Digital audio made a significant leap in the share of total national audio ad spending during the first half of 2024 according to Guideline, which reports total digital audio ad spending now accounts for nearly two-thirds of national audio ad dollars, climbing eight percentage points to a 65% share during the first half of the year.
Guideline’s data is powered by Standard Media Index and based on actual spending data from the SMI pool partners at major holding companies and large ad agencies, representing 95% of all U.S. national brand ad spending.
Guideline has been tracking the rise of digital audio spending for several years, stacking it up against the share of national audio ad dollars going to broadcast radio, which it says now accounts for a 35% share of spending. Guideline says the focus on digital audio has accelerated in each of the last three years. In the first half of 2024, that trend continued. Digital audio investment increased 17% in the first half of 2024, while broadcast investment decreased by the same amount among the national buyers it tracks.
That pattern is holding into the second half of the year as well. In July, Guideline reported that the share of digital audio spending continued to accelerate, accounting for 68.6% of total national audio and radio ad spending, signaling what it says is a continued shift in favor of digital audio.
“While the overall share of digital audio to terrestrial radio dollars feels a little on the high side to me, I think directionally we can see where things continue to head,” says Andy Lipset, founder and CEO of Resound, the boutique advisory firm that helps marketers with their audio advertising. “The ability to track and measure so much of what happens in the digital audio space is a primary reason why advertisers are gravitating to it more and more. That said, terrestrial radio continues to hold its own from an audience standpoint, and I firmly believe that no one audio medium should be bought in a vacuum. Audiences are still choosing many different forms of audio and the medium should be planned and bought that way.”
Within digital audio, Guideline says podcasting accounted for one in four digital audio ad dollars spent during the first half of 2024. Streaming audio accounts for the other 75%. That is on par with the spending trends seen during the first half of 2023.
That being said, it reports both streaming audio and podcasts have seen double-digit growth in spending year to year. Ad spending on streaming audio grew 18.2% during the first half, and podcast spending was up 13%. And in an optimistic sign for the second half, Guideline says July 2024 saw similar double-digital increases versus the prior year.
Guideline says podcasters had the hottest ticket in digital audio during the first half of the year as host-read podcast spots were most in demand. It reports spending on the host-read ads jumped 35% year-to-year. That is twice the growth rate of streaming audio spots, which saw a healthy 18% increase in spending.
Among 12 product category verticals tracked by Guideline, there were nine categories that increased their digital audio spending while cutting back on their broadcast investment during the first half. And three – Consumer Product Goods, Travel, and Wellness – were three categories that increased their spending in both radio and digital audio from a year earlier. Notably, Guideline says CPG, which is the biggest category in overall audio advertising, increased its spending 11% in broadcast radio and by 13% in digital audio.
Much of the CPG growth has been driven by Procter & Gamble, which has continued to make major investments in audio – in some weeks running as many as 230,000 ads across broadcast radio stations nationwide – as it has also put more dollars toward marketing.
The gains for audio come as Guideline’s U.S. Market Tracker, which is an index of total ad spending, reported 16 consecutive months of expansion for the total ad market through July. It also pointed toward a strengthening ad market, reporting a 14% year-over-year gain in July, compared to 4.8% growth in June and 1.7% in May.
Comments