Why Podcast Frequency May Be Killing Your ROI

Nearly half of Canada is listening to podcasts. That's not a niche anymore.

According to the latest Canadian Podcast Listener Report, 46% of Canadian adults now consume podcasts monthly - up 7% in a single year, the largest single-year jump since tracking began. Brands are following those audiences, and for good reason. Podcast listeners are deeply engaged. They find the content more informative, more entertaining, and more personally relevant than almost anything else in their media mix. It's also one of the least cluttered advertising environments available, with podcast ads are the least likely to be skipped of any medium.

So the opportunity is real. The question is whether brands are capitalizing on it - or quietly working against themselves.

The metric that matters

New data from the Q4 2025 Podscribe Performance Benchmark (PPB) Report suggests many are doing the latter. The key indicator is Net New Reach (NNR): the percentage of listeners hearing your ad for the very first time. When NNR goes up, performance follows. Approximately 72-73% of advertisers saw strong CPA improvements as NNR increased, and 60% saw a positive lift in conversion rates. Reaching fresh ears outperforms reaching the same ears repeatedly every time.

The problem with chasing the big show

Many brands want to be on the biggest podcasts. It feels safe, it looks great in a media plan, and the audience numbers are easy to defend in a meeting. But over-concentrating spend on a single tentpole show collapses NNR quickly. The same listeners hear the same ad on repeat, frequency climbs, and - critically - so does the ad load on that show. The intimacy and low clutter that made podcast advertising desirable will slowly erode. Brands end up paying to degrade the very medium they're investing in.

Broaden, don't deepen

The fix isn't complicated: diversify across programs and tactics. Spread spend into niche shows your audience already listens to but hasn't heard your ad on yet. That's where NNR climbs, CPAs improve, and the medium stays healthy enough to keep delivering. Lastly, Lean on subject matter experts like TPX to develop a strategy that aligns to your objectives and KPIs.

The big show will still be there. But the brands winning in podcast right now aren't buying reach through repetition - they're buying it through expansion.