Oxford Road Survey: Measurement Gaps Are Holding Back Podcast Ad Budgets

A new Oxford Road survey of 41 marketers found that 57% say measurement gaps are holding back their podcast ad investments, while only 40% plan to raise podcast and audio budgets in 2027, down from 59% that increased them this year.

Nov 04, 2026 - 15:22

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Podcast advertisers are still spending on the medium, but inconsistent measurement, crowded ad breaks and doubts about return on investment are holding back some budgets, according to a new report from the podcast advertising agency Oxford Road. In findings detailed on Wednesday, Nov. 4, the agency's annual "What Brands Want" survey found that 57% of the marketers polled said measurement gaps were holding back their podcast investments, Business Insider reported. For brands with annual media budgets of $100 million or more, 90% said measurement was a top concern.

Oxford Road also estimates that video podcasters and creators could be missing out on as much as $1.15 billion in annual advertising revenue because brands lack the measurement tools they need to justify greater investment, Podcast News Daily reported.

Who was surveyed

According to Business Insider, the report was based on a July survey that polled 41 marketers, a group Oxford Road said represents $400 million to $500 million of podcast ad spend, including three of the top 10 podcast spenders. On its own report page, Oxford Road said it surveyed guests at its 2026 CAO Summit as well as other brand experts. The agency summarized the findings this way: "Brands still love podcasting. But they're not always feeling the love back."

Budget growth is slowing

Business Insider reported that 40% of the marketers surveyed anticipated increasing their podcast and audio budgets in 2027, down from the 59% of brands that said they increased those budgets this year. That tracks with other forecasts: EMARKETER expects U.S. advertisers to spend $3.76 billion on podcasts next year, up 10.4% year over year, but a slowdown from the 16.8% annual growth it estimates for 2026.

Forty percent of marketers in the report said other channels deliver a better return on investment than podcast ads, according to Business Insider. Podcast News Daily reported that 38% of advertisers believe podcasting, audio and creator media receive too little credit for the results they generate.

Measurement across platforms

Podcasts are distributed across RSS feeds, Spotify, Apple and, increasingly, YouTube, and Business Insider noted that each has its own audience metric, such as downloads, streams or views. Attribution relies on a mix of promo codes, pixels, geo-testing and media mix modeling.

"The exposure side, the attribution side — they're both a bit of a mess, frankly," Oxford Road EVP Giles Martin said, according to Business Insider. "It makes it harder for advertisers to buy, it makes it harder for sellers to sell, and it can make it harder for creators to get the money they deserve."

The report found that more than two-thirds of surveyed advertisers would increase spending if video podcast measurement achieved parity with audio, and nearly one-quarter are not investing in video podcasting at all, Podcast News Daily reported. The outlet said the $1.15 billion estimate is based on survey responses and projections using eMarketer's forecast for 2027 podcast advertising spending.

"This should be a wake-up call, particularly for creators who are now being affected by the same measurement challenges that podcasting has been battling for years," Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger said, according to Podcast News Daily. "The industry has always gone through growing pains. But the medium's shift to video has accelerated an identity crisis that has fostered uncertainty, even beyond podcasting."

Ad loads and buying complexity

More than 40% of the marketers polled cited the "advertising environment" as a reason they were putting off podcast investments, according to Business Insider, pointing to growing ad loads, ad repetition and quality-control issues such as ads that cut off mid-sentence. One unidentified advertiser quoted in the report said: "Ad loads have been extremely disappointing as of late, as have the transitions to breaks." Nearly a quarter of respondents identified operational complexity as a significant barrier, Podcast News Daily reported.

Programmatic buying remains limited: just 22% currently purchase podcast advertising programmatically, while 37% have no plans to do so, and most adopters allocate less than 20% of their budgets to it, according to Podcast News Daily.

Media buyers interviewed by Business Insider recommended combining measurement methods. "Brands buy podcasts like TV, but they measure them like search," said Byron Tassoni-Resch, CEO of the performance marketing agency WeDiscover, who recommended brand-lift studies and holdout tests. Patrick Dolan, head of display and audio at the media agency The7Stars, said: "There's a significant disconnect between audience attention and advertising investment."

Push for common standards

Oxford Road is advocating for common measurement standards through its AMP Accords initiative, which has been submitted to the IAB Tech Lab for technical review, Podcast News Daily reported. Podnews reported in July that the Accords, produced by twelve different companies, define a podcast and aim to set implementation standards for attribution and exposure metrics. Podtrac's Robert Freeman pointed Podnews to an existing podcast definition in the IAB's specification, in the market "since Sept 2016."

"Advertising is the lifeblood of the industry, and measurement is the lifeblood of advertising," Granger said, according to Podcast News Daily.

Last year's findings and the wider market

The 2026 report follows a similar warning a year earlier. In its "What Brands Want 2025" release, published by Podnews in October 2025, Oxford Road said 50% of respondents cited limitations in performance data as the main constraint on spend and that 76% of brands would increase their podcast investment if attribution for YouTube podcasts matched that available for audio, suggesting up to $1B in additional spend could be unlocked.

SiriusXM reported on Oct. 29 that podcast advertising revenue increased 20 percent in the third quarter, TheDesk reported. On the company's earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Zac Coughlin said podcasting "continues to benefit from strong advertiser demand, larger deal sizes, and expanding creator and omni-channel offerings," adding that "strong sell-through has reduced available inventory, constraining growth in the third quarter."