How to Advertise on Podcasts A B2B Playbook

Thinking about how to advertise on podcasts? It’s not just about buying airtime. The real magic happens when you nail a few key things: defining your B2B audience with precision, finding the shows they actually listen to, creating ads that don't sound like ads, and then tracking what’s working.

Forget just getting your name out there. Think of it as embedding your brand into your ideal customer's daily routine.

Why Podcast Ads Are a B2B Game Changer

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of buying and making ads, let's talk about why this channel is so potent for B2B brands.

A podcast ad isn't like a social media ad that someone scrolls past in a second. It's delivered directly into the ears of a highly engaged—and often affluent—audience. Listeners choose this content. They build real trust with the host.

When that host talks up your B2B solution, it doesn't land like a typical advertisement. It feels more like a recommendation from a friend or a respected industry peer. This is your way to sidestep the usual digital marketing noise and connect with decision-makers on their commute, at the gym, or even during focused work. For B2B, that's a massive advantage.

Reaching a Captive and Growing Audience

The podcasting world isn’t some niche hobby anymore. It's a full-blown media powerhouse, and it's still growing like a weed. This explosion in listenership is a golden opportunity for advertisers, especially in B2B.

Think about it: hyper-specific, industry-focused podcasts are cropping up everywhere. These shows attract exactly the kind of high-value professionals you're trying to get in front of.

The real power of podcast advertising for B2B is how it mixes brand awareness with performance. You're not just getting your name out there; you're getting it endorsed by a voice your target customers already know and trust.

The Undeniable Economic Growth

The money tells the story here. This isn't just a fleeting trend; it's a fundamental shift in where smart marketing dollars are going.

Just look at the explosion in podcast ad revenue in the U.S.

This chart isn't just a pretty picture; it's a massive vote of confidence from advertisers who are seeing real results. For B2B marketers, the message is clear: the time to figure out podcast advertising is now. The market is mature enough to have solid tracking and tons of shows, but it’s nowhere near as saturated as other channels.

This growth is fueled by both listenership and proven results. In fact, podcast advertising spend in the US is on track to jump from $840 million in 2020 to a projected $2.38 billion by 2025. That's some serious belief in the channel's ROI. If you want to dive deeper, you can find additional details about podcast advertising trends and data.

Laying Your Campaign's Strategic Foundation

A winning podcast ad campaign starts long before you ever hit “record” or contact a single show. Too many brands skip this part. They jump straight to buying ads, which is like setting sail without a map—you’ll end up somewhere, but it’s rarely where you intended.

Think of this initial planning phase as your blueprint for success. It’s where you decide what victory actually looks like for your B2B brand.

Are you trying to blast your name across a new vertical for broad brand awareness? Or are you hunting for highly qualified leads to hand over to your sales team? Maybe the goal is simpler: direct sales for a specific product.

Each objective demands a completely different playbook. A brand awareness play might mean prioritizing massive reach on major industry podcasts. A lead gen campaign, on the other hand, would zero in on niche shows with a fiercely loyal audience that perfectly mirrors your ideal customer.

Define Your Campaign Goals

Your goals have to be crystal clear and, most importantly, measurable. Fuzzy objectives like “increase brand visibility” are impossible to track and even harder to prove. You need to set concrete, specific targets.

Here’s what that looks like in the real world:

• Brand Awareness: Aim to boost branded search traffic by 20% over the life of the campaign.
• Lead Generation: Target 50 demo requests coming from a unique vanity URL you give out in the ad.
• Direct Sales: Shoot for a 2:1 return on ad spend (ROAS) by tracking a unique promo code.

Having these precise goals doesn’t just guide your podcast selection and ad copy; it makes it infinitely easier to justify the investment and calculate your real ROI. With clear targets, you can also dig into our guide on the essential B2B podcast metrics you need to track to make sure you’re collecting the right data from day one.

Profile Your Ideal Listener

With your goals locked in, you need to know exactly who you’re talking to. A generic B2B persona just won’t cut it here. You need to flesh out a detailed profile of your ideal listener.

Go deeper than just job titles and company size. What are their biggest professional headaches? Which industry news sources do they actually trust? And, crucially, what are their podcast listening habits? Answering these questions is how you find the right shows and write ad copy that truly connects.

A great listener profile is your North Star for the entire campaign. When you understand their pain points, you can position your solution in the ad as the exact answer they’ve been looking for.

Set a Realistic Budget

Alright, let's talk money. Budgeting for podcast ads is more straightforward than you might think, primarily because of the cost-per-thousand listeners (CPM) model.

Industry-standard CPM rates usually fall between $18 and $25. This means a show with 10,000 listeners per episode might charge you anywhere from $180 to $250 for a single ad spot.

For most B2B companies, marketing budgets land somewhere between 2% and 10% of total revenue. Slotting your podcast spend within this broader budget is a smart move. If you want to dive deeper into the numbers, you can explore more insights on podcast advertising costs to help model your investment. This ensures your campaign is financially sound right from the start.

Finding And Partnering With The Right Podcasts

Your ad’s success really boils down to one thing: finding the perfect podcast partner. It's not just about finding a show with a big audience; it's about finding the right audience. The goal is to slide your B2B message into a conversation where it feels like a natural, valuable contribution, not a jarring interruption.

This means you have to go deeper than a simple keyword search.

A great place to start is with specialized podcast directories and advertising marketplaces. Platforms like Gumball, Podchaser, and AdvertiseCast are built for this. Unlike browsing Spotify or Apple Podcasts, these tools let you filter shows by category, audience size, and even listener demographics, giving you a much more focused view from an advertiser's perspective.

The podcasting world is exploding. In 2024, the global listener base hit around 546.7 million people, and it's on track to blow past 650 million by 2027. This incredible growth means more niche B2B shows are popping up every day, creating fresh opportunities to connect with very specific professional audiences. You can dive deeper into the numbers with these podcast marketing statistics.

Vetting Potential Podcast Partners

Once you've got a shortlist, the real work begins. Forget about just looking at download numbers—that's a rookie mistake. You need to get a feel for the show's content, the host's credibility, and how their audience actually engages.

My rule of thumb? Listen to at least three full episodes of any podcast you're seriously considering. Does the host sound credible and knowledgeable? Is the tone professional yet engaging? Pay close attention to how they handle their current ads. A host who can weave a sponsor's message into the flow of the show is infinitely more valuable than one who just reads a script robotically.

We've put together a full guide on this process, which you can check out for more detailed strategies on how to find the right podcasts for your brand.

The specific ad slot you choose also makes a huge difference. Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads each have their own unique advantages and are suited for different campaign goals.

To help you choose, here’s a quick comparison of the three main ad placements. This table breaks down where they typically appear, what they're best used for, and the pros and cons of each format.

Podcast Advertising Placement Comparison

Looking at this, you can see why mid-roll ads are often the go-to for performance-focused campaigns, even with the higher price tag. The engagement is just on another level.

Using Listener Intelligence Tools

Want to get even more granular? Listener intelligence tools are your secret weapon. Platforms like Rephonic give you an incredible look under the hood of a podcast's audience. You can see listener overlap with other shows, gender splits, and even get solid estimates for ad rates.

This is the kind of data that helps you move from an educated guess to a data-backed decision.

With a tool like this, you can see listener numbers and engagement scores all in one dashboard, making sure you invest your ad dollars in shows that have a high concentration of your ideal customers.

To keep your evaluation process consistent, I recommend using a simple checklist for every potential partner:

• Audience Fit: Do their listener demographics line up with your ideal customer profile?
• Content Quality: Is the audio clear and professionally produced? Do they publish on a consistent schedule?
• Host Credibility: Is the host a respected voice in their niche? Would your brand be proud to be associated with them?
• Engagement Signals: Don't just look at downloads. Check their social media for an active community and read the episode reviews.
• Brand Safety: Does the show's overall tone and content align with your company's values? No surprises.

Crafting Ads That B2B Listeners Won't Skip

The biggest mistake I see brands make with podcast advertising is treating it like a radio commercial. That's a fast track to getting skipped.

A podcast ad isn't an interruption; it's a conversation. For a B2B audience that prizes expertise and authenticity, your format and message are everything. Get this wrong, and you're just expensive background noise.

You'll mainly run into two ad formats: host-read ads and pre-produced spots. Each has its place.

• Host-Read Ads: This is the gold standard for B2B, period. The host reads your ad in their own voice, often weaving it right into the show's content. It feels less like an ad and more like a personal endorsement from a source the listener already trusts.
• Pre-produced Spots: These are polished, fully produced ads you create and send over. They give you total control over the message but completely lack the authentic touch of a host-read ad. They're best for broad brand awareness campaigns where you need the exact same ad running across many different shows.

My advice? Lean into host-read ads whenever you can. That built-in credibility is precisely what you need to connect with a savvy professional audience.

Writing Scripts That Connect

Your ad script is the bridge between your brand and the listener. The goal isn't to sell; it's to solve. A B2B listener couldn't care less about your flashy slogans. They want to know how you can fix a problem that's burning a hole in their workday.

A great ad script follows a simple but powerful structure:

1. Hook with a Pain Point: Kick things off by calling out a challenge your ideal customer is wrestling with. "Spending hours manually updating spreadsheets for your sales forecasts?" That gets heads nodding.
2. Introduce the Solution: Quickly explain how your product directly solves that pain. Focus on the benefits, not a laundry list of features.
3. Provide a Clear Call-to-Action: Tell the listener exactly what to do next.

A successful B2B podcast ad feels like a helpful tip from a knowledgeable peer. It respects the listener's intelligence by focusing on value and solving a genuine business problem—the fastest way to build trust and drive action.

The Power of a Strong Call-to-Action

Your ad's call-to-action (CTA) is its most critical component. It's the lever that turns a passive listener into an active lead. And in an audio-only world, your CTA has to be simple, memorable, and easy to act on.

The best CTAs for podcasts are a no-brainer:

• A Vanity URL: A simple, unique URL like YourCompany.com/PodcastName is easy to remember and type. It also makes tracking dead simple.
• A Unique Promo Code: Offering a special discount with a code like PODCAST20 gives listeners a real incentive to act and helps you attribute sales directly to the campaign.

The key is to make it worth their while. Don't just ask them to visit your homepage. Send them to a landing page with a valuable resource—a whitepaper, a free trial, or a webinar registration. For a deeper dive, our guide on how to craft a podcast CTA that truly converts is a must-read.

By making your CTA both valuable and easy to remember, you dramatically increase the odds that a listener will actually follow through. That's how you get the measurable results you need.

Measuring the True ROI of Your Podcast Campaign

So, how do you prove your podcast ads are actually working? Let's be honest, just pointing to a spike in download numbers isn't going to cut it with your CFO. To really nail down the impact of your B2B campaign, you have to look past those surface-level vanity metrics.

You need a framework that draws a straight line from your ad spend to real business outcomes.

The best way I've found to do this is through direct attribution. It sounds more technical than it is. Really, it's just about creating a super clear, trackable path from the moment someone hears your ad to the moment they land on your website.

Tracking Direct Conversions

Your main job here is to make attribution as painless as possible for everyone involved—that means you and your listeners. The trick is to use simple, memorable calls-to-action that are unique to each podcast you're advertising on. This lets you cleanly separate the traffic and conversions coming from one specific show.

Here are the methods that have proven most reliable in my experience:

• Vanity URLs: A custom, easy-to-say URL like YourCompany.com/PodcastName is your best friend. It’s the simplest and most effective tool in the box. A listener can easily remember it while driving or multitasking and it sends them straight to a dedicated landing page.
• Unique Promo Codes: Offering a special discount with a code like PODCAST25 gives listeners a direct reason to act now. This is perfect for tracking direct sales and getting a precise return on ad spend (ROAS).
• Post-Purchase Surveys: This one's a classic for a reason. Just add a simple "How did you hear about us?" question to your checkout or sign-up form. Tucking the podcast's name into a dropdown menu can uncover a goldmine of data, catching conversions from people who heard the ad but forgot the URL or code.

By layering these tactics, you build a much stronger attribution model. Even if a listener doesn't use the promo code, they might remember the vanity URL. You're giving yourself multiple shots at connecting their action back to your campaign.

Measuring Brand Lift

Not every campaign is about getting a sale today. For a lot of B2B brands, the real goal is to build awareness and shape how your company is perceived within a niche industry. While this feels fuzzier and harder to measure than a direct conversion, it's totally doable with a little forethought.

The process is actually quite similar to how you’d track the broader impact of your PR work. If you want to go deeper on this, check out our guide on how to measure podcast PR effectiveness.

The simplest way to gauge brand lift is by running surveys before and after your campaign.

1. Get a Baseline: Before your ads go live, survey a sample of your target audience. Ask them questions about their awareness of your brand and how they see you compared to your competitors.
2. Run the Same Survey Again: Once the campaign is over, run the exact same survey with a similar group of people. If you see a significant positive jump in awareness, favorability, or purchase intent, you've got a clear signal that your podcast ads did their job.

This approach gives you concrete data to show the less tangible—but incredibly valuable—impact your campaign had on your brand's position in the market.

Common Podcast Advertising Questions

As you start mapping out your podcast advertising strategy, a few key questions always pop up. It's totally normal. Getting clear answers to these is crucial for building a campaign that actually works and doesn't just burn cash—especially when you're trying to reach a sharp B2B audience.

Let's dive into some of the most common questions we hear from brands dipping their toes into this world for the first time.

How Much Does It Cost To Advertise On A Podcast?

The cost of a podcast ad almost always boils down to a CPM (cost per mille) model. In plain English, you pay a flat rate for every thousand listeners an episode gets.

For B2B podcasts, a good ballpark figure is $25 to $50 CPM for a 60-second ad. So, if a show has 10,000 listeners per episode, you're looking at a cost of somewhere between $250 and $500 for one ad spot.

Of course, prices can climb higher. A super-niche podcast targeting valuable listeners, like CFOs or cybersecurity leaders, will definitely command a premium.

Your final bill depends on a few moving parts:

• Audience Size: More listeners equals a bigger price tag per ad. Simple.
• Ad Placement: Mid-roll ads, which run in the middle of the episode, are the most expensive because listener engagement is at its peak.
• Ad Format: A personal, host-read ad feels like a genuine recommendation and usually costs more than a pre-produced spot you provide.

Baked-In vs. Dynamic Ad Insertion

This is a big one. You need to decide how your ad gets into the episode. There are two main ways to do it, and they serve completely different goals.

Baked-in ads are exactly what they sound like—they're permanently edited into the audio file. This means anyone who downloads that episode, whether it's tomorrow or five years from now, will hear your ad. It's fantastic for evergreen brand-building.

Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) is the flexible option. It lets the podcast host or platform slot different ads into the same spot depending on who is listening or when they download. This is your go-to for time-sensitive offers, A/B testing different ad copy, or running campaigns targeted to specific geographic locations.

For most B2B brands, a baked-in, host-read ad delivers incredible value. You get a lasting endorsement from a voice your audience trusts. But if your campaign is all about performance and you need to pivot fast, DAI gives you the agility you need.

How To Test Podcast Ads With A Small Budget

You don't need a massive war chest to see if podcasting works for you. The trick is to be smart, focused, and obsessed with collecting good data.

Start small. Look for niche podcasts where your ideal B2B customers are hiding in plain sight. These shows have much more affordable ad rates. Try to negotiate a small test package—maybe three or four episodes—to gather some initial performance numbers.

Then, nail your call-to-action. Make it a single, easily trackable CTA. Use a unique vanity URL like yoursite.com/podcastname or a specific promo code. This lets you see exactly what's working and prove ROI on a small scale before you even think about scaling up your investment.

And remember, running ads is just one piece of the puzzle. Many B2B pros find massive success just by being a guest on the right shows. For a full breakdown, check out our guide on https://www.fame.so/post/how-to-get-booked-on-podcasts for a step-by-step process to land those valuable guest spots.