Marion Barnham • January 17, 2025
Podcasts seem to be relatively new in our lives but they actually aren’t.
With our introduction to iPods back in 2004, we were able to download Internet radio broadcasts.
In 2005, the big companies noticed the power podcasts had and the potential to help them grow even more. Apple was the leader with iTunes 4.9 and a year later,in 2006, Steve Jobs during one of his speeches, demonstrated how to make a podcast using GarageBand.
No one could deny that it was an upcoming trend, after that.
And it’s perfectly reasonable that people see it as the ideal alternative when they want to reduce their screen time, but at the same time, they desire to be educated or entertained with good quality content.
Today, we see podcasting is more popular than ever, and predictions reveal that it is still on the rise. It is impressive how much the market share of major content creators like Netflix for shows and movies and Spotify for music and podcasts increased during the first lockdown.
But let’s look at some important statistics:
2019 was a breakout year for the podcast industry, with TechCrunch reporting a 27% surge in podcast creation from the year before. 700,000 podcasts were created and a total of 29 million podcast episodes.
But how do people find new podcasts to listen to?
The Podcast Host Discoverability Survey unveils:
- Search My Podcast App’s Directory – 40%
- Directly Ask Someone I Know Who Likes the Same Stuff – 18.3%
- Ask on Social Media or Online Community – 15.2%
- Search on Google – 13.6%
- Browse Through a Podcast Chart or ‘Featured’ Section– 13%
Google has announced that they will start including podcasts in Google Search results so you can listen to podcasts directly from the search results page or save an episode for later.
With this announcement, we understand that podcasts can be a powerful tool for marketers. Please note that the basic rules of content marketing apply to podcasts as well. Keyword research and competitors content analysis can be very helpful when deciding on the type of content that would suit your audience better.
But there is more good news for marketers, studies indicate that people are more receptive to advertising on their favourite podcast shows.
You should act fast but always with a plan. In 2025, we will see even more competition on these platforms. There is a big gap in the market, and numbers speak for themselves.
This year the content distribution among different channels was:
500 million blogs, 1 million YouTube channels, but only 800K podcasts. Big social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, have already started following the trend.
And what about the audience?
- 75% of people in the US are familiar with the concept of Podcasting, up from 70% in 2019
- 55% of people in the US have listened to a podcast, at least once, up from 51% in 2019
- 37% of people in the US (12+) listened in the last month, up from 32% in 2019
- 24% of people in the US (12+) listened in the last week, up from 12% in 2019
- 18% of adults in the UK (15+) listen on a weekly basis, up from 14% in 2019
Source: Infinite Dial 2020
Are you still unsure if this is a good strategy for your brand?
There is no solution that fits all. Statistics give a good indication of a growing audience that demands good quality of education, news, and entertainment, all in the form of a podcast. There is a lot of room for many different brands in the market and if you are not there to fill that gap, someone else will be.
If you need any help with your marketing efforts, Barnham Marketing are always happy to help.