Acast: 64% of Egyptians listen to podcasts weekly, under 10% recall ads
Egypt illustrates the monetisation gap most clearly. Acast's Megan Davies cites GWI figures showing 64% of Egypt's online population listens to podcasts weekly, against fewer than 10% who recall hearing a podcast ad. Next Audio, Acast's MENA sales partner, logged a 67% year-on-year rise in advertiser demand from 2024 to 2025 and a 30% increase in average campaign spend, though the underlying revenue base isn't disclosed. Havas Media MENA's Naveen Chacko Matthews says many brands run existing radio spots as podcast ads and points to the absence of clickable ad options as a further barrier. McCann Content Studios MENAT's Ibrahim Hasan argues the ad format itself pushes listeners away, citing abrupt mid-episode breaks on platforms including Spotify and Anghami. Saudi Arabia and the UAE draw the bulk of regional ad budgets, while Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine produce strong local content that regional campaigns largely bypass.
Campaigns planned at GCC level rarely extend into Egypt, so a large, engaged listener base sits outside the reach of most regional media plans. Buyers who apply digital-video benchmarks such as instant click-through rates are measuring a medium that behaves differently, according to both Acast and Havas Media MENA, and that mismatch keeps budgets concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the UAE while comparable audiences in Lebanon and Palestine stay under-monetised. McCann's Ibrahim Hasan frames the fix as creative: brand integrations built into a show's premise, in the way Joe Rogan's partnership with Perplexity or Thmanyah's Sawalif Business format brings brands into the conversation, convert listenership into ad revenue. Advertisers weighing scale claims should ask about retention and completion rates. Raw reach numbers alone conceal whether an audience stays engaged with the ad.