If you're looking to book podcast guest or sponsorship spots, finding shows with audiences that perfectly align with your message is the key to success.
That's why we're excited to unveil Rephonic's powerful new search filters. With the help of AI, we've pulled new structured data from episode transcripts, so you can slice-and-dice your searches in all kinds of ways.
Looking for podcasts popular with affluent travelers aged 50+ who love high-end vacations and cultural exploration? Or shows that have been sponsored by your competitors?
Our new custom fields let you filter by tons of audience demographics, sponsors and more. Let's see how!
Audience demographics
The more closely aligned podcast listeners are with your message, the greater your chances of making a meaningful connection and leaving a lasting impression.
Are you looking for:
- An audience of young adults who enjoy traveling on a budget?
- Podcasts with younger audiences or mostly female listeners?
- Global podcast listeners or a location specific audience?
- Weekly podcast listeners who spend a lot of time on social media platforms? (A podcast in your niche where Rephonic shows high social media engagement might fit the bill.)
- Podcasts with a particular podcast platform share. For example, shows especially popular on Apple podcasts or ones where the majority audience is on Spotify?
Understanding the demographics and preferences of podcast consumers can help you to target the right audience. And with millions of podcasts in the world, you really need to narrow down the field before you start building a potential contact list.
Rephonic’s search filters used to include useful basics like audience location and gender skew, but now they go far deeper. You can filter for household income, education level, interests, and so much more.
This is crucial knowledge, whether you're searching for podcast advertising possibilities or looking for shows as a podcast guest.
So, here’s how you might use the new audience demographic filters:
Interests
You can go beyond surface-level demographics like gender and location, and move into thinking about your ideal audience's psychographics, such as interests, behaviors and motivations. That's why we added a huge list of interests into our filter mix.
For example, social justice, mindfulness, music festivals, spiritual growth, family activities, health and wellness, travel, technology... the list of possibilities goes on and on. Previously it might have been hard to locate these types of shows - but not anymore!
Examples:
You're running a campaign to support underprivileged communities and want to attract supporters. Search for podcasts with socially conscious listeners, aged 30-60, who are interested in philanthropy or volunteering.
You want to run host read ads for a new product aimed towards sports-mad listeners in younger demographics. You might add interests like fantasy football, college, sports betting, outdoor activities, basketball or sports analytics.
Parental Status
Perhaps your product, service, course or book addresses family needs and problems? In that case, use the filter to select podcasts with audiences primarily made up of parents.
Examples:
You're promoting a STEM toy for young children: Target podcasts listened to by parents and educators aged 25-34 with a focus on early childhood education or learning through play.
You've written a book about parenting American teenagers: In that case, you might want to target parents in different age groups (say 35-44) and podcasts with listeners in the United States.
Age Group
Age can be a vital factor when you’re identifying podcasts with listeners who fit your ideal audience (as we saw in the above examples.) You don’t want to waste time and resources pitching podcasts whose audience is far older or younger than yours.
Edison Research says:
Podcasts reach all generations: 29% of kids age 6-12, 59% of those age 12-34, 55% of those age 35-54, and 27% of those age 55+ are monthly podcast listeners.
2024 Report on podcast consumption
So, analyzing the audience's age distribution, ensures your podcast advertising or guest interview resonates with the right age group.
Examples:
Your start-up is planning an ad campaign for your latest high-performance gaming accessories: Filter your gaming podcast search with age groups 18-35 to see what comes up. Then try an Interests filter of competitive gaming to get a more focused perspective.
You've created a course on preparing for retirement: As part of your course launch, you plan to do series of interviews (aka a podcast tour) on podcasts aimed at older listeners. So, filter your retirement search to include podcasts with audiences aged 45+.
Relationship Status
Is your target audience married, in a relationship or single? Does it matter?
Yes! Sometimes the audience's relationship status matters very much.
Examples:
You're a relationship coach offering online couples counselling. Filter for podcasts popular with married or committed listeners to promote your advice on strengthening relationships.
Your cruise ship podcast advertising campaign focuses on your new child-free cruises to the Caribbean. In this case, you might get better results by starting your Travel Podcasts search using the 'Singles' filter (any age group), then add 'In A Relationship' to see what other useful podcasts might appear on the list.
Education Level
When you tailor your product to people with a particular educational background or attainment, it’s useful to know when a podcast’s audience is a match. This means that listeners will be more engaged and receptive to your podcast ads or guest message.
Examples:
You offer a coaching program to help graduates clear college debt faster. You might target podcasts with highly educated listeners are interested in budgeting, saving, or achieving financial freedom.
You have a retraining video series aimed at men who didn't finish high school. In this case, you'd select the 'Less than High School' and 'High School' boxes, and add in a 'skews male' audience filter.
Household Income
Is your product or service best for people in a specific income bracket? Try filtering for audiences within a certain annual household income range. The results may look totally different.
Or if you're considering starting your own podcast, understanding the household income demographics of your target audience can help you tailor your content and monetization strategies.
Examples:
You sell a high-ticket course on SEO: you'll probably want to target entrepreneurs with disposable income.
You're a podcast host who coaches listeners through budgeting on a limited income. You've decided to promote your show by guesting on other personal finance and budget-conscious podcasts. Here, you'd search at the lesser end of the income spectrum.
Profession
Rephonic offers hundreds of professional categories in our new Professions filter, so you can find the most relevant shows.
Example:
You're the Head of Human Resources in an up-and-coming company and know you'll want to attract more developers and cybersecurity experts in the next year. You could filter for podcasts aimed at IT professionals with a view to sponsoring or guesting on podcasts to boost your brand visibility among top talent in the tech industry.
Sponsors
Rephonic’s original “sponsored” filter searched for podcasts that usually accepted sponsors. Now, however, you can also filter for shows sponsored by a certain brand or company.
That’s particularly helpful if you want to see where your competitors are advertising. If a competing product or service is sponsoring certain podcasts, those shows might be a great opportunity for your campaign too.
Examples:
You run a leading marketing agency: Search for podcasts sponsored by marketing brands. If they align with your target audience, it might be worth reaching out to those shows, too.
You want to attract advertising in the health and wellness space: Search for specific healthy lifestyle sponsors (e.g., Better Help or AG1) to learn what sorts of podcasts and ads they work with.
Political Leaning
Your message or product may resonate with particular political audiences. In that case, understanding podcast consumption habits based on political preferences and filtering for podcasts with right-leaning, center, or left-leaning content may get you better results.
Example
A job board focused on nonprofit work might target audiences of progressive podcasts. One that caters to law enforcement or military roles might search for more conservative podcasts.
Branded Podcasts
This filter lets you search for podcasts produced by a brand, company or organization.
Finding branded podcasts in your niche:
- Opens up opportunities for collaboration between your podcast or business and theirs
- Helps you research other brands' content strategies.
- Let's you check out the competition, especially if your brand wants to start a podcast
Examples
You're promoting a health and fitness app and want to reach podcast listeners: Your branded search could turn up collaboration partners to co-create a workout series or cross-promote services.
You run a fintech startup and want to analyze how competitors engage audiences through podcasts. A branded search for investing podcasts reveals episodes from Robinhood’s Under the Hood. Listening to their approach helps you understand how their interviews showcase the democratization of finance and gives you ideas to differentiate your own podcast or outreach strategy.
Cross Promos
Cross-promoting is a proven way to attract listeners to your show.
Collaborating with another podcaster with a similar audience to yours gives both audiences the chance to expand their podcast experiences, and gives both shows an opportunity to grow. You can cross-promote using ads, interviewing each other or even by swapping episodes or guest hosting on each other's podcasts.
If this sounds like an opportunity for you, choose the Cross Promos filter to see how many podcasts are in your niche or interest range that cross-promote other shows.
Final thoughts
Using Rephonic's advanced search filters makes it so much easier to find podcasts that really match your audience and goals.
Whether you’re looking for a specific type of listener, industry niche, or even branded shows, narrowing down the options is key to landing the podcast opportunities you need to get your message to the right people.
So, save yourself the time and effort it takes to wade through countless podcasts that don't fit the bill.
