‘Tis the season for gift giving and the podcast industry continues to be a go-to outlet for direct-to-consumer brands looking to capitalize on the expected $980 million in holiday shopping this year. Heading into the season, Magellan AI reports the gift ad category saw spending more than double between September and October, growing 129% to $1 million last month, based on its estimates. That may be a bit behind last year’s October total of $1.2 million of spending from the gift category, but the month-to-month increase was more than double what it was in 2023.
Magellan CEO Cameron Hendrix said on the company’s monthly update that 87% of the brands in the gift category are direct response marketers, with more than a quarter (27%) of the ads featuring host-reads. The biggest genres for gift advertisers include True Crime, TV & Films, and News. Among the biggest spenders during October were the wedding registry service Zola ($218,000), Uncommon Goods ($196,000) and Legacybox ($177,000).
Magellan AI also reports there was an uptick in home goods advertising levels last month. “The overall size of the industry vertical increased around 44% year over year,” Hendrix said. Magellan says home goods brands spent $3.8 million on podcasts during October, up from $2.6 million in the prior year. Spending was also up month-to-month as brands like Ashley Homestore ($707,000), Nokbox ($301,000) and Earth Breeze ($298,000) invested in podcast ads. Magellan says home goods retailers spent the biggest portion of their budgets in the Society & Culture category, followed by News and Comedy. Unlike the gift segment where the focus is on selling a product, Magellan says more than eight in ten of the home goods ads were focused on brand awareness.
Magellan AI earlier reported that Amazon remained the top podcast advertiser in October, followed by BetterHelp, T-Mobile, MGM Resorts and Shopify. Overall, Magellan says the top 15 advertisers in podcasting spent a combined $54.23 million in October.