Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from thousands of podcasts in the U.S. To prepare the latest Quarterly Benchmark Report, we analyzed 92,888 episodes of popular podcasts to uncover the behaviors, trends, and insights from Q1 2025. Our benchmark report covers the fastest growing industries in podcast advertising, where and how dollars were spent, how genres measure up by ad load and new brands, and common ad lengths & positions.

Some of our key findings this quarter include:

• +21% Y/Y spend
  Podcast ad spending continued to climb in Q1, increasing 21% year-over-year
• 8 of 10 repeat top-10 spenders
  Eight of the top 10 spenders in Q1 were also top spenders in Q4 '24, with two appearing for the first time this quarter
• $42k average spend for new brands
  Bigger campaigns for brands testing podcasts - average spend for new brands detected on podcasts in Q1 doubled year-over-year
• 8.01% average ad load
  Average advertiser ad load decreased from 8.22% in Q4 '24, to 8.01% in Q1.
• +72% ad spend in Recruiting
  Spend in the Recruiting industry increased 72%, with brands like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn topping the list.
• 1 of 5 new brands on Sports
  About 1 out of 5 new brands in Q1 included Sports podcasts in their media plan

For a deeper dive on these numbers and much more, head over to our download page to get a free copy of the full benchmark report!

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