3 builders who never spoke to each other

Buy the slot direct from the show they follow

Once you know exactly where your audience is reachable, going straight to the podcasts, channels and accounts they follow usually undercuts what a programmatic buy would have cost and lets you make a better campaign than the platform's own audience builder allows. Pick by affinity rather than size: for developers at startups, the shows that mattered were almost entirely small specialist ones. Turning the buy into a relationship works better still, inviting a host who shares your audience without competing onto your own show and then sponsoring some of their episodes. One company rules out the large ad platforms altogether because their business model is the thing it campaigns against, and spends the budget on podcasts instead.

The method

1. 01

   Buy your placements directly from the podcasts, channels and accounts your audience already follows instead of routing budget through an ad platform.

2. 02

   Buy the niche podcasts where the whole affinity list points one direction, rather than the biggest shows in the category.

3. 03

   Turn a podcast sponsorship into a relationship: invite the host of a show that shares your audience but does not compete onto your own podcast, then sponsor some of their episodes.

4. 04

   Rule out ad platforms whose business model is the thing you campaign against, and spend the acquisition budget on podcasts instead.

What it returned

• 1

  The 1:1 connection with the host tends to make the partnership work better over time and often earns you a guest slot in return.

• Rand Fishkin argues that once you know exactly where the audience is reachable, going direct usually undercuts what programmatic would have cost and lets you make a better campaign; he singles out how little Facebook's own audience builder tells a buyer.

• For developers at startups the podcast affinity list was almost entirely AI shows, among them Latent Space, Software Engineering Daily, Practical AI, Last Week in AI and The AI Daily Brief.

• Fathom will not buy Facebook targeted ads or Google Adwords, and puts money into podcasts and similar placements instead.

Sources

• Audience Research Newsletter: Mini Buyer Persona; Podcast Pitch Advice; Influence MapsSparkToro · sparktoro.com · Try double-duty marketing with podcasts · 2026-04-21
• How We'd Market to Software Developers at Startups - SparkToroSparkToro · sparktoro.com · Insight #3: Whatever the platform, the conversation is about careers, comp, and AI · 2026-06-04
• Six Ways SparkToro's Early Customers Use Our Product - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · Using SparkToro for Digital Advertising · undated
• How to build a privacy-first software business - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · Privacy should be the foundation of everything you do · 2020-10-05