In an overview of podcast advertising trends in seven countries, Canada experienced the highest year-over-year growth in podcast ad spending and saw a significant rise in new brands advertising in podcasts.

The report from Magellan AI provides a Q1 2025 overview of podcast ads based on a sampling of more than 50,000 podcasts in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, France and Australia.

In the first quarter of 2025, Canada saw a 47.3% increase in podcast ad spending compared to the other sampled countries, as well as a 17% rise in new brands advertising in podcasts, with a total of 303, compared to 259 for Q4 2024. 

The top three podcast genres attracting the most new brands to podcasting in Canada are news, with 94 new brands, followed by sports podcasts with 90 and comedy with 78 new brands.

Based on ads detected by Magellan AI in the first half of 2025, the top three spenders in Canada were Airbnb, Amazon and Squarespace. These brands are also the top three most frequent advertisers. Other brands showing up on both lists are Indeed, Fizz, BetterHelp, TD, Questrade, MGM Resorts International and Scarborough Health Network.

Mid-roll is the most favoured ad position for Canadian podcast advertisers, with 60% of all ads being mid-roll; 30% were pre-roll; and 10% were post-roll. 

The average placement choices across all sampled countries in Q1 were 36% pre-roll, 47% mid-roll and 17% post-roll. 

More than half (54%) of the podcast ad campaigns in Canada took a brand awareness approach to their messages, while 40% were direct-response ads.

The industries with the biggest YoY jump in ad spend this year include financial services, business services and travel. These sectors appeared among the top three growing industries in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland.

Canada’s top three spending categories: nutritional supplements had a 138% YoY change and a spend of $440,000 in Q1 2025; business services, with a 115% YoY increase and a $1 million ad spend; and furniture brands, which rang up a big 194% YoY increase in podcast ad spend at $195,000 in Q1.

Magellan AI is a platform for podcast advertising intelligence, media planning and measurement, with a global database of podcast advertising data. Magellan AI scans podcast episodes to identify ad placements and assess characteristics like the position and length of ads, whether they were host-read or produced, and dynamic insertion vs embedded.