BetterHelp spent $29M on podcast ads in Q2, and other insights in Magellan’s benchmark report

If there is a single metric worthy of a headline in Magellan AI’s just-released Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report, it is the three-month ad spend of top advertiser BetterHelp (an online counseling service). The company spent $29.6 million dollars in the quarter to claim the #1 spend spot.

Looking back at the Q1 report, we see BetterHelp atop that list, too, with a $23.6M spend. From Q1 to Q2 BetterHelp increased its podcast ad spend by 25%.

Amazon takes the #2 spot in both quarters, with a nearly identical spend: $16.8M (Q1) and $16.9M (Q2).

The top 10 spenders in Q2:

Interestingly, Magellan performs a year-over-year comparison (2021 to 2022) of six brands whose podcast spend dramatically increased during that YoY. It is framed as a watchlist for this year’s 2023:

We also learn that 2,465 new brands entered the market in Q2, with an average spend of $18k per new brand. Those ads were mostly mid-rolls, with an average length of 54 seconds.

The average ad load (percentage of total episode time) grew slightly from 5.55% to 5.97%.

The deck is freely available HERE. Download recommended; lots of granular interest.

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