Podcasting production and advertising company Midroll has published the findings from its latest listener survey. “Podcasts By The Numbers,” as the survey data is called is described by Midroll as “the industry’s largest ongoing survey of podcast listeners.” The objective of the survey is to gather information on the audience consuming Midroll’s shows so the network can help its advertisers make informed choices about shows they choose to run ads on. The survey was conducted between June and October of 2015 and includes results from over 168,000 surveyed listeners.
Here are some highlights from the survey:
- 22% of listeners have an annual household income of $100,000 or more.
- Half of the listeners have a bachelor’s degree or higher education degree, 53% spend at least $132 a year on printed books and e-books.
- 61% report buying a product or service they heard about on a podcast ad.
- As the audience grows, it diversifies, looking more like the demographics of the United States as a whole.
- 88% listen to most or all episodes of the podcasts they subscribe to.
Midroll typically only works with shows that have significantly large audiences. So, even tho the company was able to gather its survey results based on a large sampling, it’s still not necessarily representative of all podcast listeners. The two biggest takeaways that small or independent producers may want to focus on are the “61% report buying a product or service they heard about on a podcast ad” and “88% listen to most or all episodes of the podcasts they subscribe to” stats. The first one could be useful to anyone seeking sponsorships for their own shows and the second one shows that there really is value in a show’s back catalog, and that it’s important to make that easily available to subscribers.
The full survey report can be found here.