable than ever. Here’s how it is achieved.
Pixel-based attribution tracks exposure to ads and subsequent website activity. This allows advertisers to track every action a user takes on their sites, helping them to measure and upgrade marketing efforts. While “offline” listening can prove challenging for pixel-based attribution, third-party measurement partners have rapidly developed technical solutions that pixel the RSS used to download individual shows and track resulting web traffic.
Custom promo codes for individual podcasts are an effective purchase incentive and ROI measurement tool. Creating a unique promo code for each podcast episode or show is a great way to capture show-level data and gauge which produced the most sales. Promo codes create a direct link between a particular campaign and customer measurement, indicating who is engaging with your business. To leverage this method, advertisers just need to ensure they have the right technical infrastructure to track multiple unique promo codes, with sales channels that can accept them, which will provide reporting down the line.
A vanity URL is a polished, tried-and-true direct response measurement tactic that works as well in podcasting as it does in other more traditional channels like direct response TV. Vanity URLs are not only a means of attribution that helps teams see which podcast episodes, shows, or ad creatives are driving the most traffic and conversions, but they can also make it easy for listeners to navigate to the website while reinforcing brand identity and improving brand recognition.
“How did you hear about us?” surveys following conversions are an ideal way to get valuable insights for the factors that influence customer decisions, and they can also help measure exposure, recall, and channel effectiveness. Since there is no single path to conversion, surveys offer a way to gain concrete information about what users remember on their unique journeys. And because listening to a podcast demands the audience’s full attention, with advertisers’ messages typically more memorable in this channel, surveys are a powerful route to quantifying the ROI of podcast advertising.
Media mix model (MMM) integration is a method of attribution that integrates podcast campaign data, historical data, campaigns from other channels, and factors such as seasonality or promotions to create a refined and holistic view of performance. This allows marketers to optimize their campaigns to meet short- and long-term goals. While these models have come a long way with their representation of audio, marketers need to understand that many MMMs still underrepresent it.
At ARM, we believe that the best measurement solutions capture the signals from one or more of these methods and analyze the results in the context of your business model, technical capabilities, and campaign objectives. We work with all of our clients to create a custom measurement plan and model to gauge their brand’s ROI.
Podcast advertising continues to stand out from other channels because of the highly engaged and receptive nature of podcast audiences. Recent research confirms that podcast listeners are not only attentive to advertising, but also likely to take meaningful action after hearing an ad. According to industry data, a substantial majority of podcast listeners report paying attention to ads and moving beyond passive listening to engagement or conversion behavior. For example, between 64% and 81% of listeners actively pay attention to podcast ads, significantly higher than many other digital formats where ad avoidance is common.
When it comes to measurable action — such as visiting a website, searching for a brand, or making a purchase — recent insights indicate that a large share of listeners take some form of action after hearing a podcast ad. Across multiple studies and platforms, roughly 75–88% of regular podcast listeners report taking at least one action after hearing an advertisement, whether that’s researching the product, visiting a site, or engaging with a brand’s content.
Purchase behavior varies depending on how the question is framed, but even conservative estimates show strong conversion influence. Many listener surveys report that around 40–60% of podcast listeners have purchased a product or service after hearing it advertised on a podcast, reflecting meaningful bottom-of-funnel impact when the ad resonates with the audience.
Beyond immediate conversions, podcast ads also influence brand affinity and intent. Research from eMarketer indicates that roughly 70% of listeners exposed to podcast ads recall the brand, and 62% report higher intent to seek out the advertised company, suggesting that podcasts not only drive direct action but also strengthen brand consideration and future purchase likelihood.
The conversion experience also tends to be stronger among core or frequent listeners. Data shows that weekly or daily podcast consumers are particularly responsive — with the highest engagement and action rates reported among these groups — underscoring the value of repetitive exposure and habitual listening.
Taken together, these findings confirm that podcast advertising remains a channel where attention turns into action: listeners are more likely to hear ads through to completion, engage with the brand afterward, and in many cases follow through with purchase-related behavior. This sets podcasts apart from channels with lower attention rates and highlights why advertisers continue to allocate budget to this medium in 2026.
Podcast advertising continues to stand out from other channels because of the highly attentive and engaged audiences it reaches. Listeners not only pay attention to ads, but they also act on them at rates that exceed many traditional and digital formats.
When planning a podcast campaign, defining clear goals — whether brand awareness, lead generation, or conversions — is critical. Clearly defining outcomes from awareness lift to direct conversions enables advertisers to tailor campaigns, select the right shows, and measure success accurately. Whether your goal is to build brand recognition, drive web traffic, or increase sales, understanding these audience behaviors ensures your podcast ads deliver maximum impact.
There are many podcasts to choose from. When a brand sets out to find shows that will resonate with its target audiences, the prospects may seem endless, similar to the search for the perfect influencer partners on social media.
Once a list of potential podcast advertising partners is identified, they must be vetted for campaign fit. We recommend downloading and listening to at least three of their episodes. This will help brands get a feel for the content and tonality of the show and what type of ad creative may resonate best. This is also far more time-consuming than scrolling through an influencer’s Instagram feed to get a sense of brand fit and content style.
When you partner with a specialty agency that has successfully run tens of thousands of campaigns, you benefit from proprietary tools that assist with this selection process. Specialized agencies also have historical knowledge and relationships with the top-performing shows, all sorted by genre, to reduce vetting time.
At ARM, we’ve cultivated our audio-first expertise for more than 25 years, testing thousands of podcasts, establishing relationships with a wealth of creators, and comprehensively tracking performance to continually optimize our approach and delivery so our partners get the best possible results.
Once the podcast partners have been selected and vetted, it’s time to buy the media. There are a number of podcast networks and marketplaces that can simplify this process significantly, but they can’t fix underlying inconsistencies. Rate cards and metrics may not be uniform—or IAB-compliant for that matter. Due to the high degree of creative customization often required for host-read ads or brand integrations, brands also occasionally run the risk of miscommunication and unmet expectations.
A specialty agency provides clients with a uniform view of KPIs and ad optimization metrics while leveraging the latest technology to ensure brand safety. They pull from their experience and relationships to secure the right placements for the campaign’s goals, help drive traffic, and effectively verify and optimize all ad creative.
Creating the perfect ad creative is both an art and a science. In crafting a message, brands should consider the tone of the podcast they are working with and craft messaging that aligns with it.
Using short, conversational sentences with straightforward information and a clear call to action is also helpful. Other considerations include length (will vary based on your campaign goals), background music, and delivery method (i.e., pre-recorded or integrated into the show by the host).
Verifying that your ads ran correctly can be a very manual and time-consuming task. Some shows will simply send a link to the episode and require you to listen to it in its entirety to verify the ad placements, while others will provide actual airchecks or snippets of the show for verification purposes. There are third-party tools that simplify the process, but without expertise representing the brand, it’s impossible to know the quality of the verifications. Expect several different reporting formats with little standardization if placing your own podcast ads.
ARM’s Ad Operations team utilizes industry-leading technology to monitor and verify the quality of our ad placements. Through a combination of cutting edge AI-assisted tools and genuine human expertise, we have created a robust campaign monitoring process to ensure that our ad placements are held to the highest standard.
Below are some examples of campaign verification guidelines that ARM’s Ad Operations team is monitoring:
As with any media channel, there are some measurement and attribution challenges. The podcast ecosystem faces the same fragmentation that complicates advertising everywhere, though challenges are compounded by the requirement that any measurement method works across all placement types from host-read ads to branded series.
ARM believes that the best measurement solutions capture the signals from at least one of the four measurement methods described in greater detail above: promo codes, vanity URLs, surveys, integration into media mix models, and pixels. We work with all of our clients to create a custom measurement plan and model for their brand’s ROI. This helps to create an apples-to-apples comparison from which to make future planning and buying decisions.
Since the competition for every ad dollar is fierce, it is important to compare performance across channels to determine the appropriate role of each in the media mix. While podcast advertising works best in tandem with other channels, gaining a sense of how it stacks up is important for brands to experiment successfully and optimize their campaigns.
Today’s media landscape looks very different from even a few years ago, particularly in how people choose to “relax and tune in.” While linear TV viewership continues to decline as audiences shift toward on‑demand and streaming content, podcasts — especially in video form — are increasingly filling living rooms. YouTube has emerged as a leading destination for podcast consumption, with over 1 billion people worldwide engaging with podcast content on the platform each month, making it one of the largest global audiences for the format across devices.
Beyond mobile and desktop, podcast consumption on connected TVs has surged as viewers increasingly treat long‑form shows more like traditional television programming. In late 2025, viewers streamed over 700 million hours of podcast content on YouTube via television screens in a single month, nearly doubling the amount from the prior year — a strong signal that podcasts are not just audio experiences but emerging as primetime‑style video entertainment.
Advertisers are acutely aware of these shifts. Digital media — including podcast content on platforms like YouTube — offers more precise targeting, measurement, and interactive opportunities than linear TV, and audiences on these platforms are more likely to be younger, engaged, and receptive to multi‑screen integration. This means brands can reach highly relevant users with customized creatives, contextual placements, and measurable outcomes — something linear TV struggles to deliver with the same precision.
In essence, as traditional TV viewing continues to fragment, podcasts — particularly when delivered via YouTube and other digital platforms — are not just an alternative to linear TV: they have become a central part of how audiences discover and engage with long‑form content in the modern living room.
Connected TV (CTV) has rapidly reshaped how audiences consume video content, with streaming now accounting for a large portion of total TV viewing. As of 2025, 43.8 % of all TV viewing time in the U.S. was spent on streaming platforms, indicating that audiences are migrating away from traditional broadcast toward on‑demand video environments. Additionally, more than 90 % of U.S. households now own at least one CTV device, making connected TV nearly ubiquitous and a major component of contemporary media plans.
Despite this ongoing shift, podcasts offer complementary advantages that CTV alone doesn’t deliver. While CTV effectively captures video attention, podcast audiences tend to be active, attentive, and highly receptive to ads, especially when those ads are host‑read or integrated naturally into the content. Audio, including podcasts, continues to outperform many other formats in attention and recall, giving advertisers a chance to reach listeners with messages that stick.
For brands, combining podcast advertising with CTV buys can create a more holistic reach strategy. CTV delivers broad visual engagement and precise household targeting, while podcasts contribute deep audience attention and message retention. Together, they improve overall campaign performance — extending reach across screens and reinforcing messaging in different consumption contexts. By fusing the strengths of both, marketers can achieve greater impact and more efficient media spend than relying on either channel alone.
Social media remains one of the largest digital ad channels due to its scale and interactive features. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X command massive monthly user bases and offer sophisticated ad targeting and engagement tools. Despite this reach, research highlights key differences in how audiences respond to advertising on social platforms versus podcasts.
A major study of media attention and trust found that podcast advertising outperforms social media ads in attention and recall among highly engaged users, with 86 % of podcast listeners recalling ads in a one‑week period — the highest recall of any tested medium, including social platforms.
Unlike social media, where many users scroll past ads or block them entirely, podcast ads benefit from captive, focused listening. Podcast consumption often occurs during activities like commuting, working out, or relaxing, when listeners are actively tuned into the content and less likely to multitask away from ads. This attentive context, combined with trusted host relationships, generally leads to higher ad receptivity and memory retention than typical social formats.
For advertisers, that means podcast ads can serve as a strong complement to social strategies — particularly when brand recall and engaged storytelling are priorities. While social platforms excel in volume and interaction, podcasts deliver concentrated attention and deeper audience connection, helping messages break through clutter more effectively.
Paid search is a cornerstone of digital advertising, prized for its alignment with explicit user intent and strong conversion tracking. However, rising competition and evolving platform dynamics have changed the paid search landscape over the past few years. Costs per click have generally increased as more advertisers enter the space, and recent changes to search engine algorithms and privacy frameworks have introduced additional complexity for performance measurement.
In contrast, podcast advertising offers intent‑adjacent opportunities that blend attention, context, and relevance at competitive rates. While search captures users at the moment of explicit query intent, podcast ads influence latent demand — shaping preferences, building awareness, and driving consideration before users are actively searching. This upstream engagement can create a more receptive audience when they eventually encounter a search or direct response touchpoint.
Industry research continues to highlight that a significant share of podcast listeners not only recall ads but take subsequent action — including searching for products they hear about on podcasts. These behaviors demonstrate that podcast advertising and paid search can play synergistic roles, with podcasts amplifying brand familiarity and search capturing users when they are ready to convert.
For many advertisers, integrating podcast ads with search strategies enhances overall funnel performance: podcast placements drive attention and interest early on, while search captures demand closer to conversion, often at a lower acquisition cost than relying on paid search alone.
Podcast advertising isn’t just for established businesses and those with big advertising budgets. As the podscape has grown, so have the possibilities for brands of all sizes and types.
Brands across industries can find and connect with engaged audiences through podcasting. Direct-to-consumer brands, startups, and SMBs have all discovered niche podcast markets that are interested in their products and services, running campaigns that perform while maximizing budget.
For large enterprises, podcasting offers a bump to overall reach and a boon to cross-channel performance.
Podcast advertising is full funnel. Whether your brand wants to generate awareness or conversions, there’s a podcast campaign that can deliver the results you’re after.
Podcast advertising is the ultimate driver of brand marketing success, but don’t take our word for it. Our clients have demonstrated impressive and meaningful results: Check out a selection of our clients’ case studies here.