Acast reports 24% sales growth in Q2 despite podcast listening slump

Podcast monetization platform Acast shows sales growth in second-quarter earnings report, reporting 24% increase in net sales. The Swedish company says the highestThe best performing regions in terms of net sales were North America and Europe, where net sales increased by 26% and 25%, respectively.

Despite a 15% drop in listens, which is attributed to changes in podcast metrics due to Apple’s iOS 17 update, Acast’s average revenue per listen increased by 45% year-on-year.

Apple’s new system limits automatic downloads to five episodes and prevents further automatic downloads if the feature is temporarily disabled and then re-enabled. The move addresses long-standing advertiser concerns about the reliability of download counts as an indicator of true engagement.

Other points of interest for Acast include an econometric study conducted in June on the effectiveness of podcast advertising in the Swedish market – resulting in a 4.9x return on ad spend – and the company’s focus on multi-channel strategies that increase engagement and monetization opportunities, which was supported by its success at the Campaign Audio Advertising Awards.

Overall, podcast ad revenue saw a slight boost in 2023, rising 5% to $1.9 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. While that represents a slowdown from the rapid growth of previous years, the medium is expected to surpass $2 billion in 2024 and potentially reach nearly $2.6 billion by 2026.