Podcasts reach 53% of US Adults
Lower Street
We make podcasting easy for brands. Skip the "awkward years" & launch a great series right away
Want to know something insane?
Podcasting made $2 billion in ad revenue in 2023, reaching 53% of US adults.
But even with those huge numbers, brands still spend 100x that on Meta ads alone. That's out of whack.
Meta audiences are far less engaged and loyal.
Look at this graph from Sounds Profitable. Podcasting is punching well above its weight regarding the platforms people give their attention to monthly.
Podcast advertising is insanely undervalued. You're reaching premium audiences at bargain prices.
It feels like a lot like the early days of the magazine industry. In the 1920s, brands took a while to adopt magazine ads. They were niche compared to newspapers and marketers thought niche audiences meant limited reach meant small impact. But those niche readers were really loyal, and they converted.
Now, podcasting is in the same spot. We've got clients getting 10X ROI from niche b2b shows, all because they're reaching the right listeners, not the most.?
Isn’t that better worth for your brand? I think 2025 will be a big year for podcasting. And I hope you’ll be right there with us for it.
You’ll Need This to Make 2025 Your Podcasting Year
The Brand Podcast Summit 2025 replays are live. You won’t miss out, we’ve made them available for everyone, for free. You’re going to want to tune in and take notes, these replays are over 8 hours of exclusive podcasting lessons from leading brand marketers.
What You May Have Missed (But Can Still Catch)
One session I can’t recommend enough: Think Outside The Box in B2B Marketing with leading brands Atlassian, Red Hat, and Early Warning. This talk will get your gears going on how to create a standout niche B2B show.
Early Warning really made it work with Nickel & Crime. They teamed up with us at Lower Street to produce their creative true-crime-meets-B2B brand podcast.
领英推荐
After which, they saw a 390% growth rate in the second season, and won two W3 Awards and two Signal Awards. You can read more about how we transformed this show in our case study. And if you are looking for more, season 3 is out now.?
Download Signal Hill Insights' Latest Report
Get early access to the Signal Hill Insights 2025 Branded Podcast Benchmark Report before public release.
Learn how your efforts measure up, uncover the key drivers for top performing podcasts, and learn how to put it all into action with practical advice.
Sign up for the report here. Plus, you’ll have the chance to enter for a chance to win Apple's new iPad mini.
Latest at Lower Street
Pitch Playground - 4.0 has teamed up with Lower Street to produce Pitch Playground. The podcast is giving the chance for education innovators, and social entrepreneurs to take a shot at making their schools and communities better. Every episode is a playground for innovation, guests share 50,000 budgets to solve critical problems in education. One idea will win $50K to make a difference. Listen along to hear the potential for change.?
Your employees can be your biggest advocates - Annalise revisited our Office Hours with Stevie Manns to show how they converted BlackRock employees into superfans and evangelists of The Bid. These superpowers boosted the show’s reach and effectiveness. Have a read and see if you can steal some of these strategies for your own show.?
News in Podcasting
Ads need to be more - It doesn’t cut it to say a flashy statement and call it a day. Audiences want more interesting ads. Dull ads require 2-2.6x more spend to achieve the same impact as ads with a little more spark.
Podcast Listeners grew 10% in 2024 - Triton’s US Podcast Report is out and has shown us audiences continue to grow, but they still love what they love: News, True Crime, and Comedy stay in the top categories. Check out the full report, you may learn a thing or two about the state of US podcasting.?
You’ll never replace audio-first podcasts - Yes, video has advantages for discoverability. But you can’t beat the flexibility and accessibility of audio podcasts. Based on an RSS feed, they’re an owned media. They bring in more monetization opportunities (yes, even more than being on YouTube). Podcasts are way more intimate, and the listen-through rates blow video out of the water. Here’s all the arguments for audio first.?