Oxford Road announces “ORBIT Top 15 Comedy Podcasts Measured by Ad Performance” – its latest podcast rankings based on actual sales results, drawing from $1.6 billion+ in campaign data across hundreds of advertisers.
Like the previous overall ranking, the newest comedy-centered list analyzes 12 months of real campaign outcomes to reveal which shows convert listeners into customers most efficiently.
The top findings:
- Bill Burr performs, on and off stage: Standup Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast outperforms all other comedy podcasts, including mega-shows like SmartLess – hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett – which didn’t make the Top 15.
- NPR surprises: High performance of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me upends industry-wide perception of NPR podcasts as an upper funnel awareness driver rather than a powerful performance opportunity.
Other standout performers include popular titles like Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s Las Culturistas, Stavvy’s World, as well as Fear&, hosted by streamers Hasan Piker, Will Neff, QTCinderella, and AustinShow.
“For more than a decade, Bill Burr has been pushing the envelope, sometimes saying wildly offensive things in and around his podcast ad reads with no apologies,” said Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road. “But that hasn’t turned off buyers. In fact, the market has spoken by rewarding his brand advertisers with their money. It turns out audiences appreciate brands that can take a joke while supporting unfiltered comedy.”
Measurement That Matters
Findings were surfaced using ORBIT (Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool) – built on the industry’s largest index of podcast advertising performance data. The system measures actual customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from real campaigns. Oxford Road has processed more podcast advertising performance data than any other agency, creating an index that normalizes results across different advertiser goals and verticals.
For performance marketers, the tool enables advertisers to de-risk initial buys, optimize faster, and find high-performing shows before they become expensive.
Oxford Road will continue to release new ORBIT rankings monthly, covering categories including genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific results. Each ranking draws from Oxford Road’s proprietary database of campaign outcomes across podcasting, streaming audio, terrestrial radio, and creator-based video.The full “ORBIT Top 15 Comedy Podcasts Measured by Ad Performance” list and methodology details are available here.
