A new US podcast ranking highlights that news and politics podcasts are delivering strong advertising performance across a wide range of publishers and political perspectives.
The latest ORBIT ranking from Oxford Road, based on over $2 billion in advertiser spend, shows that news-focused podcasts dominate the top of the list, with 12 out of the top 15 shows falling into the news genre.
The top three entries are Morning Wire, Mo News, and Lovett or Leave It.
Despite the upcoming US midterm elections driving advertiser interest in these categories, the ranking demonstrates that making assumptions about which shows will perform best can be misleading.
The list is not controlled by a single
The list is not controlled by a single publisher; instead, 10 different publishers are represented among the top 15 shows. While Red Seat Ventures and The Daily Wire have multiple entries, no single network dominates.
Crooked Media stands out with four shows in the top 15, including What A Day, Pod Save America, Offline With Jon Favreau, and Lovett or Leave It.
This gives advertisers the flexibility to test individual programmes or explore package options within one publisher.
The ranking also reveals a broad political spectrum,
The ranking also reveals a broad political spectrum, with conservative shows like The Ben Shapiro Show and The AM Update With Megyn Kelly appearing alongside progressive-leaning programmes such as The Meidastouch Podcast and The Majority Report with Sam Seder.
This diversity offers buyers opportunities to reach audiences across different viewpoints.
ORBIT, the Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool, compiles these rankings using the industry’s largest index of podcast advertising performance data.
The system measures customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from real campaigns, normalising results across various advertiser goals and verticals.
For performance marketers, ORBIT is designed to help
For performance marketers, ORBIT is designed to help de-risk initial buys, optimise campaigns more quickly, and identify high-performing shows before they become costly.
Oxford Road plans to release new ORBIT rankings each month, covering a range of categories including genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific outcomes.
The full “ORBIT’s Top Performing News & Politics Podcasts” list and methodology details are available here.
