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Host-read podcast advertising for brands that care how they sound.

We choose the shows, brief the hosts, buy the episodes and measure what every read does, in podcast apps and on YouTube.

Send a briefRead the approach
A 52-minute episode and the three places a read can sit. Illustration.

We work with brands whose products take a minute to explain, which is what a host-read does best. We listen to shows before we buy them, write briefs that leave the host room to say it their own way, buy the episodes at a fair price and check every read once it airs. Then we measure with more than one method, and give the medium the time it needs before anyone draws a conclusion.

From a brief to a read

We send hosts the reasons, the offer and the two or three lines that must be said exactly. The sentences are theirs, which is why a good read sits comfortably among everything else in the episode.

Host briefLarkspan, mid-roll, 60 secondsFlight one, three episodes
One idea

Saving happens when you no longer have to remember to do it.

One idea. Give a host three and they will pick one anyway, so we pick it.

Talking points
  1. You choose an amount and a day, and Larkspan moves it each week. (There is no decision to make each time, which is why it sticks.)
  2. You can pause or withdraw at any time, with no fee. (Listeners worry about being locked in.)
  3. The app shows what you have put away this year. (Seeing the number is what keeps people going.)

The reasons in parentheses are for the host. They can use them or leave them.

The offer

Open an account at larkspan.com/listen by November 30 and Larkspan adds $20 after your first four weekly deposits.

Runs four weeks past the final episode, because people keep listening.

Say exactly

"Larkspan is a financial technology company, not a bank." The URL as "larkspan dot com slash listen".

Two lines only, each with a reason the host can see.

Specimen Larkspan is an invented brand, and the brief is set out to show the format, with our notes in the margin.
The read, as airedMid-roll, 00:58
  1. 00:00

    So, a confession. I have opened about four savings accounts in my life, and I have put money into maybe one of them, twice.

  2. 00:09

    Larkspan is the first one that has actually worked for me, and the reason is boring in the best way. I told it twenty dollars every Friday, and then I stopped having to think about it.

  3. 00:21

    It just moves the money. If I need it I can pause or take it out, no fee, which was honestly the thing that got me to try it.

  4. 00:30

    And there is a little line in the app that shows what you have put away this year, which I check more than I would like to admit.

  5. 00:38

    Larkspan is a financial technology company, not a bank.

  6. 00:42

    If you want to try it, go to larkspan dot com slash listen before the end of November, and after your first four weekly deposits they will add twenty dollars.

  7. 00:53

    That is larkspan dot com slash listen.

Specimen A specimen read, written in the voice of an imagined host.

How we write a host brief

The work, in the order it happens

  1. 1Show planning and selectionWe choose shows by listening to several episodes of each before we look at a rate card.
  2. 2Buying and negotiationWe negotiate rate, placement, length and terms show by show, and put every one of them in writing.
  3. 3Host briefs, talking points and offer designWe brief hosts on what matters and leave the sentences to them, with an offer listeners can remember after hearing it once.
  4. 4Trafficking and airchecksWe get every brief, code and file to each show on time, and listen to every read once the episode is out.
  5. 5MeasurementWe use codes, a post-purchase survey and pixel attribution together, because each one misses buyers the others catch.

Longer formats

What podcast advertising costs

Most podcast ads are priced per thousand downloads, so the arithmetic fits on one line: the downloads, times the CPM, divided by a thousand. Acast's pricing guide (2026 pricing, as of October 2026) prices host-read sponsorships between $25 and $40 CPM, climbing past $40 for niche shows such as business, finance and B2B.

So a show whose episodes reach 25,000 downloads in their first month costs about $625 a read at $25 CPM. Placement, length, format and the size of the commitment all move that number.

How podcast pricing works

Work out a read

Media cost only

25,000 downloads × $25 ÷ 1,000

Per episode
$625
The flight
$1,875

Published host-read rates for 2026 run from $18 to $26 CPM on the Libsyn Ads rate card to between $25 and $40, and past $40 for niche shows, in Acast's guide (as of October 2026).

Lindsay Nikole smiles at the camera in a dark bucket hat, with a charging elephant on one side and an anole lizard puffing out its pink throat fan on the other.
From the YouTube channel Lindsay Nikole

Podcasts are watched now, as well as heard

Among Americans who listen to podcasts every week, more named YouTube as their main service than Spotify or Apple Podcasts, 31% in all, according to Edison Research's podcast metrics from October 2024. On a video podcast the audience watches the read as well as hearing it, so we brief for the camera, settle usage rights when we book, and read the results over 90 days, the window Agentio recommends for YouTube integrations (January 2026).

Video podcasts on YouTube

How a first campaign runs

Twelve weeks from the first conversation to a decision on every show, five of them spent letting the results arrive.

  1. Week 1Brief and baselineGoals, the offer, and a 30-day baseline for the survey.
  2. Weeks 2 and 3Listening and shortlistEpisodes heard, shows checked, a shortlist with reasons.
  3. Week 4Booking and briefsTerms agreed, briefs written, product with the hosts.
  4. Weeks 5 to 7Reads airEvery read checked against the brief once it is out.
  5. Weeks 6 to 11Results arriveCodes, survey and pixel data build for 30 days and more after each episode.
  6. Week 12Renew or changeA report per show and a decision on each one.

The approach, week by week

The brands we suit

Considered purchases, made by people who want to understand what they are buying.

Finance
Savings, insurance, pensions and investing, where trust does most of the selling and every claim needs care.
Health and wellness
Sleep, nutrition and care services that listeners want explained by someone they already believe.
Education
Courses, languages and qualifications, which people choose slowly and often on a recommendation.
Publishing
Books, subscriptions and news, offered to people who have chosen to spend an hour listening.
Premium goods
Furniture, kitchenware and clothing with enough of a story to fill sixty seconds.
B2B software and services
Products bought by committees, reached through the specialist shows their members choose. Podcast advertising for B2B brands.

Load a brief with everything the brand wants said, and the read that comes back usually carries none of it.

From How to write a podcast host brief, in the Listening Room

The Listening Room

Guides to podcast advertising, written for the people who buy it, with every figure sourced and dated.

  1. Host-read versus produced podcast adsWhat each format is, what the research says, what each costs, and how we decide between them for a brand.6 minutes
  2. How to write a podcast host briefWhat a host needs from a brand to give a good read, what to leave out, and an example brief with our notes in the margin.6 minutes
  3. Baked-in versus dynamically inserted podcast adsTwo ways an ad gets into an episode, what each means for cost, timing and the back catalog, and how we choose between them.6 minutes
  4. How to measure podcast advertisingThe methods, what each one can and cannot show, when the results are ready to read, and how we put them together.7 minutes
  5. Advertising on video podcasts and YouTubeWhat changes when a read is watched as well as heard, from what the camera sees and how the ad is disclosed to pricing and how long results take to judge.6 minutes
  6. Podcast advertising for B2B brandsHow software and professional-services brands can reach a buying committee through the shows its members already choose, and how to judge the results over a long sales cycle.6 minutes

All guidesThe glossary