ADOPTER Media on Stage
The question about podcast advertising in 2026 is no longer about whether or not it works. It is about how to make it work better. How to structure deals that hold up. How to measure formats that are growing faster than the infrastructure around them. How to keep the ecosystem healthy enough to sustain the momentum it has earned.
Those are the conversations ADOPTER Media was part of this March, on two different stages, in two different cities. Here is what we took away from both.
The Deal Is Not the Hard Part. What Comes Before It Is.
Podcast advertising has always been a relationship business, and relationships have gotten more complex. The brand, the network, the host, the agent, the manager, each with their own set of goals and pressures, are all sitting around the same table trying to get to the same place. That is not a bad thing. More professionalism on the talent side has raised the quality of partnerships across the board. But it has also raised the stakes around one of the trickiest moments in any deal.
That pressure is not a problem in itself. The problem is what happens when the deal closes before anyone has gotten honest about what it actually takes to make it work.
ADOPTER sponsored the Main Stage session at Podcast Movement Evolutions, running as part of SXSW, and our SVP of Client Services Adam McNeil joined Alex Burris Cline of The Paragon Collective, Matthew Drengler of Podscribe, and Annabel Garcia Eller of Gersh to dig into exactly this. The session was called "Getting to Yes: The Art of Saying No," and it delivered exactly that.
Partnerships That Compound Over Time
The most durable deals in this business are not the ones that closed the fastest. They are the ones where both sides asked the harder questions early. What does success look like for this campaign? Will these genres and formats reach the right audience, at the right budget, at the right moment? Taking the time to work through those questions before the contract is signed is exactly what determines whether anyone is coming back to the table six months later.
Asking those questions early is what separates a transactional campaign from a partnership that compounds over time. When both sides get aligned on the fit early, the right opportunities reveal themselves. The ones that are not the right fit, well … everyone is better off knowing that before anything is signed. It is an approach Adam brings to every client relationship he manages.
"The strongest deals we've ever closed weren't the fastest ones. They were the ones where we took the time to really understand the fit, the audience, the timing. When the right opportunity is in front of you, it holds up to that scrutiny. And when it doesn't, everyone's better off knowing that early."
Adam McNeil, SVP Client Services, ADOPTER Media
Open Attribution Is a Win for Everyone
Video podcasting is the fastest-growing format in the industry right now. That is not a projection. It is what the numbers show, consistently, quarter over quarter. Simulcasts are everywhere. Audiences are watching and listening in ways they were not two years ago. For advertisers, the opportunity is significant and it is only getting bigger.
The IAB's 2026 outlook forecasts podcast ad spending will grow 9.6% this year, ranking it among the strongest growth rates of any media channel. What has not kept pace is the measurement infrastructure to support it.
Glenn Rubenstein joined the stage at Advertising Week Europe for "Video Attribution Denied: The Challenge Blocking Billions in Growth," part of The Business of Podcasting track presented by Sounds Profitable, alongside Pat Schmidt of Podscribe, Andrew Goldsmith of Audioboom UK, and Lucy Barbor of We Are Masterplan. The conversation got right to something the industry has been circling without fully resolving.
The platforms that have captured most of video podcasting's growth still do not allow pixel-level attribution. That means brands cannot reliably track what their video podcast advertising is actually doing. Audio IP tracking has served as a bridge, but it was always an approximation, and buyers have gotten sophisticated enough to know the difference between a proxy metric and a real one. When you can measure something with confidence, you can scale it with confidence. And budgets follow that confidence.
Open attribution does not just benefit advertisers. It benefits creators, who gain the ability to prove their value in a format they are investing heavily in. It benefits platforms, which would unlock advertiser spending they are currently leaving on the table. The ceiling that limited measurement creates is not just an advertiser conversation. It is an ecosystem opportunity, and it will not open without them
The Conversations Worth Being Part Of
Better deals and better measurement might look like separate conversations. In practice they are moving toward the same outcome: a channel that continues to be accountable, sustainable, and valuable for everyone investing in it.
Podcast advertising has earned its seat at the table. The brands are here, the audiences are engaged, and the partnerships being built right now are more sophisticated than anything this industry has seen before. What we keep coming back to, with clients and on stages like these, is how to make sure the infrastructure keeps pace with the opportunity. That is the work. We are glad to be part of it.
Sherry Del Rizzo
Sherry leads ADOPTER Media’s inbound content marketing, SEO strategy, brand authority, and knowledge base development. Translation: she makes sure the agency’s expertise shows up in the right places from search rankings to industry conversations. For her, marketing isn’t just about promotion, it's about translating ideas into content people actually want to engage with.
