May 2021: Top spenders, movers and shakers in podcast advertising
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Top 15 spenders
Top 15 movers & shakers
Dell
Since 1963, the US Small Business Administration has recognized the first week of May as National Small Business Week. This year, the official events have been moved to September but Dell still took advantage of the nationally recognized period to celebrate. Dell developed the small business Podference and used their ad spots to promote the online event.
Dell describes the event:
As part of Dell Technologies role as a small business advisor, we’ve partnered with some of your favorite podcasters to provide you with lessons and strategies you can listen wherever and whenever you want to.
In addition to ads promoting the event, Dell relied on host-read ads to promote their “secure PCs with Windows 10 Pro” to small businesses. Dell faces little competition in this category, as none of the other PC brands are currently active in podcast ads. The ads are concentrated in the Sports and Business genres, primarily as mid-roll ads.
Hear Dell ads on The Stacking Benjamins Show and The School of Greatness.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma launched their checking account in October of 2020 and brought it to podcast ads for the first time in May. Credit Karma, best known for their credit score monitoring app, has sporadically ran ads in podcasts over the past few years.
The Credit Karma Money ads encourage listeners to open an account and use their debit card for a chance to win a reimbursement for their purchase. Podcast ads are a popular channel for financial services companies but Credit Karma stand apart in their creative, offering reimbursement sweepstakes and checking account. Capital One was the only other financial institution promoting checking accounts in May.
The majority of Credit Karma’s ads are host-read with a direct response call to action prompting listeners to visit creditkarma.com/winmoney. 91% of the ads are in a mid-roll position. Hear the ads on Big Mood, Little Mood and Start Here. Find even more ads for Credit Karma Money on www.ReallyGoodPodcastAds.com.
Wealthfront
Wealthfront is a robo-investing platform named best robo-advisor by both Nerdwallet and Investopedia.
Magellan AI detected ads for Wealthfront as early as 2018 but their spend increased by 807% between April and May. The ads detected in May are all in a mid-roll position, primarily host-read ads, averaging well over a minute.
Like Credit Karma, Wealthfront is one of many financial services companies advertising on podcasts but their most similar competitors - Acorns and Vanguard Digital Advisor - have not been detected in podcast ads recently. Ally, however, spent almost as much as Wealthfront in the month of May and is promoting their investing products as well. Robinhood is also fighting for their share of wallet and spent considerably more than Wealthfront in May but differs greatly in their offer: Wealthfront promises hassle-free growth and tax-loss harvesting while Robinhood promises to allow users to “invest your own way, on your own terms.”
Hear Wealthfront ads on The Tim Ferriss Show and Keep It! and find even more on www.ReallyGoodPodcastAds.com
Methodology
Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. For parts of this analysis, we relied on Magellan AI’s proprietary model to estimate advertising spend. Our model incorporates a number of factors, including:
- The number of ads and variation in ad load detected for a given episode
- Number of downloads for each episode
- CPM, as reported on select media kits and estimated based on popularity
From time to time we adjust our model based on new inputs and user input.
Magellan AI creates tools that help marketers at brands like SimpliSafe, Wix, and BetterHelp spend intelligently on podcast advertising. Podcast publishers like WNYC and Audioboom use Magellan to track advertisers spending money in the podcast space. Learn More.
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