As Radio Ink reported last week, the IAB’s recently released annual podcast revenue study found that podcast ad revenue grew 86% in 2017, hitting $314M. Marshall Williams is the CEO of Ad Results Media, an advertising agency that specializes in podcast advertising. Clients include Blue Apron, Ziprecruiter and Harry’s.

Radio Ink: What are you seeing in terms of podcasting growth? 
Marshall Williams: In the Podcast Consumer 2018 Report by Edison Research and Triton Digital, they reported that monthly podcast listening jumped roughly 8% from 2017. We expect that trend to continue if not grow based on positive trends in podcast discoverability and content production.

Radio Ink: How are you able to gauge the growth/listenership? 
Marshall Williams: It’s a bit difficult to gauge explicit growth, but we do believe that the trajectory will continue, if not accelerate, because the friction of discoverability is slowly being removed. With Google, Pandora, and Spotify now making concerted efforts to invest in the market, we believe a lot of the barriers to entry from a listener perspective will be removed. Additionally, as listenership grows the demand, more and better content will need to be satiated. We will continue to see a positive evolution in production, new content, and talent over the next few years. A great example is Spotify’s new partnership with Amy Schumer.

Radio Ink: What categories are performing the best for advertisers? 
Marshall Williams: Every quarter Ad Results Media takes a cohort of our 10 largest clients and evaluates the top 30 influencers across national and local terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and podcasts. We like to use just the top 30 performers because they represent 40%+ of all sales. While there is a very deep tail on both podcasts and local terrestrial, we believe these trends still give a good general idea of where/how the market is moving. In our latest assessment, the show formats of Comedy and Sports continued to be at the top.

Radio Ink: What have you found to be the best length of a commercial on a podcast for advertisers? 
Marshall Williams: When it comes to podcast advertising, the longer the spot the better. This is truly unique to this medium. Although there are set guidelines (30-second spots, 60-second spots, etc.), it’s up to the host as to how they would like to deliver the message. There have been numerous instances where the host is an enthusiast of the product or service and will go into a three-minute monologue about their experience and how great it was. They become evangelists of sorts. When this happens, it’s gold.

Radio Ink: What are your thoughts on the projected podcasting revenue growth?
Marshall Williams: The latest Podcast Revenue Study projects podcast advertising revenue to grow to $659M in 2020. We believe there is upside in this figure based on recent annual growth trends.

Radio Ink: Are major advertisers jumping in? Can you name a few for us? 
Marshall Williams: Yes. Major brands like Delta, Progressive, Gillette, Burger King, and Budweiser have been jumping in because we believe listenership is reaching a critical mass. It’s a great way to reach very valuable audiences and it’s a great way to align content and respected ambassadors with their brand.

Radio Ink: How do advertisers really know a) their commercials are being heard and b) they are getting results? 
Marshall Williams: Historically, a majority of the advertisers have been direct-to-consumer focused and have implemented savvy measuring tactics to make sure this channel is delivering relative to their economics goal. The reason we see the continued scale in the advertising space is because it’s working from a cost-per-customer-acquisition perspective.

Radio Ink: What will this space look for in five years? 
Marshall Williams: We believe it will be a multi-billion dollar advertising marketplace and a preferred way for people to digest content.

Link to original article here:  https://radioink.com/2018/06/18/why-are-advertisers-turning-to-podcasting/