A new study found 67 percent of global podcast listeners say they’ve made a purchase directly because of a recommendation from a podcast, which begs the question: Are podcasters influencers?
The study, “Podcast Pulse 2025,” (no registration required) from podcast monetization platform Acast, found 75% of podcast listeners don’t consider podcasters to be influencers. But it also found that, unlike traditional influencers, podcasters earn audience trust through genuine, meaningful connection — a dynamic that goes far beyond reach. For example, the study found 84% of listeners say a podcaster has changed their mind about something they once believed.
Greg Glenday, CEO at Acast, likes the term “narrative influencer” to describe podcasts’ position in the market.
“If you want to take longer and unpack a story, it’s still influential, but it’s not shouting at you because the product has launched. It’s like, ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s have that longer discussion,’” Glenday told MarTech.
Data from the survey demonstrates this desire among listeners to dig deep. Podcasts are the first choice for listeners who want to understand a topic in depth, including 58% of 18–24-year-olds, 62% of 25–34-year-olds and 60% of 35–44-year-olds, the report found.
When podcast listeners are considering a purchase, the study found podcast hosts now rank alongside journalists in credibility (33%), placing them ahead of YouTubers (31%), social media influencers (28%) and celebrities (25%).
While podcast creators are active where their fans are — 46% spend time actively interacting with fans on social media platforms — audio remains the medium where they build their strongest connection. Listeners rank the podcast audio feed (55%) significantly higher than social media (15%) for forging the deepest relationship.
Forty percent of listeners surveyed said they mostly listen to podcasts but sometimes watch them, while 27 percent listen and watch both audio and video versions. Only 17 percent consume video podcasts exclusively.
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Podcast advertising: Scale vs. resonance
Podcast listeners view podcast ads as more authentic (45%), more memorable (44%) and more relevant to interests (43%).
Much of the data in the Acast report tells a story of resonance and passion among the podcast audience, but for years the media business operated mainly on scale — viewers, impressions, page views and more. Resonance is harder to sell. Still, Glenday and his team are working on aggregating audiences, which is something relatively new to the podcast space.
“We take all of these complaints advertisers have, and that becomes our tech roadmap,” he said.
As for scale: “Anybody can get scale. A media buyer… he or she can get 1 million impressions and book it on their phone on the way home,” Glenday said.
The Acast report is based on research conducted by Differentology of more than 2,500 podcast listeners across nine markets: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway and Sweden.
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