Podcasts are commanding a $23 CPM

Podcasters are commanding a CPM of more than $23.

According to a study from Liberated Syndication Inc., aka Libsyn, a podcast hosting and distribution platform, its network of 2,900+ shows brought an average CPM of $23.77 in May 2022.

“CPM” aka “cost per thousand” is commonly used to measure the cost of digital ads, but in this case, it’s what advertisers are paying per thousand listens.

For reference, the average CPM across YouTube is about $7—so podcast ads cost around three times what your standard YouTube pre-roll does.

That’s probably partially because podcast ads tend to be much longer than video spots. The podcast ads Libsyn and its marketing subsidiary AdvertiseCast looked at were 60-second spots, while many video ads are 15 to 30 seconds long.

To that point, though, it’s worth noting that another recent study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated more and more podcast ads are hitting that 15-to-30 sweet spot

. In 2019, only 38% of ads were 15 to 30 seconds. In 2021? 55%.

In that timeframe, though, podcasts’ CPM hasn’t changed much. Podnews reports the average CPM it saw in May 2021 was $23.81—just four cents more than the CPM Libsyn is reporting now. It seems that, just as $7 is the stable CPM for YouTube, $23 might be the stable CPM for podcasts…at least for now.

Libsyn’s study also revealed which podcast categories it saw generating the highest CPMs: business podcasts at $28 per thousand listens, tech shows at $26 per thousand, and kids and family series at $26 per thousand.

Libsyn says the point of releasing these figures is to empower both advertisers and podcasters to “readily monitor market pricing and provide greater insight into podcasting advertising as a monetization vehicle.”