Podcast ad spend reaching $5 billion but growth slowing down
Video podcast consumption is growing, and YouTube – celebrating 20 years this month – has emerged as the most popular platform: viewers watched over 400 million hours of podcasts per month on YouTube’s TV app in 2024. Global podcast ad spend will exceed $5 billion in 2025 and $5.5 billion in 2026. However, year-on-year growth is set to slow from 13.2% in 2024 to 7.9% in 2025, and only 6.5% in 2026, marketing firm WARC says in a trend report.
The report says that studies have found that ads placed in a single podcast episode on a specific show tend to outperform ads dynamically inserted throughout shows across a podcast network.
“In light of the US election result, previously cautious marketers are re-considering their ‘podcast safety’ approach – in particular in advertising against right-wing content to reach younger male audiences.”
“Podcasts are growing in cultural and political influence, but growth in podcast advertising spend remains slow. Publishers and platforms are looking to address this by expanding beyond audio, with a greater focus on creators and video content”, WARC says.
“Podcasts are having a moment. Fresh from seemingly helping Donald Trump to win last year’s ‘podcast election’ in the US, brands are reappraising the medium through fresh eyes”, says Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media.
“However, ad investment growth remains sluggish, with podcasters trapped in a contest for a slow-growing pool of global audio ad budgets. Publishers and platforms are now eyeing expansion into video, in the hope of further boosting consumption, as well as winning a share of a fast-growing slice of the ad market.”
The company forecasts that global podcast ad spend reached $4.8bn in 2024, will exceed $5bn in 2025, and amount to $5.5bn in 2026. However, year-on-year growth is set to slow from 13.2% in 2024 to 7.9% in 2025, and only 6.5% in 2026.
“This is markedly down on the expanding investment levels in other emerging channels, including retail media (+14.8% in 2025), CTV (+15.4%) and even DOOH (+14.9%).”
However, more than half of global marketers (55%) plan to increase their podcast ad investment this year. Podcasts ranked fifth highest in intention to invest – behind only online video, influencer/creator marketing, and social media. WARC says.
The total global audience reach of podcasts has increased from 60.6% in 2020 to 66% in 2025.
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