Listener Motivations Fuel Podcast Growth and Ad Effectiveness

Every podcast – and podcast ad campaign – needs a North Star, a guiding light that sets it apart and gives it its reason for being. It starts with a clear understanding of how the podcast serves the needs and motivations of its listeners.

What are the hot buttons that drive listeners to consume podcasts? How do they vary by genres? How can podcasters harness those motivations to grow their audience?

How should advertisers tap into the same drivers to make their campaigns more effective?

We can draw some answers to these questions from the 12,000+ monthly podcast listeners we survey annually in the US for the Triton Digital Podcast Metrics Demos+ service which provides robust demographic and sociodemographic profiles on thousands of podcasts.

The Leading Reasons to Consume Podcasts

Listeners identify a wide range of motivations for engaging with podcasts.

Of these, the top three are effectively table stakes. Listeners most commonly go to podcasts to be entertained; to hear interesting stories; or to learn something new. It’s hard to find any successful podcast that doesn’t deliver on one of these needs. In fact, many, if not most, deliver on two, or all three.

How Listener Motivations Differ by Genre

Priorities vary based on the type of podcasts listeners choose. Looking at the podcasts they report consuming in the past month, we see certain motivations playing a much bigger role depending on the genre. That, in turn, informs the recipe for building a growing audience in these categories.

For example, as you might expect, there’s a world of difference in the reasons News and Comedy listeners give for going to podcasts. The tables below show how each genre’s listeners are more likely to choose specific motivations compared to the average podcast listener. “Getting a deeper perspective on news and current events” posts the highest index among News listeners at 163, meaning they are 63% more likely than the average listener to use podcasts to satisfy that need. Meanwhile, Comedy listeners are most likely to over-index on listening to podcasts to get “a laugh.”

Other genres share a similar pattern of motivations, even when they address different topic areas. Listeners to Business, Health & Fitness and Education podcasts all over-index on listening to podcasts “for self improvement,” “for inspiration,” and “to challenge the way I think.”

Likewise, listeners to True Crime and Fiction genres also go to podcasts for a parallel set of needs, with each being more likely than the average podcast listener to seek “a mental escape,” keeping their “mind engaged while doing mindless tasks” and “to hear interesting stories.”

Why Listener Motivations Matter for Advertisers Too

While prioritizing the motivations of their listeners can help podcasters grow their audience, advertisers also benefit from understanding these drivers.

Advertisers and buyers should leverage audience motivations to inform creative development and planning, knowing where they can find the right fit for their product and message.

Knowing that the overall podcast audience most commonly listens “to be entertained,” “to hear interesting stories” and “to learn something new” sets guidelines for the creative approaches most likely to earn and keep listener attention.

Taking it one step further, when we look at how motivations differ by genre, we see the following:

• Comedy listeners would be most likely to respond to ads that are funny or lift their mood;
• News listeners will be most receptive to ads that inform;
• Products, services and messages that address self-improvement are most likely to find a welcome audience in Business, Health and Fitness and Education podcasts; and
• True Crime and Fiction listeners are particularly likely to be open to advertisers who offer an opportunity “to get a mental escape.” (e.g., a trip to the tropics in winter)

The learning gained from understanding these motivations can be applied to host-read ads and announcer reads where they can easily be tailored to specific audiences. At the same time, pre-produced ads open the door to a creative strategy that uses audio to paint a picture or project a mood that aligns with listener expectations from their preferred podcasts.

Whether you’re a podcaster, publisher or a brand looking to connect with podcast listeners, an appreciation of listener motivations is foundational.

To know more about what drives podcast listeners to the medium and to specific types of podcasts, book a call with Signal Hill Insights here. And for more information on the Triton Digital Podcast Metrics Demos+ service, book a call with Triton here.