Digital audio advertising reached $8.4 billion in 2025, and podcasting drove much of that growth. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, working with PwC, says podcast ad revenue climbed 17.6% year-over-year to $2.9 billion. That figure outpaced the broader digital audio category, which grew 10.2%.

Those numbers land at a time when the audio industry is watching its ad dollars closely. Traditional audio managed just 1.3% growth last year. TV advertising fared worse, declining 13.4% in the same period.

The IAB’s 2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report frames digital audio as an increasingly important piece of the media mix — but also a relatively small one.

At $8.4 billion, digital audio accounts for just 2.8% of overall digital ad spending. That total reached $294.6 billion last year, up 13.9% year-over-year.

For podcasters, the report carries both good news and a clear challenge. Creator advertising — a category that increasingly overlaps with podcasting — reached $37 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $44 billion in 2026. Brands aren’t just running ads inside podcasts anymore. They’re embedding creators into long-term media strategies and even product development, a shift in how the industry values the creator-audience relationship.

The challenge is accountability. As video consumption grows and the line between audio and video podcasting continues to blur, the IAB expects 2026 growth to hinge on whether podcasters can prove their advertising delivers measurable impact. “This will also present new challenges for publishers and media buyers to plan, buy and measure across traditional ‘audio’ and ‘video’ channels,” the report notes.

That pressure extends across the digital ad market. IAB CEO David Cohen pointed to performance as the defining factor in where investment is moving. “As expectations for measurable outcomes rise,” he said, “investment is concentrating in areas that can directly correlate spend to business results.”

Programmatic advertising is one area where measurable outcomes are already driving dollars. Overall programmatic spending rose 20.5% in 2025 to $162.4 billion, and the digital audio industry has been pushing to capture more of that automated buying. The IAB expects that trend to accelerate as AI-driven media buying takes hold.

Digital video also posted a 25.4% gain, reaching $78 billion — the fastest growth of any major format. That shift matters for podcasters because it’s likely to influence how podcast inventory is valued. Campaigns are increasingly spanning both audio and video environments, and pricing will follow.

The IAB notes these record levels arrived without any major cyclical events — no Olympics, no election cycle — to inflate the numbers. “While overall revenue is stronger than ever, consumer usage patterns have changed materially over the last year,” said Jack Koch, IAB Senior VP of Research & Insights. “The ability to integrate data, media, and commerce is becoming a defining advantage.”

One figure underscores the competitive landscape: the top 10 tech companies now control 84.1% of total digital ad revenue. For audio publishers working to grow their share, that concentration is a reminder of how much ground there is to make up — and how important it is to deliver results that advertisers can measure.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.