How a campaign runs, week by week
A first campaign takes about twelve weeks from the first conversation to a decision on every show, and the brand receives something it can check at every stage.
Week 1
The brief and the baseline
We start with a conversation about the product, the customer, the offer and what a good result would look like in numbers the brand already uses, such as cost per new customer or payback. We agree how the campaign will be judged before anything is booked, and write it down.
In the same week we add a podcast option to the brand's post-purchase survey and start recording a baseline. Right Side Up, a growth marketing agency, recommends a 30-day baseline before launch in its attribution guide (updated February 2024), and the weeks of listening and booking that follow give us most of it.
The brand receives A one-page plan with the goal, the budget range, the measurement methods and the reading window.
Weeks 2 and 3
Listening and the shortlist
We listen to recent and older episodes of every show we are considering, to hear how each host talks to their audience and handles the ads they already run. We ask each show how many downloads an episode gathers in its first 30 days and how listening builds afterwards, along with its audience data and its video numbers, and we check the back catalog against the brand's suitability list.
The brand receives A shortlist with the reasons for each show, the format and placement we would buy, and the expected cost.
More on this stageWeek 4
Booking, briefs and the offer
We negotiate rates and terms show by show and confirm them in insertion orders. We write the briefs, set a code and URL for each show, send the product to the hosts, and send the claims sheet to the brand's legal team. Where a show also publishes video, we agree usage rights at this point.
The brand receives Insertion orders, the host briefs, the claims sheet and a flight calendar.
More on this stageWeeks 5 to 7
The reads air
Hosts record and the episodes go out across the flight, usually three on each show, since the same Right Side Up guide finds that a campaign typically takes a first flight of around three episodes before it performs at its best. We listen to every read once it airs, check it against the brief, and raise make-goods with the show the same week.
The brand receives An aircheck log, updated as each episode goes out.
More on this stageWeeks 6 to 11
The results arrive
Listening keeps arriving for weeks after each episode, roughly 19 to 21 days by Right Side Up's estimate (February 2024), and Magellan AI's measurement benchmark (September 2026) showed response to podcast ads still rising on day 30. So we wait. We check once halfway through the flight for anything clearly wrong, such as a code that does not work at checkout, and otherwise leave the numbers to build.
The brand receives A short halfway note, and nothing more until the window has closed.
More on this stageWeek 12
The report and the decision
Once the last episode has had at least 30 days, we bring the codes, the survey and the pixel data together into one view per show: what it cost, what each method credits it with, and our estimate of the cost per new customer, with the assumptions written down. Each show ends with a recommendation to renew it, change something and test again, or drop it.
The brand receives The flight report, and a plan for the second flight.
After the first flight
The first flight is a test, and the second is planned from what it showed. Budget moves toward the shows that earned it, a few new shows are tried beside them, and briefs are rewritten from what we heard.
Hosts settle into a product over a run of episodes, and on YouTube Agentio reported in January 2026 that click-through rate went up by roughly 10% with each return to a creator a brand had used before. We plan for that from the start, holding renewal options where shows will give them.
Questions we are often asked
- How long until the first read airs?
- About four weeks from the first conversation in a typical first campaign, most of it spent listening, booking and briefing. It can be quicker when a brand has a fixed date and the shows have open slots, though we would rather not shorten the listening.
- Why wait so long before judging the results?
- Because podcast listening and response keep building for weeks after an episode is released. In Magellan AI's measurement benchmark report of September 2026, a reading taken after seven days caught under half of where the number finally settled, so an early judgment will usually understate what the shows did.
- What happens after the first flight?
- The second flight moves budget toward the shows that earned a renewal and tests a few new ones beside them. Briefs are rewritten from what we heard in the airchecks, and hosts who have read before need less briefing, so later flights run with less setup than the first.