New 2022 Data for Podcasters from NuVoodoo

Podcasting is becoming a big business with a low barrier for entry that can pay handsome rewards to creators with solid content and strategy. Nearly half of the total sample in the NuVoodoo January 2022 Digital Media Study are now using podcasts on a weekly basis. Our sample includes interviews with 3,298 persons, ages 14 to 54 across the nation. Our screened sample of compensated respondents is balanced by gender, age, and ethnicity.

While Digital Streaming Providers (DSP’s) like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Amazon Music show weekly usage among 74% of our sample and AM/FM Radio shows weekly usage among 60%, 46% connect with podcasts every week. Millennials, now age 26-41, represent the largest weekly audience segment for podcasts at 54%, followed by Gen Z, 14-25’s in our sample, at 45%, and Generation X, 42-54’s here, at 34%.

The weekly podcast audience over indexes in the amount of time spent each week with many forms of audio entertainment – but especially when it comes to podcasts.

Overall, better than three in four weekly podcast listeners listen for an hour more each week, nearly doubling the same level of podcast listening in the overall sample. Weekly podcast listeners also over-index for time spent with radio and digital streaming. These are active, engaged listeners.

Among weekly podcast listeners, over 80% listen to at least two different podcasts each week – and over 40% listen to four or more different podcasts.

More than any other podcast statistic in these data, the one that stands out for us is the top answer when we asked weekly podcast listeners what they’re doing while listening to podcasts. Nearly half of them said they’re driving while listening to podcasts. Over half the Millennial weekly podcast listeners are driving while listening. Podcasts are making their way into the car.

Podcast listening is growing – and so is podcast production. As of December 2021, there were nearly 2.4 million podcasts and almost 60 million podcast episodes hosted by Apple podcasts. The trouble is the average podcast gets 27 listeners per episode. So, NuVoodoo set out to learn about marketing podcasts.

It turns out that for learning about new podcasts, social media is nearly as potent as the recommendations of friends. This is especially true among Millennials, where nearly 60% have discovered new podcasts through social media.

We posit that social media advertising can be like injecting steroids into the organic podcast discovery process since, unlike friend recommendations, paid messages can be delivered with tremendous frequency. With podcast discovery tied so closely to social media, we wanted to track the daily use of ad-supported apps to see which platforms allowed podcasters to reach their potential audience most efficiently.

Just shy 2/3 of the weekly podcast audience can be reached every day with boosted or organic posts on Facebook or Instagram – and around 3/4 can be reached daily on Google or YouTube.

And Podcasters have an advantage over many other brand advertisers hoping to retarget users in digital campaigns. We found that weekly podcast listeners are more likely to allow apps to track their devices and their activity across other websites. Nearly half report they allow tracking “often” or “always.”

That acceptance of tracking is 18 points higher among the weekly podcast audience than among our total sample – and ten points higher than the 39% acceptance among tracking-tolerant Millennials. This tolerance means that podcast publishers will be able to get their messages about new podcasts in front of potential listeners with tremendous frequency.

Viewed in context of a wider range of advertising media, two things stand out pertaining to the podcast audience: (1) they’re much more likely to pay attention to advertising messages than the sample overall and (2) digital media consistently outrank traditional media for connecting with them.

Paid digital retargeting advertising can be an efficient and effective strategy for podcasters hoping to cross-promote new episodes and guests to an existing userbase.  But researching messaging that the audience will find valuable rather than invasive or creepy is the key to maintaining a high opt-in rate for tracking and push motivations. You’ll find even more data from our study concerning podcast listeners and listening that you can watch right now at NuVoodoo.com/webinars. You can connect with our team with an email to TellMeMore@NuVoodoo.com.