This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their total media ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.

Podcasts are emerging as the most credible, persuasive arm of the creator economy. According to Acast, 84% of listeners have changed their mind because of a podcaster, yet 75% don’t view them as influencers—proof that credibility, not celebrity, fuels podcast influence. Two-thirds of listeners say they’ve purchased something a host recommended. Despite the rise of video, most podcast engagement remains audio-first, underscoring the medium’s intimacy and staying power. For advertisers, podcasts offer a rare trifecta—attention, authenticity, and conversion—at a time when influencer fatigue and algorithmic feeds erode audience trust elsewhere.

Spotify’s Q3 2025 results show a company redefining success around efficiency and engagement rather than scale. Revenue rose to $4.62 billion, with 713 million monthly active users and 281 million premium subscribers, up 12% YoY. Gross margin reached 31.6% as AI integration, subscription pricing, and product diversification drove profitability. The company’s upcoming leadership transition—Daniel Ek to executive chairman, Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström to co-CEOs—signals continuity through maturity. While ad sales grew just 7%, Spotify’s dominance in user time and audio engagement positions it as the anchor of digital audio. The next chapter: sustainable margins, smarter growth, and steady leadership.

The news: YouTube Music is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a slate of new features, bringing it closer to serving as a full Spotify replacement. Our take: As music platforms evolve into social ecosystems, brand strategies should adapt from passive ad placements to active participation. Testing new ad formats in Taste Match playlists and comments could provide organic brand presence, while partnering with artists who already bridge YouTube’s properties opens access to engaged, music-first communities.

Spotify’s Ad Exchange is reshaping podcast monetization by moving beyond one-to-one sponsorships toward scalable, automated buying. With adoption up 60% since spring and expanded DSP integrations via Google DV360, Magnite, and The Trade Desk, the platform is positioning itself to capture a larger share of the $5.5B global podcast ad market. While CPM and performance gaps remain compared with host-read ads, programmatic’s potential for reach and efficiency could push rivals to upgrade their own offerings.

This report compares our 2025 US ad spending and time spent with media forecasts. It identifies incongruities between how marketers are spending ad dollars and where consumers are spending their time.

The news: Spotify is expanding its automated podcast buying capabilities, giving advertisers the opportunity to reach podcast listeners through two automated buying channels. Spotify Ads Manager is evolving to give advertisers in several regions “direct access to premium podcast inventory,” including content from original and licensed podcasts.. Our take: The updates could enable Spotify to increase its share of ad dollars, attracting advertisers looking for more opportunities to reach engaged audiences representing key demographics. But to continue attracting spending, Spotify will need to shift some focus to drawing in more listeners to keep its podcast offerings attractive.

The rest of the year is top-of-mind for leaders in marketing and retail, which they expect to be challenging but riddled with opportunities to stand out from competition.

Total time spent with media per day in the US is no longer growing meaningfully, but there will still be significant churn between devices, activities, and platforms as consumers choose how to spend their time.

US consumers will spend 8.6 hours daily with digital media in 2025. How they divide that time across devices is evolving as video content drives strong growth in connected TV usage.

Spotify is doubling down on podcast engagement: New features arrive as listenership and advertiser demand both hit record highs.

Amid dizzying policy unpredictability and a grab bag of unpleasant economic possibilities, precise ad spend forecasting is challenging. A scenarios-based approach can help clarify potential outcomes.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.​

Sports remains a profitable ad opportunity: Two-thirds of Americans are sports fans and over half have made a purchase based on audio ads.

What do brands need to know about the next wave of digital growth?

Ad revenues outlook declining amid economic uncertainty: The latest Magna ad sales forecast indicates several factors are at play in the downturn.

Top-line time spent with media will grow very little in the US going forward, making it essential to identify which formats and platforms are winning the newly zero-sum competition for consumer attention.

Programmatic plays a small but growing role in digital audio services ad spending. Major digital audio platforms are leaning in.

Retailers looking to capitalize on retail media’s growth opportunities need to understand the market developments, formats, and challenges shaping ad spending in Latin America.

SiriusXM struggles to pull off streaming: A low revenue forecast prompts the company to reexamine its strengths in a crowded field.