Magellan AI helps advertisers, agencies, and publishers measure podcast advertising performance from exposure to outcome. To prepare our Q2 2026 Podcast Measurement Benchmark Report, we analyzed Magellan AI-measured podcast campaigns that ran from January 1 through June 30, 2026. The report covers response rate, lead and purchase conversion, and podcast listener growth and retention across key advertiser categories.

Two changes from our Q1 report. This edition covers a full six months rather than a single quarter, giving us a larger campaign set to work from. We've also moved from averages to medians, which report the midpoint campaign instead of giving the largest campaigns ousized impact on benchmarks Median figures run lower than the averages we published in Q1, so the two reports are not directly comparable.

Key findings from this quarter's report:

• 2.23% median response rate
  The midpoint campaign put 2.23% of unique reached listeners on an advertiser site, measured using a 30-day lookback window.
• 4.65% lead conversion and 3.98% purchase conversion
  Of listeners who visited an advertiser site, the midpoint campaign converted 4.65% to a lead and 3.98% to a purchase.
• Response kept building through day 30
  Campaigns judged at seven days show less than half of what they eventually deliver.
• Host-read drove 54% higher response than produced
  Host-read ads posted a 3.22% median response rate against 2.09% for produced.
• 55.5% repeat listener rate
  More than half of new listeners acquired through podcast promos returned to listen to more episodes.

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