Spotify recently released their end-of-year Podcast Trends Report from 2022, which takes a deep dive into these trends and what they mean for advertisers as they look to optimize their content and revenue strategies for 2023. Here’s what they found:
- Podcast streaming explodes in Southern Europe. US-based podcast listening continued to rise steeply in 2022, but European countries newer to podcasting, like Spain, Italy, and Franc, saw massive jumps, and these upward trends show no sign of slowing.
- Age is no barrier. Millennials and Gen Z represent the biggest demos when it comes to podcast listenership—they remained the primary drivers of podcast streams in 2022. However, when it comes to growth, both teenagers (ages 13-17) and the 55+ category showed increased engagement, with a 42%-49% jump year over year.
- A podcast for every mood. 2022 wasn’t a year for the fainthearted. Distressing political and societal events dominated world headlines, and more people than ever turned to podcasts both for wider context on the stories that matter and to tune out the noise. Across all platforms, listeners streamed Society & Culture and News podcasts the most, while on Spotify, the Comedy category was the most popular.
- Streaming any time, from any device. Podcasts resonate so well with people due to their intimate, one-to-one setting— listeners feel closer to hosts and more immersed in the content. So, it’s no surprise that mobile devices continued to be the most popular way to listen to podcasts in 2022, accounting for 91% of time spent across Spotify. But as new audiences grow, so too are new ways of listening.
- Ads landing with listeners. Industry-wide, advertisers saw an average conversion rate of 1.28% from their podcast campaigns (the number of attributed households that visited a brand’s site / the unique households that downloaded an episode), with pre-roll as the most effective placement.
As the podcast medium continues to grow rapidly in popularity, we are seeing greater diversification just about everywhere, from audience and content to choice of device and advertiser investment. And that bodes very well for another exciting year of growth and opportunity for advertisers to reach audiences immersed in the content they love.
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