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Podcast marketing trends 2024
new data on what works/what doesn't
Trent Anderson
November 15, 2024
Today's Lineup 🎙️
The 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends Dropped This Week
In 2024 it’s easier than ever to start, produce, and maintain a podcast. But growth is harder than ever.
Podcast Marketing Academy’s annual report is designed to play a small but important role in changing that.
We’ve compiled some of the report’s most interesting stats, but you should absolutely check out the full piece.
To set the stage, PMA surveyed 515 podcasters and industry professionals from a diverse set of personal backgrounds, niches, formats, and experiences. PMA wrapped up the survey in Q1 2024.
Here’s what you need to know:
What Works (& What Doesn’t) For Podcast Growth?
PMA asked respondents to describe in their own words what they had done in the past year that they felt was most effective when it came to growing their show, and least effective.
What Works:
âś… Consistency
âś… Quality
âś… Guest selection
âś… Output
âś… Promo swaps
What Doesn’t Work:
❌ Social media
❌ Paid ads
❌ Inaction
❌ Show notes, transcripts
❌ YouTube
Takeaways:
Based on the data, podcasting with intent seems to be the key to show growth. Perhaps an obvious insight. But simple rarely means easy.
Common “best practices” for podcast marketing don’t move the needle. Whether social media marketing or transcripts, the data tells us it might be time to ditch the old playbook.
How Effective Are Various Podcast Marketing Channels?
PMA asked respondents to rate the effectiveness of each of the marketing channels they’d employed over the past year on a scale from 0 (Not Effective) to 10 (Highly Effective).
Takeaways:
Perhaps most striking about the ratings is the consistent ranking of paid growth options—such as advertising and podcast growth services promising downloads—as the least effective marketing channels
Just above paid growth in effectiveness were social media and YouTube, two channels often hailed by podcast creators but falling short of their hype
Show Topic by Growth Rate
Does a podcast’s overarching topic serve as an indicator for its potential growth? Here’s what PMA found:
High Growth Trends:
Compared to the overall average, shows that grew by more than 100% were:
⬆⬆ Significantly more likely to be in the Health & Wellness category.
⬆ Moderately more likely to be in the Arts category
⬇⬇ Significantly less likely to be in the Education, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, and Kids & Family categories
Low Growth Trends:
Compared to the overall average, shows that grew by less than 18% were:
⬆⬆ Significantly more likely to be in the Business, Society & Culture, TV & Film, and History categories
⬇⬇ Significantly less likely to be in the Education, Arts, and Leisure categories
Show Format by Growth Rate
Does a show’s format have an impact on its potential growth? It appears so:
High Growth Trends:
Compared to the overall average, shows that grew by more than 100% were:
⬆⬆ Significantly more likely to use roundtable formats
⬆ Moderately more likely to use Co-Hosted (with Guests), Co-Hosted (without Guests), and multiple formats
⬇⬇ Moderately less likely to use strictly Solo formats
⬇⬇ Significantly less likely to use strictly Interview formats
Low Growth Trends:
Compared to the overall average, shows that grew by less than 18% were:
⬆⬆ Significantly more likely to use strictly interview and roundtable formats
⬇⬇ Significantly less likely to use strictly Solo, Co-Hosted (without guests), Co-Hosted (with Guests), and Fiction formats
Takeaways:
The Podcast Marketing Trends report is choc full of data. We cherrypicked our favorite datapoints, but please do download the report in its entirety:
Survey: Post-Election Podcast Consumption
Did you listen to podcasts to get news or updates on the US Presidential election? |
If yes, did listening to election-related podcasts affect how often you listened to your usual podcasts? |
Now that the election is over, do you plan to listen to podcasts overall more, less, or about the same as before the election? |
Podcasts rank first for media that provide a sense of community
According to a new study by Acast and Edison Research, podcasts reign supreme in cultivating community.
This is one of many fascinating datapoints provided in Acast’s Podcast Pulse Report. Get it 👇️
Want to see this data (and more) up close? Consider a Podchaser Pro subscription.
5.4M podcasts
Deep demographic data
Monthly and per episode reach
and so much more
