Podcasts have emerged as the future of storytelling and hold immense potential starting this new decade. As more and more people are getting addicted to the art of storytelling, leveraging of podcasts for marketing and branding purposes has become mainstream. In 2023, everyone wants to start a podcast, which only typically requires podcast hosting, a laptop and a (even cheap) microphone.
As podcasts are growing in popularity with customers, it is increasingly becoming necessary for businesses of all sizes to keep an eye on the preferred listening trends of their potential customers and competitors benchmark their competitors who have already made a mark in this new art of audio storytelling.
The popularity of the podcasts can be summed up in the following quote:
“Apple podcasts…feature more than 500,000 active podcasts, including content in more than 100 languages.”
Variety, February 2018
This new medium of audio storytelling has evolved as an effective tool in the marketing arsenal of the marketers of late and considering its appeal to the audiences across all major demographics, there might soon marketers coming up with ways to measure Podcasting KPIs and framing quantifiable methods to measure conversions generated through podcasts.
The art of podcasting or audio storytelling is the way for marketers, brands, and influencers to talk their ways through to the hearts of their customers. Podcasts have the potential to amplify the marketing ROI a thousandfold and considering the effectiveness of podcasts as the voice of brands.
We have listed down 20 statistics that can help marketers strategize, execute and optimize their podcasting endeavors, keeping in mind the trends in the marketplace as they are and as they will evolve in years to come.
While financial ROI is terminology for money made from your podcast, the total number of downloads and engagement of your podcast determines the podcast’s success.
To determine the ROI of your podcasting endeavors, you need to divide the total revenue by total production time.
Thus, podcasting ROI is calculated by the formula below:
ROI = Total Revenue or (Sales Revenue – Expenses) / Production Time
Let’s Have a Look at the Statistics
Have a look at the 20 amazing statistics about this new and promising content, involving direct communication for deciphering marketing messages, i.e., podcasting:
1. 50% of all homes in the U.S.A are podcast fans, i.e. above 60 million homes (Source: Nielsen)
2. 75% of the U.S.A population is acquainted with the term “podcasting”, a growth of 5% over the year from the year 2019 (Source: Infinite Dial 2020)
3. The total number of podcast listeners in the U.S.A has increased by 37.5% in three years, starting the year 2017 (Source: Infinite Dial 2020)
4. In the year 2020, more than 100 million Americans listen to at least one podcast per month. This amounts of a total of 37% Americans being monthly podcast listeners (Source: Infinite Dial 2020)
5. The total number of monthly podcast listeners in the U.S.A has increased by 54% (Source: Infinite Dial 2020)
6. 16 million people in the U.S.A have been mentioned as “avid podcast fans” (Source: Nielsen, Q1, 2018)
7. There are currently 8,50,000 podcasts actively being run across the globe, having broadcasted over 30 million podcast episodes till date (Source: Podcast Insights, 2020)
8. More than 50% of all the U.S.A customers above the age of 12 listen to podcasts (Source: Statista, 2019)
9. As of 2020, 49% of all the Americans aged 12-34 listen to at least one podcast per month, implying that podcasts are extremely popular among Gen-Zers, as well as, millennials (Source: Infinite Dial, 2020)
10. Nearly 25% of all the Americans aged above 55 years listen to at least one monthly podcast, an increase of 29% from the year 2019 (Source: Infinite Dial, 2020)
11. The average total number of podcasts listened per week by the weekly podcast learners in America amounts to 6 podcasts (Source: infinite Dial, 2020)
12. 21% of Americans, that is equivalent to roughly 76 million, now have “smart speakers” in their homes, such as Amazon Echo (Alexa) (Source: Infinite Dial 2020)
13. 65% of the podcast listeners tune in using portable devices such as smartphones or tablets (Source: Edison Research, 2019)
14. About 75% of the podcast listeners in the U.S.A state that tuning in to the podcasts an effective way to learn new things (Source: Statista)
15. 35% of the people who don’t listen to a podcast, despite being aware of it say that it’s because they don’t know how to locate one
16. 90% of podcast listeners listen to the podcasts from the comfort of their homes (Source: Edison Research, 2019)
17. About 54% of the podcast listeners are somewhat more likely to purchase from a brand after having listened to its advertisement on a podcast (Source: eMarketer, 2019)
18. The podcast advertising revenues in the U.S.A alone are likely to surpass $ 1 billion by the year 2021 (Source: eMarketer, 2019)
19. 82.4% of the total podcast listeners spend more than 7 hours a week listening to podcasts (Source: Discover Pods, 2019)
20. Comedy is the most popular podcasting genre followed by education and news (Source: Nielsen)
Wrapping Things Up
The 2020 podcasting statistics show that podcasting will continue to blossom through this year and beyond as a prime channel for the conveyance of marketing messages. As the trend is still flourishing and lags far behind than either reaching its peak or being in a saturated state, now is the perfect time for marketers to plan and execute their podcasting strategies, if they haven’t done so yet.
A podcast is an easily snackable form of content and that is probably one of the main reasons why the audiences love it so much. Unlike the video or blog post, the podcast doesn’t have the visual element and is easier for the listeners to consume as a piece of content.
Whether podcasts will outdo videos or blogs in generating sales conversions, is a question that will take some time to answer. For the time being, podcasts surely deserve to be on your content calendar, as a part of your content diversification plan.
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