Why podcasts are playing a bigger role in brands’ creator strategies

The popularity of podcasts among U.S. consumers has soared to record highs, fueled partly by a surge of short-form video creators launching podcasts to broaden their content lineups. And with podcasts occupying more of consumers’ leisure time—and spilling over into their screen time—the medium is growing more popular with advertisers, too. While brands running ads in creator-hosted podcasts isn’t a cutting-edge marketing strategy, advertisers are evolving their investments in the medium beyond the typical ad reads that have long dominated the podcasting space. Brands are blending into podcast episodes with sponsored segments; product placement within the increasingly popular video versions of creators’ podcasts; and social media content or in-person activations linked to creators’ shows, influencer marketing and podcasting, executives told Ad Age. Advertisers’ investment in podcasts jumped nearly 16% year over year in 2024, reaching roughly $2.28 billion, according to market research company eMarketer. Many of those ad dollars have gone toward creator podcasts in particular. Creators collectively generated $740 million from podcasts in 2024 and are on track to rake in $940 million by the end of 2025, according to a new eMarketer forecast. And those forecasts don’t include the income creators are earning from YouTube, which recently announced that over 1 billion people each month now watch video podcasts on the platform. “The Fantasy Footballers” podcast, for instance, has noted an uptick in brands specifically requesting to sponsor a segment on the podcast, rather than solely run ads during the show, the podcast’s three co-hosts—Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright—told Ad Age. When the show first launched in 2014, attempting to convince advertisers to integrate into the content of the show rather than interrupt episodes with pre- or mid-roll ad reads “was like taking a crowbar and trying to pry open a window,” Moore said. But brands including Raising Cane’s, Head & Shoulders and DraftKings have since teamed with the three hosts to weave their brands into new or existing segments on the podcast, which has amassed 383,000 subscribers on YouTube and more than 140 million views across its videos on the platform. Raising Cane’s, for example, sponsored a segment called “Raising Cane’s Rising Stars” where the hosts highlighted up-and-coming football players, they said. And about 90% of those brands return to sponsor future segments of “The Fantasy Footballers,” the hosts said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fantasy Footballers (@fantasyfootballers) Some of those sponsored segments have become beloved parts of the podcast among fans, they said. For example, when a partnership with DraftKings ended on a sponsored weekly segment called “Fantasy Faceoff”—where one of the hosts had to don a silly costume—fans were so upset at the segment being removed that the hosts added it back into the show, Holloway said. “When we have those deep integrations, I feel like [our audience] associates our love for this brand or product with their love for the show,” Moore said. “We get tweets all the time from people that are like, ‘I'm at a Raising Cane’s,’ just because they know we like Raising Cane’s …. For brands, these integrated segments are what they’re dreaming of.” Podcast fans largely pay closer attention to ads when listening to their favorite podcasts and have more positive feelings toward those advertisers, according to a new report from Denstu, Edison Research and podcast studio Wondery. In the report, 67% of surveyed consumers who identified as “podcast fans” agreed that podcast ads “are more likely to grab their attention” than ads in other mediums. Over half (55%) of fans said they’re more likely to also become fans of brands that sponsor their favorite podcasts, and 54% said they’re more likely to trust those brands, as well. Some of that trust is a “halo effect” of the para-social bond podcast fans feel toward the hosts of podcasts they spend hours with each week (or an average of 51 minutes per day among U.S. adults, according to eMarketer), said Nicole Blake, chief brand officer at Wondery. “This notion of feeling so close to [the hosts] is just something that doesn’t exist in any other medium.” Additionally, U.S. consumers' deteriorating trust in mainstream media overall “has translated into people gravitating toward creators” for news and information, said Tyler Vaught, global head of creator marketing at Edelman. Podcasts have emerged as a popular medium consumers are turning to for information, commentary and entertainment that aligns with their own beliefs and values, he said. Podcasts reach new pop culture heights With podcast consumption at record highs and creator-hosted podcasts offering advertisers a gateway to creators’ most loyal fans, “podcasting is something brands can’t ignore anymore” when trying to connect with the communities those creators—and their audiences—belong to, Vaught said. U.S. consumers today are consuming more video and audio podcasts than ever before, according to Edison Research’s latest annual “Infinite Dial” report. In the January survey of over 5,000 consumers aged 12 and older that the market research company conducted for the report, over half (55%) of consumers reported listening to or watching at least one podcast in the last month. That’s up from 47% of consumers who reported doing so in 2024. Enter the free 2025 Young Creatives Contest here Gen Zers and millennials are largely spearheading this trend—66% of survey respondents aged 12 to 34 reported listening to or watching at least one podcast episode in the past month, versus 61% of those between 35 and 54 years old and just 38% of consumers 55 and older. Many consumers are also now tuning into podcasts weekly, with 40% of survey respondents reporting they had consumed at least one podcast in the past week, compared to the 34% who said they’d done so in the 2024 survey. More advertisers are recognizing the untapped potential podcasts provide in helping them reach both mainstream audiences through massive creators—such as Alex Cooper and her sprawling podcast network, the Unwell Network—and more niche communities, such as the fantasy football fans who regularly watch The Fantasy Footballers, said Lizzie Collins, senior VP and head of marketing for SiriusXM Media. Roughly 80% of SiriusXM’s top 200 streaming clients are now investing in podcasting, Collins said. They’re also increasingly interested in extending those investments beyond ad reads to also include video podcast integrations, sponsored social posts and activations at live recordings and other in-person events, she said. Patrón, for instance, last year sponsored a fan meet-and-greet for Christina Najjar (aka Tinx) in addition to running ads during her podcast “It’s Me, Tinx.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tinx (@tinx) As of February 2025, SiriusXM Media (the entertainment company’s advertising arm) had already sold more ad placements in video podcasts and related social media content than it did in the entirety of 2024, Collins said. That soaring investment in multimedia collaborations with podcast creators prompted SiriusXM Media to launch Creator Connect, a centralized suite of ad tools to streamline the process of tapping into multiple areas of a podcast creator’s community, she said. Along with helping advertisers partner with creators and their podcasts across audio, video, social media and in-person activations, SiriusXM Media is also introducing a new “social amplification” offering through Creator Connect that allows brands to runs ads created from those podcast integrations as paid media on Meta, TikTok and YouTube to target new audiences for both the advertiser and the creator, Collins said. SiriusXM itself has also been investing heavily in podcasting over the past four years, she said. In August, the company inked a three-year, $125 million deal with the aforementioned Alex Cooper, host of the podcast “Call Her Daddy.” And in January, SiriusXM added “The Fantasy Footballers” to its podcast network and began airing episodes of the show on the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio station. Both deals grant SiriusXM exclusive advertising and distribution rights to the two podcasts, along with the other shows under Cooper’s Unwell Network. Creating ongoing collaborations For some advertisers, the draw of creator podcasts is their consistent schedule and repeatable ad format, which is “slightly more reminiscent of other forms of traditional advertising,” said Neil Waller, co-founder and co-CEO of Whalar Group. But the biggest change fueling increased interest in podcasts among Whalar Group’s clients is their desire for more ongoing and longer-term collaborations with creators, rather than one-off partnerships, Waller said. “Podcasts have been a natural component of that,” he added, given that they provide a recurring opportunity to sponsor the creator at the core of the podcast. Seeing this trend, Whalar Group unveiled a new partnership with iHeartMedia in October to help creators launch and grow podcasts and connect advertisers to these creators and their shows. Similar to SiriusXM’s Creator Connect program, the partnership spans not just the creators’ podcasts but also sponsorship opportunities in social content, live events and radio broadcasts tied to the creator. Creative agency Movers+Shakers has also started incorporating podcast sponsorships into creator partnerships for clients such as Burt’s Bees, said Sarah Gerrish, the agency’s senior director of influencer marketing. Along with integrating Burt’s Bees lip balm into a sponsored segment of the show “Brooke & Connor Make a Podcast,” Movers+Shakers worked with Burt’s Bees to create and post clips from the segment to the brand’s TikTok account. And, as an extension of the partnership, the agency also sponsored additional TikTok posts from the two co-hosts, Brooke Averick and Connor Wood. @bncmap We want to know who’s on your Bee-List! Tag your Bee-List, nominate a friend to play, and let’s stir some buzz! @Burt's Bees NA #BurtsBeesPartner #BurtsBees #MyBeeList ♬ original sound - Brooke & Connor Make a Podcast “Brands are still always looking for organic ways to be in the conversation, and a podcast just gives them more of a platform than social,” Gerrish said. “And a lot of [Averick and Wood’s] podcast listeners had seen the podcast episode or heard the podcast and seen the [TikTok] video, and then Burt’s just kept kind of reinforcing that messaging.”

Why podcasts are playing a bigger role in brands’ creator strategies

Featured Stories