spotify podcasts subscriptionssteele streetjournal

Last year, the music-streaming giant bought three podcasting companies for a combined $400 million.

Spotify has been focusing on podcasting in recent years in its quest to keep users engaged and entice radio listeners over to its platform. Gradually, though, solutions to this problem are coming onstream. Yet, while around one-third of US marketers and agency professionals say they currently advertise in podcasts, there’s been one major stumbling block keeping many marketers from exploring the medium: It’s hard to measure the most important marketing KPIs or produce reliable data on podcast listeners.Īs I wrote in an article about podcast marketing last July, “the promise of potential marketing growth is counter-balanced by the reality that, unlike text- or video-based content, it has traditionally been difficult to measure key audience metrics of podcasts such as user engagement, conversions or the all-important ROI.” No wonder, then, that revenues from podcast advertising reached nearly $500 million in 2018, up 53% from 2017, and have been projected to surpass $1 billion by 2021, according to a recent IAB report.

Moreover, with nearly a third of Americans saying they listen to podcasts on a monthly basis and more than a fifth doing so on a weekly basis, clearly there are many consumers marketers can reach through the medium. “Podcast storytelling is deeply engaging and provides marketers with a brand-safe environment that enhances the appeal to advertisers.” “Consumers have put podcasts front-and-center,” said Anna Bager, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Executive Vice President of Industry Initiatives. What started as a niche marketing tactic is now firmly mainstream, with many experts considering podcasts one of the fastest-growing digital marketing segments. I think it’s safe to say that podcast marketing has proven it’s here to stay.

Spotify podcasts subscriptionssteele streetjournal