We’re seeing an increase in political parties, candidates, issues, and groups wanting to spend advertising budgets in podcasting, which may potentially provide an opportunity for more revenue for you as a creator.
A trend that we're seeing is an increase in attention from political parties and brands seeing the value of podcasting as a medium and eager to bring their ad dollars to the podcast world.
About the market:
According to a GroupM survey, ad spend on the US elections this year is expected to increase 30% from that of 2020 to a near $16 billion (source: The Guardian).
These campaigns also come with higher CPMs therefore offer the potential for greater revenue for creators than non-political campaigns.
Additionally, Axios predicts that digital channels will see an increase in spend over previous elections.
Soon, Acast will start running these ad campaigns.
We understand there may be further questions surrounding this topic, so we conducted our own study. Our research has shown that podcast listeners are open to political advertising.
61% say they’re open to hearing more political ads on podcasts if it means creators are getting paid more for their work
68% say they recognize that a political ad on a podcast doesn’t mean the podcaster endorses the candidate or idea
Because versatility and flexibility is crucial to how you run your podcast business, we are offering the option to participate, or the opportunity to opt out of allowing political advertising on your podcasts.
For additional detail, If you choose to engage in having political ads run, here are the specifics:
You're agreeing to allow your show's ad inventory to run all political ads
You will NOT be able to specify the party able to run ads on your show
The political ads are NOT sponsorships. You will never be asked to do a host read on behalf of any campaign. These are exclusively audio ads (15- 30 second pre-recorded ads)
These ads will only run in your open audio ad slots. Not your sponsorship slots
You can change your mind, and opt your show out, at any time
Opting into political ads overrides any issues already excluded from your block list (ex. If you have “IAB13-7 - Investing” blocked on your show, but have allowed political ads to run, then political ad mentioning investing could run on your show.
Whether you choose to opt-out or participate, a response is needed from your network and shows.
Should you choose to opt-out, political advertising would not run on your podcast.
For your awareness, Acast will be working with a reputable third-party audio company to vet ad content, and minimize any risks related to these ads. Vetting includes research based on the candidate and entity mentioned in the ad creative as well as the content of the ad.
Acast will not take a political stance on the messages contained with the ads. However, in the very small chance that they don't comply with our advertiser and community guidelines or they call into question the legitimacy of the democratic process, Acast will react by removing the ads.
We understand that this needs thought from you, and appreciate your consideration. Please respond by completing this very brief form. Your response is requested by Monday, July 15th.
NOTE: If you do not wish to have this type of advertising running on your show, tell us by opting-out by July 15th. If you already have ‘Politics’ (IAB category 11-4) blocked on your list, Acast will honor this and not make changes. Otherwise we will assume that you are interested in revenue around the 2024 election. Because of the sheer number of campaigns and pace of bookings, we won’t be able to offer you the chance to opt out of these on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.