Podcast show planning and selection / Lucid Media Partners

Show	Why it is here	Placement	Episodes	Est. cost
Personal finance interviews, weekly	The host answers listeners' money questions and reads ads in her own words	Mid-roll, 60s	3	$1,350
Careers and work advice, twice weekly	Early-career listeners setting up their first savings	Pre-roll, 60s	4	$1,120
Long-form history, fortnightly	A large back catalog, and an evergreen offer that suits a baked-in read	Mid-roll, baked in	3	$2,400
Household economics, audio and video	Most of the audience watches, so the brief is written for camera	Mid-roll, 90s	3	$1,800
Comedy panel, weekly	Passed: a heavy ad load, and the host hurries through reads	None	0	$0
Flight one	13	$6,670

Show

Why it is here

Placement

Episodes

Est. cost

Personal finance interviews, weekly

The host answers listeners' money questions and reads ads in her own words

Mid-roll, 60s

$1,350

Careers and work advice, twice weekly

Early-career listeners setting up their first savings

Pre-roll, 60s

$1,120

Long-form history, fortnightly

A large back catalog, and an evergreen offer that suits a baked-in read

Mid-roll, baked in

$2,400

Household economics, audio and video

Most of the audience watches, so the brief is written for camera

Mid-roll, 90s

$1,800

Comedy panel, weekly

Passed: a heavy ad load, and the host hurries through reads

None

Flight one

$6,670

We start every plan by listening to the shows, several recent episodes of each and a few older ones, before we look at a rate card. A show can have the right numbers and the wrong host for a brand, and the only way to find that out is to hear how the host talks to their audience, what they take seriously and how they handle the ads they already run.

What we listen for

We listen for fit, which comes down to the audience, the host’s standing with that audience, and the ad load. We piece the audience together from the show’s own listener surveys, the subjects it covers, the guests it books and the people who comment. The host’s standing shows in how they talk about things they recommend and whether they read ads in their own words or rattle through them. For ad load, Magellan AI’s benchmarks for the second quarter of 2026, published in August 2026, found an average ad load of 8.75% across 94,823 episodes, and a show running well above that asks its listeners to sit through a lot before they reach the brand.

We also check the back catalog for subjects the brand would not want to sit beside, agree on a suitability list with the brand before we plan, and add transcript scoring where it helps. The IAB’s Podcasting Buyer-Seller Checklist, published in October 2023, observes that brand safety in podcasting now depends on AI reading episode transcripts, and advises buyers to spell out a safety floor and suitability thresholds of their own, then choose who will do the scoring.

What we ask each show for

We ask every show on the shortlist for the same data, because listening tells us whether a show suits a brand and only the show’s own figures tell us what a booking would deliver. That means how many downloads recent episodes collected over their first 30 days, how listening builds over the months after release, the share that comes from the back catalog, audience data from any listener survey, and the size of the video audience if the show publishes on YouTube.

How we build the plan

A first plan is a test, and we design it to answer questions. We mix shows of different sizes and subjects so the results tell the brand something about where its customers listen, and we book enough episodes on each show for a fair reading. We write down why each show is there and what result would justify renewing it, so the decision after the test rests on the reasons we gave before it.

After the test we move money toward the shows that worked, try new shows beside them, and let go of the ones that did not earn a renewal.

What you receive

A shortlist with a note on each show covering who listens, how the host handles ads, the episodes we would buy and the expected cost.
A test plan setting out which shows, how many episodes, in what order, and what we will measure.
A suitability note on each show, based on our listening and, where the brand needs it, on transcript scoring.

Questions we are often asked

How many shows should a first test include?

We usually plan four to eight shows with at least three episodes on each, which is enough to compare them with one another. In a guide from Right Side Up, a growth marketing agency, updated in February 2024, a podcast campaign typically takes a first flight of around three episodes before it performs at its best, so a single read on many shows tells a brand less than a short run on a few.

Do you only buy the largest shows?

No. We choose by fit, which can be found on mid-sized and specialist shows as well as large ones, and a smaller show whose host knows the subject can reach more of the right people than a large general one, at a lower total cost.

How do you handle brand safety?

We listen to the back catalog of every show we recommend, agree on a suitability list with the brand before planning, and add a transcript-scoring vendor where the brand needs one. The IAB's Podcasting Buyer-Seller Checklist, published in October 2023, advises buyers to spell out a safety floor and suitability thresholds of their own, then select a vendor for scoring. We describe suitability in the brand's own terms or in a vendor's framework, since the World Federation of Advertisers wound up GARM, the industry initiative whose categories were once widely used, in August 2024.

What we listen for

What we ask each show for

How we build the plan

What you receive

Questions we are often asked

Further reading