Marketers should look beyond podcasts and reconsider where true crime fits in the social media ecosystem.
For many people, their first association between new media and the true crime genre is podcasting and that completely makes sense.
According to a Pew Research Center study, 34% of U.S. adults who have regularly listened to podcasts in the past year say they’ve listened to a true crime podcast. Meanwhile, Edison lists true crime as the 4th most popular podcasting genre by reach, behind comedy, society & culture, and news.
However, the connection between the true crime genre and social media is even more widespread. A 2024 YouGov poll found 20% of U.S. adult citizens consume true crime content through social media. While that trails television at 41%, it’s actually more than podcasts at 15%. Meanwhile, A 2023 Vivint survey found 42% of respondents consumed true crime content on YouTube, second only to Netflix at 62%. 7% of respondents watched true crime content on TikTok.
In fact, true crime now generates 2.1 billion social media interactions each month in the United States.
Despite the massive audience, for marketers, the true crime genre which discusses graphic and disturbing subjects is not necessarily a topic that universally can be considered brand safe. For example, it wouldn’t necessarily be the best advertising fit for Disney. Ad Age cites auto, finance, fashion, grocery, eCommerce, travel, telecom, fitness, education, insurance, quick service restaurants and beauty as industries that have had success advertising around true crime.
Here’s what marketers need to know about true crime around social media.
True Crime Is An Extremely Effective Way To Reach A Female Audience
According to YouGov, 61% of the audience that consumes true crime content is female. The reason women are more likely to listen to true crime, according to Psychology Today’s Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D. is because women are statistically more likely to be the victim of violent crimes. True Crime gives women a sense of control and is a type of threat management. It makes them feel better prepared for identifying the warning signs of risky situations.
Additionally, YouGov found 63% of U.S adults agreed with the statement consuming true crime content makes people vigilant and safety continuous, signalling it’s also in a way viewed as self-help content.
For marketers trying to connect with a primarily female audience, true crime content offers a potential opportunity.
True Crime Offers Better Completion Rates
In 2021, Jellysmack found viewers watching a true crime video on Facebook were almost 14% more likely to watch over a minute compared to other content categories. Their study also found true crime content is 55% more likely to be watched to the end of the video compared to the all-content average, with content creators focused on true crime and mystery consistently getting the best average view times.
Whether it’s trying to solve a mystery of who a killer is or answering the question what motivated the killer, every little detail can matter in a true crime story. That means marketers who advertise around true crime content will be targeting an audience that is highly engaged, often for the entire run time of true crime content.
Where On Social Media True Crime Stories Are Being Discussed Or Consumed
A study shared in Psychology of Popular Media found Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook are the platforms where adults use to most regularly follow crime stories. That study also found social media was often people’s first entry point into a crime story.
On YouTube, that often means watching video versions of top true crime podcasts, frequently hosted by women. For example, the Rotten Mango channel has 6.78 million subscribers on YouTube, while Kendall Rae’s true crime channel has 4.05 million subscribers there. Sometimes, the content gets a little more high concept. For instance, Bailey Sarian has 7.99M subscribers on YouTube for her show History, True Crime & Makeup, where she discussed true crime cases while doing her makeup.
On Reddit and Facebook, the engagement is less video driven and more discussion based, with communities collectively talking about true crime. For example, the SubReddit r/TrueCrimeDiscussion has 1.3 million members and 5.7 thousand weekly contributors, while the Facebook group True Crime Society has 224.1 thousand members.
Reputation Matters
The old news industry adage “If It Bleeds, It Leads” also applies to true crime content; meaning the more disturbing the story, the more likely the true crime audience will show an interest in it. For instance, Edison Research found 60% of people who are interested in true crime content are interested in content about serial killers, while Chris Hansen clips about catching pedophiles can get as many as 72 million views on YouTube.
While true crime is a genre that raises brand safety flags for many advertisers because of its grisly content, consider $32.3 billion a year is spent on advertising in professional news outlets, and they usually cover those exact same violent stories first. Saying true crime content is brand safe or not brand safe would be painting the genre with too broad of a brush. Some of the content is produced tastefully and respectfully of victims, while some of the content is sensualized and problematic. Marketers can advertise on true crime content, but context matters and they need to be deliberate in finding brand safe true crime brands to partner with.
Final Thought:
One last thing to consider about potentially advertising around true crime content on social media is the audience will go back and watch old episodes. For example, in 2021 Bailey Sarian did an episode about Jodi Arias, which Hello Fresh sponsored. ListenFirst data shows that the episode got 8.5 million video views on YouTube in 2021 though by 2026 that was up to 13 million video views.
Getting millions of views on content you sponsored years after the actual spend is a tremendous value and an indication that while true crime might not be the right fit for all marketers, if it does work for your brand, it could really pay off.
