Audio advertising statistics to make you rethink your marketing strategy
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Audio content consumption is bigger than ever. 2024 has seen a huge increase in the popularity of podcasts alone, with 42% of the UK population listening monthly and 30% now tuning in weekly.
While we all know the effectiveness of visual aids to support your marketing efforts, ignoring the opportunities that audio advertising offers could mean that your business is missing out on a highly engaged and listening audience.
You might be thinking, that with decreased attention spans and the ever-increasing need for short-form video content, why is long-form audio content on the rise? People enjoy audio because it is hands-free, allowing them to do other tasks such as driving, cooking or jogging, while they are listening, as Apple Podcasts show here…
Read on to find out the key stats that will make you reconsider your marketing strategy, and why you should start exploring the world of audio advertising.
Podcasts
Source: Apple Podcasts
- Podcast listeners aged 15+ spend an average of 5 hours and 27 minutes listening to podcasts in a typical week.
- The majority of 18–34-year-olds are monthly podcast listeners and 41% are weekly listeners
- 38% of new weekly podcast listeners (who began listening in the last year) are Gen Z
- 28% of those age 55+ listen monthly, up from 20% in 2023; 18% of those age 55+ listen weekly.
- The Top 25 podcasts reach 44% of weekly podcast listeners, which means with only the 25 biggest shows, nearly half of all weekly podcast listeners are accessible.
- In 2021, podcast advertising expenditure in the United Kingdom (UK) amounted to 46 million British pounds. This figure is estimated to increase within the next few years, reaching an estimated 80 million by 2026.
- By 2027, the number of users in the Podcast Advertising market is expected to reach 18.3m users
- The average ad spend per podcast listener in the UK jumped from 2.31 British pounds in 2020 to 4.14 pounds in 2024.
- The top 25 shows reach 44% of weekly listeners.
- The top 100 shows reach 60% of weekly listeners.
- The top 300 shows reach 72% of weekly listeners
(Source: Edison research, Statista, Auddy, SmartyAds)
Radio
Source: Global Player
- 40.5 million adults over the age of 15 tuned into commercial radio each week, for a minimum 5 minutes
- Global, the owner of Capital, Heart and Classic FM, stands as the UK’s leading commercial radio company with 27.2 million listeners
- Within the Traditional Radio Advertising market in the UK, the number of listeners is expected to reach 45.9m users by 2029
- Online listening overtook FM and AM platforms for the first time in history in Q2 2024.
(Source: Radio Joint Audience Research)
Music streaming apps
- By 2027, the number of users in the Music Streaming Advertising market is expected to amount to 21.6m users.
- The average revenue per user (ARPU) in the Music Streaming Advertising market is projected to be US$8.25 in 2025.
- Spotify states that 1 in 5 of their podcast listeners who engage with an advertiser end up converting.
- Nearly a quarter of Spotify listeners (23%) spend 10 hours or more engaging with podcasts on a weekly basis
- Spotify has a +492% YoY growth in “Wellness”-related streaming
(Source: Statista, Spotify Advertising)
All of the above figures are specific to a UK audience. But audio content consumption is increasing in popularity worldwide! Let’s take a look at some global stats on audio advertising.
Global stats
- 21.3% of Internet users aged 16 to 64 listen to podcasts weekly, averaging 61 minutes daily.
- Globally, the average daily time spent listening to podcasts has increased by 7% over the past year, corresponding to an additional 4 minutes per day
- IAB Europe predicts that the European digital audio advertising market will grow to €1.5 billion in 2023
(Source: Smartyads)
Get your audience listening
These stats show that audio advertising across all the available platforms doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. Start considering if audio advertising would be right for you, and access the millions of monthly listeners waiting for a brand like yours.
See our other resources on the power of audio in digital marketing:
