PR agencies and teams need a podcast booking tool that helps them find highly relevant podcasts that suit their clients.

But they also want tools that facilitate podcast search and research, let them reach out to podcast hosts, keep track of their outreach pipeline and collaborate with team members all on one platform. Those vital features can save busy teams hours of time and effort.

So, what should PR teams look for when choosing a podcast booking tool, and why do so many turn to Rephonic?

Let's find out.

What is a podcast booking tool?

A podcast booking tool is software that helps someone book guest appearances on podcasts.

The best tools handle the end-to-end workflow, including:

• finding podcasts
• qualifying podcasts
• organize campaigns
• sending pitches
• managing replies and follow-ups

All that on one platform!

What features should you expect to see?

Large database

Some databases only have tens of thousands of podcasts. This is missing out on a lot of opportunities. Of course, on databases with millions of shows, only a fraction of those will be relevant and worth pitching. But having a large database means you’re not missing any opportunities.

Search tool & filters

The best tools let you search by topic, title, episode and publisher. Searching by name can quickly find a specific podcast or host. Entering a publisher should locate all the shows associated with that person or entity.

Topic and episode searches are broader and the results can include podcasts that don't suit your clients at all. The most effective guest booking tool lets you filter your search to list the most likely podcasts.

Rich data

PR professionals don’t want to waste time sending out generic pitch emails to multiple podcasts. First, because those podcasts may not have the audience they want to attract. Second, because podcast hosts can spot generic emails a mile away and delete them immediately.

That means professionals should conduct highly targeted outreach. They need rich data about audience demographics, listener numbers and engagement, social media and much more. Tools with strong research capabilities are much more likely to give teams the data they need to make informed decisions.

Up-to-date contacts

Every moment spent in searching for contact details is time professionals could be spending on other things, so they want to get contact details quickly and without fuss. So, check that the guest booking tool verifies their contacts. Getting the right contacts first time is the most effective way to save time.

Team collaboration features

Can teams collaborate easily within the booking platform Does it include features where team members can:

• Pin notes
• See search history and target lists
• Read emails
• Set up alerts
• View and share campaigns

Again, busy teams can save time and effort if everyone understands what's happening with each campaign.

Pitching within the platform

When multiple team members pitch from their own email accounts, replies get scattered.

Look for a podcast booking service that centralizes the process with team members sending emails straight from the platform, especially if you need to pitch podcasts for multiple clients.

Check if the platform has a pitch editor with customizable email templates to guide you in creating authentic, effective pitches to podcast hosts.

Campaign management

PR teams often use traditional search engines when they first look for podcasts. They often spend hours searching multiple platforms and transferring their findings into spreadsheets. Each team member then sends outreach emails from their work email addresses. That means manually adjusting the spreadsheet every time something changes—a step that's easily missed.

Podcast outreach involves multiple steps, so when tools include team collaboration features and pipeline managers it means everyone in the team can see what's happening—including which podcasts are on the list, their pipeline status and the email chain, with the initial pitch, follow ups and replies.

Use Rephonic to improve your podcast booking workflow

Rephonic is a comprehensive podcast database with tools and features designed to make the entire booking workflow more efficient. PR teams use it to find, qualify and book podcast guest appearances for clients.

Working on Rephonic speeds up PR podcast outreach. It provides all the data you need to keep the emphasis on finding and booking quality podcasts that are highly relevant for your clients.

Here's how it works.

1. Find relevant podcasts

Rephonic has data on three million podcasts, meaning teams won't miss out on opportunities that smaller databases can't provide.

Obviously, only a fraction of these podcasts will suit each client, so you can apply up to 25 filters on your search to find highly relevant podcasts. Unlike many podcast search tools, Rephonic scans the titles, show notes and episode transcripts for your keyword, so the results are better.

Rephonic's most useful filters include:

• Active—use this to find podcasts that have recently posted episodes
• Guests—screen out podcasts that don't accept guests
• Listener numbers—filter for large, established podcasts or set it to find smaller shows with less than, say, 50 episodes.

Use Rephonic's audience demographic filters to search for podcasts who's audiences are highly likely to respond to your client's message. Filter for age range, location, language, interests, professions and more.

2. Qualify podcasts using data

As guest booking service Your Expert Guest found, using Rephonic to find and qualify podcasts can dramatically increase your clients' acceptance rates.

Tap on a podcast to see all the information Rephonic has gleaned from many datapoints across the web. Use the data to narrow down your initial list of possibilities until your campaign includes the most relevant podcasts.

Check across six tabs to find data such as:

• Listener numbers
• Spotify followers
• Social reach & links (including YouTube)
• Audience demographics
• Previous guests and their relevance to the show
• Past sponsors
• Reviews & ratings
• Chart rankings
• Listen to episodes
• Searchable transcripts

3. Build a campaign

Create a campaign on Rephonic and start adding podcasts. View your campaign as a list or a board.

You can create multiple campaigns, for instance, one campaign per client or one per topic. Keep them on Rephonic or export as a CSV if you prefer.

Add notes to podcasts for the whole team to see. Everyone in your Rephonic team can view and edit campaigns, including bulk actions (select, copy, delete podcasts).

You'll also see campaign statistics including reply rate, positive reply rate, booking rate, and estimated total listeners— in fact, everything you need to keep tabs on every aspect of your podcast guesting campaigns.

4. Pitch and follow up

Rephonic provides contact info for every podcast—and includes a Concierge service if you need to find different contacts.

Use the Inboxes feature to connect and manage email accounts. Connect team members' emails and these are then shared across your team. That makes it much easier to collaborate without having to share passwords.

With connected email accounts you can send pitch emails directly through Rephonic. Outgoing emails and replies can then be seen in Rephonic, so everyone in the team can see what's been sent, what's scheduled and so on.

Here's how it works:

1. Select contacts
2. Choose a sequence (pitch + follow-up)
3. Pick the inbox you want to send from
4. Review drafts
5. Configure your sending window
6. Review drafts and send

Whenever a show is pitched within Rephonic, it automatically moves to Pitched status within the campaign. If a prospective podcast agrees to an interview, it will move from Pitched to Warm to save you time.

5. Manage replies

Rephonic provides a full email messaging interface so messages and replies no longer need to live in one person’s inbox, they're accessible to all team members.

Conversations move into a shared messaging workspace where your team can: search and filter threads, view queued and scheduled messages, and reply directly within campaign feeds.

• Use the "send manually" flow (i.e., open in email client, mark as sent) if preferred
• Filter threads for read/unread, email accounts and and campaigns, so it's easy to find specific conversations.
• View and manage or cancel queued and scheduled messages
• Reply directly within campaign feeds

Top three reasons to use Rephonic:

• Most comprehensive podcast database: Find the best matches for your clients, use targeted outreach and save time in the process.
• Covers the entire podcast outreach workflow: Find and qualify relevant shows, pitch and manage replies, track campaigns all within Rephonic.
• Team collaboration features: Connect multiple inboxes, work fully within the platform with notes and campaigns visible to all team members.

Final thoughts

PR teams need a guest booking platform to help them find the most relevant podcasts for their clients and manage outreach all in one place. And podcast hosts want considered, thoughtful pitches from genuine guests whose knowledge or opinions will benefit their listeners.

Rephonic helps PR and marketing teams save time and effort in finding those relevant podcasts, sending genuine pitches to hosts and keeping track of multiple campaigns.

That's why more and more teams are choosing Rephonic as their podcast guest booking service.

Discover the benefits for yourself. Sign up today with a 7-day free trial.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

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Finding the perfect podcast match can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. PR teams need results fast, but they also need accuracy to avoid pitching the wrong shows.

That’s where Rephonic comes in.

It's one of today’s best podcast databases for PR teams and agencies, whether you’re managing public relations for your company’s executives or running an agency with hundreds of clients.

PR pros love the platform for its balance of data depth and research speed, calling it “an easy to use podcast database” and “the best platform for anyone who books podcasts.”

Here are Rephonic's top five features for PR teams booking podcast guest spots:

1. Podcast search tool & 25 advanced filters
2. Listener data
3. Podcast contact info
4. Built-in pitching tool
5. Shared messaging workspace

Let's explore them in more detail!

1. Search tool & 25 advanced filters

Rephonic's search tool takes the agony out of podcast research for PR agencies. Instead of manually trawling through millions of shows on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can narrow the field by entering a keyword or topic.

Let's start with your first search.

Start your search then apply up to 25 advanced filters. They include:

• Active filter: Only podcasts that have published an episode in the last 60 days.
• Guests filter: Shows podcasts that take guests.
• Listener numbers: Filter for listener numbers anywhere between 0-500k. Sometimes it makes sense to target smaller, niche podcasts, especially if your client is new to podcast guesting.
• Ratings: Search podcasts based on the number of ratings they've received across multiple platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
• Demographics filters: Filter for podcasts that speak to your target audience (See below):

How does Rephonic's search tool help PR teams?

Rephonic lifts the veil of secrecy by providing demographic data I only dreamed of having. From a productivity standpoint alone, it cut my research time by at least 90 percent.

Nora Murray Founder, SoundBite Communications

Finding podcasts that ultimately don't suit your boss (or client) wastes your time and theirs.

Here's the stats as we see them:

Of the 3-million+ podcasts published, approximately 400,000 are currently active, while the rest are either on a break, or no longer record episodes at all. Of those active shows, only around 130k accept guests.

Manually searching the podcast app lists is a gamble with only a 1 in 23 shot of finding a show that meets the very basic criteria. PR agencies and teams that use Rephonic flip the odds by filtering straight to the active podcasts that actually welcome interviews.

Go further, by using other filters to select the best-fit shows for your guest's needs. If your boss is new to podcast guesting, start by finding newer shows with small audiences to help them gain experience in front of relatively few people. On the other hand, if your client is a recognized thought leader, you'll want to surface well-established shows with substantial, engaged audiences.

Ultimately, filtering your search means you'll spend less time chasing dead ends and more time booking wins. That’s what makes it such a valuable podcast research tool for PR.

2. Listener data

Rephonic shows listener numbers per episode and per month, as well as demographic info on each podcast's Audience page. This helps you judge if the listeners are a good match for your client’s message.

The audience page starts with a Listener profile giving an overview of the typical make up of the podcast's audience. That snapshot expands into categories including:

• Location: Our best estimate of the countries where these podcast listeners are based.
• Relationship status: Notes the percentage of the audience likely to be single, married or in a relationship.
• Education: Offers an insight into the audience's likely education levels.
• Gender skew: Does the audience skew male or female? Or is it an equal split?

Analysis continues by examining the audience's likely:

• Age range
• Professions
• Household income
• Parental status

All these features combine to make Rephonic a powerful podcast research tool for PR teams. Whether you’re running media outreach, thought leadership campaigns, or product PR, it helps you find podcasts for media outreach that deliver.

What makes Rephonic’s Audience page valuable for PR teams?

Finding podcasts with audiences that align with your client’s goals is crucial for a successful guesting campaign. Without thorough audience research, you risk wasting your time pitching shows that won’t drive results. That’s why we added podcast audience data to Rephonic.

James Potter, Founder, Rephonic

When planning a podcast guesting campaign the Audience page helps you understand who actually listens. That makes it much easier to decide whether a show is best for brand awareness, thought leadership or product sales.

It helps you match clients with podcasts that align with their goals and back up your recommendations with hard data.

You'll write stronger outreach emails, get better response rates and have happier clients, because you’re putting them in front of listeners who genuinely care about their message.

3. Podcast contact info

Rephonic displays podcast contact information including email address, contact pages and social media accounts throughout the podcast pages, including the Contacts button.

Manually searching for podcast contact info can be a frustrating experience. Some independent podcasts have their own website and social media accounts. Others rely on their hosting platform or network links, while branded podcasts will likely link to a page on their company's site. But even if you find a website, there's no guarantee it will list the right contact information to make a guest pitch.

As an example, I spent 40 minutes searching for guest contact info on six podcasts in the nonprofit sector. Only one made it easy for potential guests, by including a guest contact form up front, while another listed an email address on LinkedIn. Two included social media links, so I could have sent them DMs.

Contrast that with Rephonic, where in less than five minutes I had website links, email addresses and social media accounts for all six shows.

How to find podcast contacts with Rephonic:

1. On any podcast page, tap the blue Contacts button to see the contacts that we found for this podcast.
2. If you prefer messaging via social media, scroll down to the list of social media links.

Sourcing the best contacts across our huge database of podcasts is complex and sometimes our system can't find a good email address. If the right links aren't showing up, select Find Contacts for Me and the Rephonic team will get back to you with an email address ASAP.

What makes Rephonic's contact info valuable for PR teams?

The reasons why PR pros call Rephonic the go-to podcast outreach platform:

• Cuts your outreach time: No more hunting around websites and LinkedIn for the right person to pitch.
• Helps you build relationships: Easy access to social media channels means you can spend time getting to know the host, liking, commenting and sending helpful DMs before sending a pitch.

4. Built-in pitching tool

Keep your outreach emails all in one place and visible to your whole team by pitching directly from your own email address without leaving Rephonic. Our Pitch Wizard guides you through the process from start to send.

How to pitch through Rephonic

1. Connect your email inbox to Rephonic. Your team can connect up to 5 inboxes on the Business subscription.
2. Open the campaign, select a podcast, and click the Send pitch link.
3. Select a contact. Rephonic provides contact emails for podcasts so you can be sure you're contacting the right person.
4. Select an email sequence (pitch + automated follow-up). You can adjust a template to your needs or choose to write an email sequence from scratch.
5. Select the email address you wish to send from.
6. Review and send.

Rephonic will track every email so your whole team can see what has been sent, what's scheduled to go soon and when.

How does the Pitch Wizard help PR teams?

You've already used Rephonic's podcast and audience info to find genuine, relevant match-ups for your client. Now, the Pitch Wizard streamlines the process. Pre-set templates provide a great starting point for you to write thoughtful, personalized outreach emails to podcasters.

Podcast outreach becomes smoother with automated follow-ups that stop once you get a reply.

Your emails stand out from the crowd and are more likely to lead to guest bookings. It’s one of the reasons agencies see Rephonic as the podcast booking tool for agencies that delivers results.

We won't take on a client unless we're confident that we can get a 30% acceptance rate but since we've been using Rephonic...we've had clients where we've gotten them on 70% of the shows we pitch them to.

Julie Fry Founder, Your Expert Guest

How does understanding previous guests help PR teams?

Analyzing previous guests gives you confidence in your pitch. For example, if your CEO wants to build their reputation as a thought leader and you see the podcast regularly hosts founders and thought leaders, your CEO will likely be a natural fit.

Conversely, seeing guests that don't fit that CEO or thought leader profile prevents you wasting time on shows unlikely to say yes.

Understanding interview focus helps you highlight fresh angles compared with past guests. That makes your emails stand out and more likely to lead to guest bookings. It’s one of the reasons agencies see Rephonic as the podcast booking tool for agencies that delivers results.”

We won't take on a client unless we're confident that we can get a 30% acceptance rate but since we've been using Rephonic...we've had clients where we've gotten them on 70% of the shows we pitch them to.

Julie Fry Founder, Your Expert Guest

5. Shared messaging workspace

Previously, one person in a team could send a pitch email and receive replies in their own email account. The emails and replies could then be forwarded on to other team members. Alternatively, you could cc the email to each team member's email.

It was messy, time consuming and all too easy to miss people off the list, especially if you had a big team. Rephonic's shared messages workspace consigns all that to the past.

Here's what happens when team members connect their emails to Rephonic:

• Pitch emails stay in Rephonic where everyone can see them.
• Replies move into a shared messaging workspace.
• Team members can see sent, queued, and scheduled messages.
• Find specific conversations by filtering for unread status, email account or campaign.
• Team members can reply directly within Rephonic.
• Add notes to any message sequence

Why does the shared messages space work for PR teams?

Shared messaged save everyone time and keep all team members in the loop, especially as the campaign pipeline will automatically update as you each send and receive emails on the platform.

You'll find it easier to plan, and organize your outreach and to report results to your clients, especially if you're juggling dozens of pitches at a time.

Opportunities don't slip through the cracks because everything's kept in one place on Rephonic's platform.

Final thoughts

Rephonic pulls everything PR teams need into one place for podcast outreach. You'll find a search tool & filters, listener data, contacts, built-in pitching, and a shared messaging workspace so you can easily collaborate with your team.

With the right tools at your fingertips you'll make stronger pitches, get higher acceptance rates and deliver for happier clients.

Start exploring Rephonic today and see the difference it makes for your campaigns.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with four years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

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PR teams use Rephonic’s podcast search tool because, unlike consumer platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts, it is built specifically for outreach and makes it much easier to find the right podcasts to pitch.

Rephonic is the go-to tool for teams who want in-depth discovery and qualifying data and reliable contact info. And because teams can keep their outreach process on one platform, it’s easy for all members to collaborate.

This article looks at Rephonic’s podcast search engine in more depth. It explains why traditional podcast search engines don’t work for PR teams, and how Rephonic’s search engine helps them find relevant shows.

What is a podcast search engine?

A podcast search engine is a tool that helps you find podcasts or episodes related to a topic, keyword, person, or show name.

Some are built for listeners who want to discover new shows or find a specific title or episode.

Others are built for PR teams and marketers and function more like podcast intelligence platforms, helping them identify the right shows to target for guesting, sponsorships, and advertising.

What are the traditional podcast search engines?

Apple Podcasts

Apple Podcasts is a massive podcast directory and listening app where listeners can browse, search, follow and play episodes.

Podcast creators submit their shows to Apple Podcasts, often using their podcast’s RSS feed. Apple then pulls in the show information such as the title, artwork, description and episodes, and displays that in the Apple Podcasts app and on the web.

It acts like a search engine by helping listeners find shows by title, episode and category. Apple Podcasts includes tools like podcast charts, curated playlists and “you might also like...” Each tool helps listeners find new shows or ones similar to podcasts they already enjoy.

Spotify

Spotify is quite different. It’s a streaming platform and describes itself as a place to access music, podcasts and video content. Spotify’s search function covers podcasts, songs, artists, playlists and more.

It acts as a podcast search engine because users can search for podcasts and browse featured and recommended shows. However, they can also save the ones they like and stream or download episodes in the Spotify app.

Like Apple Podcasts, Spotify also includes podcast charts, which help users discover popular shows.

Listen Notes

Unlike Apple Podcasts or Spotify, Listen Notes is a dedicated podcast search engine. Its own home page describes it as “like Google, but for podcasts.”

Listeners can search Listen Notes for podcasts by people, topics or podcast name. There's also a button directly below the search bar that lets you toggle between two search scopes: episodes or podcasts. You can order the search by relevance or date or select "only match titles" to get an exact match.

You can also discover podcasts and some information via several Listen Notes lists including:

• Trending -  links to ten top podcasts
• Real Time - episode titles that people are listening to right now
• Explorer - enter a podcast title and receive a list of similar podcasts
• Best - select a region and subcategory to see a list of top podcasts
• Hot - based on user activities that day
• Curated - lists from online resources like articles and discussion groups
• Playlists - curated by the Listen Notes community.

PodSearch

The PodSearch home page describes this tool as "an interactive directory for podcast discovery."

Listeners can use the search engine to look for podcasts by title, publisher or keyword to bring up a results page with a list of podcast icons and links. You can also search by category or use lists such as "Top Podcasts." PodSearch also includes a newly launched list to help listeners find brand new shows.

Open a link to bring up the podcast's PodSearch page. This gives brief information about the podcast and its host, links to social media and a discover other podcasts section.  It also includes the podcast's categories and an episode sample.

Challenges PR teams face with these platforms

The problem with each of these traditional podcast search engines is that they're built for people trying to find podcasts to listen to. They simply don't have the discovery and research tools that marketing and PR teams need to find and qualify the right podcasts for guest appearances and advertising.

Teams often start their podcast outreach efforts using these platforms. However, they quickly find themselves going around in circles, trying to get information that listener-focused search engines don't supply.

Teams end up spending hours going back and forth between traditional podcast search engines, Google and ChatGPT. Then they cobble it together in a way that Julie Fry of 'Your Expert Guest' describes as the highly inefficient "Frankenstein method" a process that "took hours of research."

Eventually, many PR and marketing teams realize they need a specialized tool that caters to the entire podcast outreach workflow.

That's when they reach for a tool like Rephonic.

The podcast outreach workflow

The podcast outreach workflow goes like this:

1. Find relevant podcasts
2. Qualify podcasts
3. Pitch podcasts
4. Manage the campaign

Now, we've simplified the workflow here, I know.

But search engines like Spotify, Listen Notes etc. can really only help with #1, i.e., podcast discovery. Even them, they're missing lots of functionalities that PR teams need.

Why PR teams need a specialised podcast search tool

PR teams need:

🔎 Better discovery and qualifying data

Clients deserve to be booked on the most relevant show possible. At the same time, they may ask why you've chosen that show, so teams need to provide the data that supports those decisions.

🔎 Efficiency

You're often working at scale, managing multiple clients and campaigns. Copy-pasting from several sources into spreadsheets may work for one client, but quickly becomes very inefficient when you try to scale it up.

🔎 Reliable contact information

Listeners don't need podcasters' contact information, so traditional podcast search engines don't supply it. PR teams need a reliable way to reach out to podcast hosts and producers without having to search the web or go through multiple social media accounts to find it.

🔎 Easy collaboration

PR teams need the easiest way possible to collaborate on their podcast outreach: shared spreadsheets can work but they're not the ideal solution.

Why PR teams use Rephonic

Rephonic focuses on audience analytics and demographic data, presenting information in charts and graphs useful for reporting.

That means PR and marketing teams can find and qualify relevant podcasts, pitch the hosts and producers and manage their outreach campaign from one platform.

Here's how teams use Rephonic to:

1. Find relevant podcasts

Search by topic, title, publisher, or episodes

Rephonic's search engine has four ways to find podcasts. These include entering a topic or keyword, using a specific podcast's title, searching for a publisher or using Episode Search.

Simply toggle the relevant tab above the search bar on your Home screen.

Apply advanced search filters

Use any number of Rephonic's 25 advanced search filters to narrow down the results list, depending on your search goal.

For example, apply the Active and Guests filters when searching for guesting opportunities. That way, your results won't include podcasts that have not uploaded an episode in the past 45 days, or shows that don't accept guests.

Or you might apply the listener numbers filter to specify larger or smaller podcasts. Or, you might decide to zero in on audiences with a specific age range, location or education level. Rephonic's filters allow all that and more.

Monitor podcasts for keywords

Create an alert by entering a keyword, phrase or name and Rephonic will check new episode titles, transcripts and show notes for it. We'll then send you a daily or weekly email containing any relevant new episodes that match your alert.

Easily find related podcasts

You may have a podcast in minds and want to find similar shows. Rephonic gives you two ways to do that.

1. Scroll down the podcast Overview page to find the Related section which lists podcasts that listeners also subscribe to. You can select specific podcast titles or click to copy the entire list to your campaign.
2. Use Rephonic's 3D graph tool to see similar podcasts and understand how closely their  subscribers overlap.

2. Qualify podcasts

Rephonic  gives PR and marketing teams many ways to narrow down their podcast lists to the most relevant shows that suit their client or campaign needs. Each podcast's data is split amongst six tabs on their podcast page. These are labeled Overview, Audience, People, Sponsors, Feedback and Charts.

Teams can qualify podcasts by their:

• Listener numbers: See these numbers in the Key Facts section in the Overview tab or use the Listeners filter during your search.
• Audience demographics: Select podcasts that closely match your client's target audience by checking the Audience tab of their podcast page. This tab starts with a typical listener profile, then goes into more depth, analysing the audience's likely age range, education level, interests, professions, income levels and more.
• Previous guests: Use the People tab to scroll through previous guests on the show. It also lets you search for specific names and jump straight to that guest. First you'll see an analysis of typical guests booked by that podcast. That's followed by guest's names, together with episode titles and link and a note on the interview's focus and relevance.
• Reviews and ratings: The Feedback tab gives you an overview of the ratings and reviews gained by the podcast and links to the actual reviews on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, and other podcast apps, such as Castbox. The AI summary of the sentiments expressed in the reviews lets teams gauge listeners overall feelings and opinions.
• Chart rankings: You might also want to see where the podcast stands in the Apple, Spotify and YouTube charts. You'll see those standings under the podcast's Charts tab. Search these by overall standings or dig into categories or regions.
• Recent topics: It can be useful to see what topics hosts and guests have recently discussed, so Rephonic analyses podcast transcripts and lists recent topics in a section of the Overview tab.
• Social following: The Social section (Overview tab) shows the social media accounts and other places where a podcast appears around the web. Rephonic shows the Total Social Reach number followed by a breakdown of follower numbers on each platform and links to each account.

Once your team starts finding relevant shows, you can group them into a campaign so they stay organized in one place. Start by tapping the Build a campaign button at the top of a podcast page. This will prompt you to Build a new campaign. Tap the blue Add button beside any other podcast in the search to add it to the list. Alternatively, on your home page select Build a campaign from the Quick Steps section and follow the prompts.

3. Pitch podcast hosts and producers

Busy PR professionals need an easy way to pitch their clients to podcasts.

With Rephonic, team members can send pitches directly from the platform. It centralises the whole conversation so all members of your Rephonic team can see what the podcast host replied and reply without relying on one person’s inbox

This is especially useful if you’re running campaigns for multiple clients, and need to collaborate with other members of your team.

Here's how Rephonic enables effective podcast outreach.

• Contact info: Tap the blue contact button from any tab to find email addresses and social media links.
• Concierge service: Request help from our team to research other contact details or to report wrong information.
• Connect multiple inboxes: This allows you to send emails from your own email address, or your team member's, directly within Rephonic.
• Pitch podcasts within the platform: Use Rephonic's pitch templates or create your own format for the whole team to use on Rephonic's platform. This keeps everything in one place and lets everyone see the stage of each pitch in the pipeline.
• Create sequences to automatically send follow-ups: Select an existing sequence, create a new one with premade templates or customize it to suit your team's outreach strategy.
• Manage replies within the platform: Conversations move into a shared messaging workspace where your team can search and filter threads, view queued and scheduled messages, and reply directly within campaign feeds.

4. Manage campaigns

Create and manage multiple outreach campaigns within Rephonic. Add podcasts the campaign with just one click, then see each podcast's pitch status in the campaign pipeline.

• Update status: Assign each podcast a status of Prospect, Pitched, Followed-up, Warm, Lost and Booked. Update each podcast as it moves through the sequence so that everyone on the team can see what's happening in each campaign.
• View campaign statistics:  View the campaign as a list or as a board. Use the Boards view to see the pipeline overview and to check the activity history. At the top of each campaign, your booking rate updates automatically as podcasts move into Booked, so you always have a quick read on performance.

Final thoughts

Consumer podcast apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts are not designed for PR professionals seeking to find shows that take guests.

That's why Rephonic founder James Potter built a dedicated podcast database, comprehensive search tools and a place where all the search and outreach activity can stay in one place.

In 2020, I realised that those serious about podcast guesting needed solid data and contacts to book more podcast interviews and maximise the impact of their appearances. My mission is to help you grow your business through podcast guesting, by providing you with the tools you need.

James Potter

If you and your team want to run successful podcast guesting campaigns at scale, you need Rephonic.

Sign up for a free 7-day trial

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to See How Many Listeners a Podcast Has (& More Podcast Stats)

If you're planning to pitch yourself (or someone else) as a guest or sponsor, you probably want to know how many people are listening to it.

How to Maximize a $500 Podcast Guesting Budget

For entrepreneurs & marketing teams wanting to grow brand visibility, a podcast guesting budget of just $500 can set up a high-quality campaign.

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Rephonic now brings your entire podcast outreach workflow into one platform, with new features to help your team move faster and collaborate more easily. Manage campaigns, send pitches, automate follow-ups, and collaborate on replies, all within Rephonic.

Let’s explore exactly what’s new:

Introducing Campaigns (formerly Lists)

Lists have been rebuilt as Campaigns: a more advanced system for organising, tracking, and managing podcast outreach.

You can create, edit, archive, share, and export Campaigns, so your team has full control over outreach. You can also keep an eye on performance with stats like reply rate, positive reply rate, and booking rate.

There's a new drag-and-drop Board view, so teams can quickly manage opportunities as they move through the pipeline.

These podcast statuses update automatically as you send and receive emails through Rephonic. If a prospective podcast agrees to an interview, it will move from Pitched to Warm to save you time.

Pitch podcasts directly from Rephonic

You can now send pitch emails directly from your email address without leaving Rephonic.

After connecting an inbox, move through a simple step-by-step flow: choose an inbox, select a sequence, pick contacts, review drafts, configure your sending window, and send. This keeps outreach in one place and helps standardise the process across your team.

Every email is tracked in Rephonic, so your team has visibility into what has been sent and what is scheduled to send soon and when.

Connect your email accounts

With the new Inboxes feature, you can connect and manage email accounts that you want to send emails from. Connect Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook or IMAP through a simple setup flow.

Sequences that follow up for you

Never forget to follow up on opportunities thanks to automated multi-step email sequences.

You can now build sequences with multiple emails, set delays between emails, and manage subject lines across the sequence. Follow-ups stop automatically when someone replies, helping you avoid unnecessary emails and keep outreach relevant.

To help you get started faster, we include a few preset templates for different outreach goals. This gives you a useful starting point whether you are looking for guest opportunities, discussing sponsorships or cross-promoting your own show.

Manage replies in one shared workspace

Replies no longer need to live in one person’s inbox. Conversations move into a shared messaging workspace where your team can search and filter threads, view queued and scheduled messages, and reply directly within campaign feeds. Filters for unread status, email account, and campaign make it easy to find specific conversations.

The messaging experience also includes unread indicators to highlight conversations that need attention.

Smarter contact management

We've made it easier to manage your team's email contacts and personalise your outreach.

You can verify email addresses, edit contacts with custom variables, and use those variables in your pitches.

Powered by the podcast data that Rephonic is known for

These updates build on the trusted podcast data Rephonic is known for with new tools for managing campaigns, sending pitches, automating follow-ups, and managing replies.

It now supports the full podcast outreach workflow, so your team can move faster, collaborate more easily, and spend less time switching between tools.

If you’re already a Rephonic customer, you’ll see these updates live on the platform. If you’re new to Rephonic and looking to book high-impact guesting or sponsorship opportunities, give it a go for free.

Start your free trial today

How to See How Many Listeners a Podcast Has (& More Podcast Stats)

If you're planning to pitch yourself (or someone else) as a guest or sponsor, you probably want to know how many people are listening to it. Discover six ways to see how many listeners a podcast has.

How to Get Podcast Transcripts & Search for Keywords

Learn how to get podcast transcripts with Rephonic and get a competitive advantage. Search transcripts for keywords and make better, more accurate decisions.

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Rephonic is the most complete podcast database for PR teams, marketers, and founders looking to book high-impact guest appearances and ad spots.

With global podcast listenership at an all-time high, podcast appearances have become an effective way to reach a new and highly engaged audience. Let's dive in to see how Rephonic makes the process of finding and getting featured on the right shows a whole lot easier.

What is Rephonic? (Quick answer)

Rephonic is a database of over three million podcasts, primarily used for podcast outreach. The search tool allows you to discover podcasts in any niche by simply entering a keyword. Apply up to 25 filters to narrow down the search results.

Selecting a show allows you to investigate further by accessing additional podcast information. You can also check out their previous episodes by tapping ‘Listen’.

Once you’ve found a suitable podcast, you can add it to a campaign so you can easily find it later. When you’re ready to start pitching, connect your inbox and start sending emails (and managing replies) from within the platform.

How does Rephonic work?

Rephonic lets you manage your entire podcast outreach workflow in one platform. You can find, qualify, and pitch podcasts without leaving Rephonic. Here’s how it works:

Find podcasts

Rephonic’s search tool and 25 advanced filters helps you identify relevant podcasts quickly.

You can enter a keyword and choose whether to search by topic, title, publisher, or episode. From there, apply as many filters as needed, including especially useful ones such as listener numbers, guest format, and active status.

Rephonic also offers a range of audience demographic filters, which makes it easier to narrow the search further and find stronger-fit podcasts.

Qualify podcasts

Vetting podcasts manually is time-consuming work, and the success of an appearance relies largely on how well the show’s audience matches that of the guest or sponsor. Rephonic helps you increase your ROI by providing lots of qualifying data for every show.

The information we provide includes:

• Listener numbers
• Audience demographics, e.g. gender skew, location, age group, professions, interests, income level, relationship status, parental status, education level.
• Previous guests & sponsors
• Social reach & links
• Engagement score
• Related podcasts
• Chart rankings
• Reviews & ratings

By examining a podcast's stats, you can determine if the show is worth reaching out to.

Pitch podcasts

Rephonic has a built-in pitching tool, which lets you connect your inbox and pitch podcasts from your own email address without leaving the platform.

You can also set up multi-step sequences with automated follow-ups. Every email is tracked in Rephonic, so your team can see what has already been sent, what is scheduled next, and when.

Replies no longer have to sit in one person’s inbox either. Conversations appear in a shared messaging workspace, where team members can view and reply directly.

Who is Rephonic for?

As we mentioned, Rephonic is mainly used by PR teams, marketers and founders looking to book podcast guest appearances or ad spots.

The goal is usually to increase exposure. Some brands are aiming to generate leads or sales whereas others are establishing themselves as thought leaders. The same is true for authors, entrepreneurs and other individuals. PR and marketing agencies are looking to create an impact for their clients by getting them booked on the most suitable podcasts.

How accurate is Rephonic?

We base our listener figures on hundreds of publicly available data points that we gather about podcasts from all over the web. We estimate the number of listeners per episode and per month for every podcast and believe our figures are the best in the industry, however they should be considered a ‘best guess’.

We recommend contacting the publisher for the most accurate numbers. Our estimates are best used to compare the audience size of shows so you can find the most suitable ones to reach out to.

Can I try Rephonic for free?

Absolutely! Get started with a 7-day free trial.

Article credits

Written by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to Choose Podcasts with High Sales Potential for Podcast Guesting

Podcast guesting builds brand awareness—but not every show will bring in customers. This article shows you how to find podcasts with real sales potential, so your time behind the mic pays off.

How to See How Many Listeners a Podcast Has (& More Podcast Stats)

If you're researching a particular podcast, or looking to book podcast appearances, you'll likely want to know how many people are listening to it.

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It's easy to find Cision's homepage and surf its services. But there's one burning question: how much does Cision cost?

This article provides information on Cision pricing and introduces some of its PR platform and media database alternatives.

How much does Cision cost?

One customer reports paying Cision $3,500 per year for two seats on the media database, while another reports paying $25,000 for a more feature-rich package with five seats, based on posts on Reddit.

There are more reports on pricing that we touch on below, but the thing to remember is that Cision doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all price, or even pricing tiers. So, you won't find up-front costs on the Cision website - you'll have to speak to a representative.

In the meantime, here are some more online clues that shine a light on the likely costs you might face.

What do people say about Cision pricing on G2?

G2 is a software marketplace where you'll find unbiased user reviews of B2B software, hardware, and services. In their pricing review section for Cision, you may get a pricing estimate by entering your work email "to see what companies like yours are paying."

What do people say about Cision on Reddit?

From people’s comments, it seems like Cision clients have seen a big variety in pricing.

We’ve created a table, ordered from low to high, to reflect their use. People do call features by different names in their reviews, and we can’t confirm any of these reports; however we’ve tried our best to align them in this table.

Sources: Reddit thread one and Reddit thread two

Cision reviews

CisionOne has an average rating of 3.9 out of 5 on G2 from 1.2k+ reviews, and 3.8 out of 5 on Capterra (correct as of April 2026).

Cision features

Cision is a media database and services provider for communications and PR professionals working in the private or public sector. It’s designed to help users connect with relevant journalists working in print media, radio, podcasts or online.

Its flagship platform is the AI-powered CisionOne, which brings all its functions into one end-to-end workflow. At the time of writing, the company still offers older software like Cision Communications Cloud, and some of our pricing clues (below) may reflect that.

Cision alternatives for PR

You can find similar services (media databases, journalist contacts, CRM tools, pitching etc.) on a number of other platforms. JournoFinder, Muck Rack, Prowly, Prezly and Meltwater are some of the most-mentioned Cision alternatives, so we took a look at what they offer.

Together, these databases cover a variety of media (print, online etc.), however if you're podcast focused, Rephonic is probably your best bet.

JournoFinder

JournoFinder is an AI-powered media database built around one core principle: relevance. Rather than maintaining a static, bloated database that goes stale, JournoFinder uses AI-powered semantic search to surface the journalists who are most relevant to your story right now, not contacts who covered your topic three years ago.

What makes it stand out from legacy databases like Cision is its approach to data. JournoFinder's database of 1M+ journalists is continuously updated, with contact details verified in real time before you export. That means fewer bounced emails and more pitches that actually land. If a journalist isn't already in the database (say, a niche contributor at a hyper-relevant trade publication that Cision and Muck Rack don't cover) JournoFinder will automatically create a profile for them when they're discovered through a search.

Key features include a Google News-powered search that lets you find journalists covering breaking stories within minutes, a built-in CRM and pitching tool, #JournoRequest alerts that aggregate journalist callouts from across the web using semantic matching, a bulk URL upload tool (great for integrating with SEO workflows like Ahrefs), and a precision map search for local and regional media lists.

JournoFinder also stands apart on support: real humans respond quickly from day one, regardless of your plan. There are no bots, no ticket queues, and support isn't locked behind an enterprise tier.

Plans start at $119/month (paid annually) with a 7-day free trial, making it a fraction of the cost of Cision, Meltwater, or Muck Rack.

Best for:

PR professionals who need hyper-relevant journalists with verified contacts, AI-powered discovery, and responsive human support, at a fraction of the cost of legacy databases.

Muck Rack

Muck Rack is a PR and media management platform designed to encompass users' PR workflows, including pitching, monitoring and reporting. It includes tools for PR & Comms teams (e.g., PR software, media database, press releases, social media listening, AI, etc.) and offers journalists the use of free portfolios and a Job Board.

Its main strength is breadth. For teams that want media discovery, pitching, monitoring, and reporting in one place, Muck Rack offers a more unified experience than using separate tools. That makes it a strong fit for agencies and in-house PR teams that need collaboration features and want to measure the impact of their outreach as well as manage contacts.

Like Cision, Muck Rack doesn’t reveal pricing information on its website. Instead, it offers a demo call with an agent to determine the cost based on user numbers and needs. However, the going rate for one user seems to be $5,000 per year.

Best for:

In Reddit discussions (like this one), Muck Rack users say the company began as a media database, and in their opinion, that's where its strengths lie.

Prowly

Prowly is an AI-powered PR and media relations platform built for teams that need more than just a media database. Alongside its contact database of journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and influencers, it offers tools for building media lists, sending pitches, creating press releases, monitoring coverage, tracking results, and managing branded online newsrooms. That makes it a broader PR workflow tool rather than just a contact discovery product.

Its appeal is that it combines media outreach with content and reporting features in one platform. Teams can use it to maintain contact lists, run outreach campaigns, publish press releases, and keep a newsroom live without stitching together several separate tools. Compared with enterprise-heavy alternatives, Prowly is often positioned as a more accessible option for smaller PR teams, agencies, and growing brands that still want a fairly full feature set.

Prowly doesn't have a free option, but each tier offers a free 7-day trial. Their Basic Plans start at $369/month while the Pro Plans are $589/month (both paid annually).

Best for:

PR agencies and individuals looking to organize and track PR and media contacts.

Rephonic

Rephonic is the most comprehensive podcast database for PR teams, marketers, and founders looking to book high-impact guest appearances or ad spots.

The platform covers more than 3 million podcasts, giving users a much broader view of the podcast landscape than traditional media databases, and combines search, outreach, and monitoring tools in one place. Rephonic also helps users qualify shows before pitching, with data on listener numbers, audience demographics, contact details, related podcasts, and other signals that make it easier to decide which opportunities are worth pursuing.

While broader PR platforms treat podcasts as one small part of a larger media database, Rephonic is purpose-built for podcast research outreach. That makes it especially useful for PR teams running dedicated podcast guesting campaigns or tracking where their client's brand is being mentioned across episodes and transcripts.

Rephonic offers a seven-day free trial, and three paid tiers: Light ($99/month), Standard ($149/month) and Business ($299/month).

Best for:

Data-driven PR teams that want deep insights, high-quality contacts for 3m+ podcasts, and one platform to manage the full podcast booking workflow.

One user stated, "Rephonic's the best platform for anyone who books podcasts."

Prezly

Prezly is an all-in-one PR software platform built mainly for in-house comms teams, with a separate offering for PR agencies. It covers the core PR workflow: online newsrooms, press release publishing, email campaigns, media monitoring, a built-in CRM, and press kit tools. That makes it a good fit for teams that want to manage outreach, content, and media assets in one place rather than across several different tools.

Prezly has three annual pricing tiers: Essential ($100/mo), Standard ($150/mo) and Enterprise (custom.)

Best for:

In-house comms teams seeking an affordable alternative for press release distribution and maintaining media contacts.

Meltwater

Meltwater was one of the first online media monitoring companies and today offers a suite of products. As well as social media listening, media database and contacts, it also offers insights into your audience, influencer marketing and sales, as well as data and API integration.

The company says each product package is customized to individual needs, and prospective users should contact the sales team or request a demo.

Best for:

Identifying journalists and the specific topics they write about. Users say they find it useful for conducting searches, keeping track of clips and for sentiment analysis in social media listening.

FAQs

Does Cision have podcasts on its database?

Yes - Cision has 60,000 podcasts on its database. Users can monitor these podcasts for brand or keyword mentions.

Is there a dedicated podcast database I can use alongside Cision?

Yes - Rephonic is the most comprehensive podcast media database used by PR professionals to find, qualify and pitch podcasts.

Final thoughts

If you're looking for a Cision alternative that prioritizes journalist relevance, verified contacts, and value for money, JournoFinder is the strongest option on this list. Its AI-powered search finds journalists that legacy databases simply miss, the data is always live, and you can try it free for 7 days without speaking to a sales team.

For those who need a broader all-in-one suite with media monitoring and social listening, Meltwater or Muck Rack may be worth the significantly higher price tag. If press release distribution is your main need, Prowly or Prezly are solid choices. And if you want to get your client's message out to podcast listeners, check out Rephonic's podcast data, contacts and pitching tools.

Looking for the best podcast info? Get it here with a 7-day free trial.

How to Get Podcast Transcripts & Search for Keywords

Learn how to get podcast transcripts with Rephonic and get a competitive advantage. Search transcripts for keywords and make better, more accurate decisions.

How to Spy on a Competitor’s Podcast Guesting Strategy

In this article, we break down why piecing together their competitor’s podcast guesting strategy matters and how to use Rephonic to get a clear view of what’s happening behind the scenes.

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This article describes how to see how many listeners a podcast has. If you're planning to pitch yourself (or someone else) as a guest or sponsor, you probably want to know how many people are listening to it.

Or maybe you host your own show, and you're dying to know how similar shows are performing. You might even want to reach out to a podcast host with a similar audience size and suggest some cross-promo opportunities.

But can you see how many listeners a podcast has in 2026? Surely finding that info will be a piece of cake?

Well, it is if you use the right tool.

If you're a podcast publisher, jump to the part where we explain how to see your own listener metrics. Otherwise, we’ve laid out a few ways to look up valuable podcast stats and figure out how popular a show is that's not yours.

TL;DR:

1. Only the podcast publisher knows their actual number of listeners, subscribers and downloads.
2. Rephonic's podcast database is a popular way to get podcast listener numbers.
3. You can cross-check public signals if you don't want to pay for a tool, but insights are limited.

Six ways to see how many listeners a podcast has

1. Get podcast listener numbers using Rephonic

Rephonic's podcast database is the easiest way to tell how many listeners a podcast has. Rephonic has comprehensive podcast statistics for 2.5m+ shows, including listener numbers per episode and monthly listens. The numbers are front and center on each podcast's page.

We collect hundreds of publicly available data points for each podcast to come up with our metrics. Of course, it is a "best guess," so if you're determined to know the actual listener numbers, you'll have to contact the podcast host or publisher directly.

James Potter, Founder of Rephonic

Get started with a 7-day free trial

2. Check ratings and reviews

When sizing up a podcast, many people often turn to platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, two of the leading podcast players, particularly in the US and the UK. They aggregate the most listener feedback, allowing users to check the average rating, number of ratings, and even read reviews on Apple Podcasts.

You could try to guess that a podcast has a large audience by the total number of ratings it has. But this is a somewhat flawed approach because there's not always direct link between the volume of listener feedback and audience size.

Also, to get a full picture of its audience, you'll have to check each of the podcast apps where you can listen to the show.

The best apps to check are:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Castbox
• Podcast Addict
• Podchaser
• Amazon / Audible

How many stars do fans give, and what are the reviews like? Enthusiastic? Excited? Are their superfans raving, or are the comments short and boring or even non-existent?

Rephonic collects all of this listener feedback and makes it available for free. Here's an example for The Daily (scroll down to "Reviews").

3. Inspect chart rankings

Similarly to ratings and reviews, Apple Podcasts and Spotify are the best places to look for the most comprehensive podcast chart rankings. If a show is ranking high in its category — or perhaps across all categories — then that's a pretty good indication that they have a sizeable audience.

The charts are not an ideal measure of popularity, though. It's thought that they are calculated by looking at the number of new followers (previously 'subscribers') each podcast has added over a recent time window.

If a show's listeners skew towards another platform, or another country where Apple or Spotify is less dominant, then they won't perform so well in the charts.

Rephonic collects podcast chart rankings for:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube

Here's an example (scroll down to "Charts" - if it's missing then that show is not ranking at all).

4. Investigate podcast stats revealed by some apps

There's no official way to see a podcast's global number of listeners across every app, but a few podcast apps have data about their own users.

• Castbox – shows subscribers and total streams (Castbox ≈ 2% of all podcast listeners).
• Spotify followers – now visible inside Rephonic for quick one-click checks.

Although subscriber numbers do not always directly correlate with listener numbers, they give you a clue as to the size of a show's listenership. One way to use them is by comparing the stats between shows on the same platform.

Only the podcast host or publisher has access to how many listeners or streams a show has.

5. Check social media presence

Checking a podcast's social media accounts can tell you something about their listenership figures and how engaged their listeners are.

Usually you can go to the podcast's official website (often listed in podcast listening apps) to find links to their social accounts.

Check out their Instagram feed or X account. Are they active on TikTok? How many followers do the hosts have? Can you see a lot of positive listener engagement on these accounts?

See total YouTube podcast views with Rephonic.

If you're looking for the number of podcast views, you can do a quick search on YouTube and scroll through their videos to get an idea of how many views each episode has. You can see the total number of YouTube views for each podcast on Rephonic's database.

A lot of people watch podcasts on YouTube now, so knowing a podcast's viewership numbers can help you get a better understanding of its total reach.

6. Ask the publisher directly

To find out the most accurate podcast numbers, you need to go direct to the source. That means reaching out to the host, owner or publisher. Finding the right person is not always easy, so we’ve put together a guide to help you find podcast contact information more efficiently.

Once you've sent your email, there's no guarantee that they'll respond. But the likelihood depends on your intent. If you're looking to spend money on sponsoring their show then you may get a quick reply! On the other hand, if you're looking to research your competitors before you launch your own podcast, you’re probably not going to be so lucky.

Watch out for publishers giving you their all-time number of downloads, i.e. the number of times all combined episodes have been downloaded since the podcast was founded. It may sound impressive, but it doesn't tell you a lot about how many listeners they're currently pulling in per episode.

Can you see how many downloads a podcast has?

Finding podcast download numbers is a common approach you might use to make decisions about which shows to reach out to.

As a listener, you can't see download numbers in any of the podcast apps. However, if a podcast host adds an OP3 prefix to their URL, they'll see all their podcast's performance across all the platforms and this data is automatically made public via the API.

Unfortunately, download numbers are somewhat misunderstood in the world of podcasting. They seem to indicate how many listeners a podcast has, but in fact, they show how many times the podcast was downloaded onto a device.

Listeners can choose to subscribe and automatically download every episode, or download it on the go, which is known as user-initiated episodes. So, download numbers don’t tell you how many listeners a podcast has because you don't know when or even if they actually heard that episode.

That's why Rephonic gives you listener per episode numbers instead of downloads, to provide a more accurate idea of the size of an individual podcast’s audience.

Get started with a free trial.

Can you see how many subscribers a podcast has?

Podcast subscriber numbers are often used as a guide to understanding a podcast's popularity.

However, finding the total podcast subscriber count is notoriously difficult, for the same reason that it’s difficult to find the number of listeners and downloads. Podcast distribution is decentralized - in other words, podcasts publish in many different places so you can listen to episodes and subscribe to shows wherever it suits.

This is how podcasts become available:

And therein lies the problem when it comes to finding out podcast subscriber numbers.

There are piles of platforms out there. Spotify, Apple podcasts, and iHeartRadio are three of the largest, but there are many smaller players too. Buzzsprout lists a large number of podcast apps in its Definitive Podcast Directory List for 2026.

Spotify is now the #1 or #2 podcast app, and although it's impossible to view figures within the app itself, Rephonic is able to pull Spotify subscriber numbers for every podcast and make it available on its platform.

Remember - just because someone follows or subscribes to a podcast doesn't mean they will actually listen.

How to see how many listeners your own podcast has

Analyzing your metrics helps you grow your show's popularity by improving your content.

Spotify and Apple Podcasts are two of the largest podcast apps, so let's see how they help you analyze your own podcast statistics.

Spotify

Spotify analytics measure many data points:

• Starts: logged whenever someone presses play on your podcast
• Streams/play counts: how many people listen for 60 seconds or more
• Listeners: unique listeners who have started at least one episode
• Followers: shows your subscriber numbers.
• Reach: Aka impressions, reach is counted at podcast and episode level and measures how many times your podcast is shown in Spotify Home, Search and Library over 30 days.
• Duration: The total time your audience listened
• Retention graphs: These show how people engage with your episode by tracking where people start, stop, or drop off
• Geographic distribution: Where your listeners where when they heard your podcast.

You get these analytics and more through for free at Spotify for Creators (formerly Spotify for Podcasters.)

Apple Podcasts

Apple podcasts analytics look at similar stats to Spotify's, but you access them through Apple Podcasts Connect. A podcast host or publisher can see their stats by episode or over all time.

Engaged Listeners is possibly one of Apple's most important metrics for measuring podcast success, because these are unique devices that played at least 40% of an episode with a single session. Understanding how many listeners actually heard that much or more of your podcast can be a game changer, revealing listener behavior as well as the content and guests they enjoyed.

Watch Grow Your Podcast By Doing This for an interesting overview or see Apple's Support Resources for further information.

OP3 prefix

But how can you see how popular your show is without going into every single app that plays it? That's where the OP3 prefix comes in.

OP3 (Open Podcast Prefix Project) works by adding a small piece of tracking information to the beginning of the episode file URL. This means that podcast episode downloads can be tracked across all platforms.

Discover how popular a podcast is with Rephonic

The easiest way to look up podcast stats is with Rephonic, the most complete podcast database for PR teams, marketers, and founders looking to book high-impact guest appearances and ad spots.

For any podcast, see how many listeners it has, its chart rankings, social followers, YouTube viewership, reviews and more so you don’t have to waste valuable time searching the web.

If you're looking for podcasts to pitch as a potential guest or sponsor, Rephonic is a great way to find the right shows in any niche, get their contact info, and pitch them - all in one platform.

Get started with a free trial today.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist whose data-driven insights on the podcasting industry have been featured in Podnews.

How to Write a Podcast Outreach Email With AI (And What to Avoid)

This in-depth guide explains what you can expect to gain from podcast interviews, how to find the right shows, pitch effectively, prep for the interview, and follow up afterward.

Monthly Podcast Appearances or Intense Bursts: Which Is Better?

Podcast sprints or a spaced approach—which guesting strategy works best? Or should you try a hybrid? We break down the pros and cons of all three.

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Looking to advertise on podcasts for the first time? Podcast advertising is a powerful tool within digital marketing, leveraging digital platforms to reach highly engaged audiences.

Podcasts continue to be a fast-growing marketing channel. In the US alone, 55% of Americans now say they regularly listen to podcasts. That’s a whole lot of people listening at home and while they’re out and about.

This article explains what podcast advertising is and how you can use Rephonic to help your business run effective podcast ad campaigns. Podcast advertising is effective because listeners are highly engaged and trust the hosts, which leads to higher conversions.

Two approaches to running your first podcast advertising campaign

There’s more than one way to get your brand into podcast episodes. The right approach depends on how much control you want, how quickly you need to launch, and whether you’re aiming for a niche audience or broader reach.

Choosing the right podcast ad placements is a key part of planning your podcast campaign, as it determines where your message will appear and how effectively you reach your target audience.

The two main options for brands starting out with podcast ads are:

1. Direct buys
2. Self-serve platforms

1. Direct buys

What it means:

You choose specific podcasts that match your target audience and buy ad space directly from the show or its network.

Direct buys often involve you doing some (or all) of the following:

• Selecting podcasts and reaching out to the host or network
• Working directly with podcast creators and podcast networks to secure ad placements and sponsorships
• Agreeing the ad format (host-read vs pre-recorded), placement, and schedule
• Providing talking points or writing a podcast ad script
• Negotiating pricing, duration, and any sponsorship extras (e.g., newsletter mentions, social posts)

Why brands prefer it:

Many brands like direct buys because they get maximum control and context. You decide exactly which shows you appear on, so it’s easier to align with the right audience, tone, and host credibility.

It’s also popular for building relationships with podcast hosts, podcast creators, and networks over time, which can lead to better placements, smoother renewals, and more integrated opportunities (like giveaways, guest spots, or longer-term sponsorships). Podcast hosts and creators are often open to collaborations, and working with podcast networks can simplify the process of finding and buying ad space.

Direct buys can feel more “native” to listeners too, especially on niche podcasts or with host-read ads where the podcast host can introduce your brand in their own voice.

Host-read sponsorships typically cost between $25 to $40 CPM, and podcast advertising is often sold on a CPM (cost per mille) basis, meaning you pay per thousand impressions. Alternatively, some shows work with a flat rate to keep things simple.

2. Self-serve platforms

What it means:

A self-serve platform is the DIY way to run podcast and audio ads without negotiating show-by-show. You set everything up in a dashboard: choose your targeting, set a budget, upload your creative, and the platform takes care of delivering your ads to the right listeners.

The biggest example is Spotify Ads Manager, which lets you run ads across Spotify placements (including podcast inventory depending on your market and campaign settings), with targeting options like location, demographics, and interests, plus campaign reporting.

Costs vary widely, but they typically depend on the type of ad you run, the size of the audience you’re trying to reach, how specific your targeting is, and how long you want the campaign to run.

Why brands prefer it:

Brands use self-serve platforms because they’re fast to launch and easier to manage than buying show-by-show. Everything runs through one dashboard, with standardized setup and built-in reporting.

Instead of pitching individual shows, you define the audience you want and the platform places ads across available inventory that matches your settings.

There are two common types:

• Marketplace-style (e.g., Gumball): you browse and choose specific creators/shows.
• Network-style (e.g., Spotify Ads Manager, AudioGO): you choose audiences/categories and the platform distributes ads across its network inventory.

Baked-in vs dynamically inserted ads

Baked-in ads

What it means:

Baked-in ads are recorded within the podcast episode and stay there forever. The only way to change them is to re-record that part of the episode.

Why brands prefer it:

Baked-in ads are often host-read, meaning the message is delivered in the host’s voice, sometimes with personal context or a natural recommendation. Brands like this because podcast listeners tend to trust the hosts they tune into regularly, and that trust can carry into the ad.

Another big reason brands choose baked-in ads is longevity. When new listeners discover an established show, they often binge the back catalogue. Hosts also regularly point listeners to older episodes (especially in educational or evergreen shows), sending fresh traffic to past content.

That means a baked-in ad can keep getting heard long after the original campaign, whenever and wherever someone plays that episode.

Dynamically inserted ads

What it means:

Dynamically-inserted ads (DAI) are separate audio files inserted into ad slots within a podcast. They usually run for a preset number of impressions or a set time period.

Why brands prefer it:

Brands use DAI because it’s flexible and easy to control. You can run ads in specific episodes, during specific dates, and then swap them out when the campaign ends, keeping ad slots in the back catalogue fresh and up to date.

DAI ads can be host-read or pre-recorded. They’re especially useful for brands running time-sensitive promotions (launches, seasonal campaigns, events), because you can start and stop quickly, update creative without touching the original episode, and avoid outdated offers lingering in old content.

Example:

The Viall Files ran a host-read, dynamically-inserted ad for Ollie in the lead-up to Valentine's Day.

It is officially the month of love, Nick. Reminder, reminder. And we know you want to celebrate with the one you love most, your dog. Celebrate with the one you love most by giving them the best, highest quality ingredients with Ollie...Celebrate your number one Valentine, your greatest love, your dog. Head to ollie.com/viall.

However, once Valentine's Day was over the show replaced the dynamically-inserted ad in the audio version.

Pre-roll vs mid-roll vs post-roll

Most podcasts offer several types of podcast ads and ad placements for advertisers, including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads, each offering different levels of ad exposure. Podcast ads come in a variety of formats and placements, which contributes to their appeal among a broad cross-section of brands with different marketing objectives and core demographics. Let’s look at these in more detail.

Pre-roll

An introductory ad before the show kicks in. Typically 15-30 seconds long, pre-roll ads often have a format like “Today’s show is brought to you by …” followed by a scripted ad copy.

Example:

DoorDash's host-read ad on Office Ladies, where both hosts chip in to make it feel like a conversation before the episode begins.

Angela: Life with kids is wildly unpredictable. I mean, the only thing that's certain is that something is going to go not according to your plan. It doesn't matter how much you try to plan. You can't leave the house to go get medicine or supplies or maybe a working thermometer because, oh my gosh, I can't believe the battery died in this one.

Jenna: And we don't have any batteries and I can't leave my kid who's running fever.

Angela: I mean there's all kinds of things.

Jenna: Real life needs real relief. That's why DoorDash is there for whatever you need whenever you need it. We all know life gets crazy. DoorDash just helps bring a little order to it...

Mid-roll

These segments are usually longer and run in the middle of the podcast content. Depending on the length of the podcast, there may be one or two mid-roll segments. Mid-roll ads tend to be the most effective because:

a) They occur when listeners are already engaged with the content and

b)Podcast listeners are often multitasking and are less likely to stop what they're doing to skip the ad.

Example:

Here's the text from a mid roll ad on the Tim Ferriss Show.

I first learned about Humann's endurance formula, SuperBeets Sport, a decade ago from a friend who is a multiple-time world champion. And she's not alone.

More than 160 professional sports teams and college sports programs use SuperBeets Sport by Humann. Humann's own clinical studies demonstrate up to an 18% increase in workout endurance.

To get 15% off of your first order of SuperBeets Sport. First time subscribers also receive a free month supply of sugar-free human tart cherry gummies to support recovery and healthy inflammatory response.

Post-roll

These ads are also around 15-30 seconds long, and, as the name suggests, they run at the end of the show. Post-roll ads are often the cheapest spot because listeners may tune out before or during the ad since the actual show has finished.

Example:

The Self-Publishing Show is regularly sponsored by Pro Writing Aid, whose host read ads featured as pre roll and post roll ads on each episode. Like this:

The Self-Publishing Show is sponsored by ProWritingAid. Built by writers for writers. ProWritingAid doesn't just check spelling and grammar.

It helps you enhance your story's pacing, plot, characters, settings and more. Now it can provide even on-demand developmental feedback for your entire manuscript with its manuscript analysis and virtual beta reader tools.

Give your writing a competitive advantage by heading to prowritingaid.com. Sign up for free and use the code IWC15 for a 15% discount of annual subscriptions.

How to run ad campaigns directly with podcasts

1. Find podcasts that align with your brand

Many podcasts target niche audiences; others appeal to a wide group of podcast listeners. Your ad campaign needs podcasts where audiences respond to your brand and the problems it solves. Podcasts attract engaged audiences, making them ideal for building brand awareness among relevant groups due to their niche focus.

• First, use the search engine in Rephonic to find podcasts in your industry or niche.
• Next, select podcasts that match your target audience and add them to a list in Rephonic.
• Then discover even more podcasts by using Rephonic’s 3D graph tool, which surfaces other podcasts that the audience also listens to.
• Finally narrow down the options to find the most receptive podcast audiences for your brand by checking the podcast stats, audience engagement and demographics. Analyzing listener demographics is crucial to ensure the podcasts you choose align with your target audience and optimize your ad placement.

Here’s how to assess podcast-audience fit using Rephonic.

2. Check the podcast's stats

Rephonic amasses data from around the web and sorts the information into six convenient buckets: Overview, Audience, People, Sponsors, Ratings & Reviews, and Charts.

Some essential stats to look for when choosing shows to approach for podcast advertising include:

Listener numbers: If you have a small budget and are just testing the waters, you might want to target smaller podcasts; however, if you have more cash to invest, you might look for large shows that reach a bigger target audience. Rephonic displays its best estimate for listeners per episode and monthly listens.

Audience demographics: Rephonic analyses the data to describe typical podcast listeners and their likely location (country), age range, education level, profession, interests and more. Use the information to help choose podcasts with listeners that match your target audience.

Other sponsors: You might find it helpful to see who else has run podcast ads on the show. Rephonic lists the names of all recent sponsors and notes the ad format (e.g., host-read) together with a snippet of the ad content and a link to the episode.

Social reach: Podcasts repurpose episodes for social media and often publish on YouTube too. Many podcasts are also available on Apple Podcasts and other digital platforms, including video podcasting on YouTube and connected TVs. This shift to digital venues expands audience engagement and reach, especially as more listeners consume long-form content outside of traditional TV. That can be an excellent way to boost your exposure. Knowing whether the podcast audience hangs out in the same social media space as your brand is also helpful. That’s another way to reach them after your podcast ads go live.

In 2024, the average time spent listening to digital audio in the U.S. increased by 26.4%, highlighting the growing opportunity for advertisers.

When researching a podcast, see if they have their social media accounts listed on their website. Or access them directly on Rephonic. You’ll find follower numbers and links to all the podcast’s social media channels.

3. Check for clues on ad costs

Many podcasts have an advertisers’ section on their website. You can often find a ‘Sponsors’ or ‘Advertisers’ tab on the top navigation bar, or scroll down to see if there’s a link in the footer menu.

When planning how to advertise on podcasts, it's important to consider podcast advertising cost, as rates can vary widely depending on audience size and ad format. Additionally, podcast ad revenue is projected to exceed $3 billion by 2027, according to eMarketer, reflecting the rapid growth and effectiveness of this advertising channel.

Some shows—e.g., Young and Profiting with Hala Tala—have a full-on media information page with information on audience engagement, past sponsors and ad formats, together with a contact form.

They may include advertising rates, or ask marketers to contact them for up-to-date rates, like this CTA from Social Media Examiner.

You may see podcasts asking potential advertisers to email them or fill out a contact form. Again, check the navigation menus for links.

Others give no clues on their websites as to whether they accept sponsors or not. However, you can often find out by checking their podcast page in Rephonic.

5. Pitch the host

Many podcasters won’t just accept any advertiser. Even if they need the money, they’ll want products relevant to their audience’s needs.

When you approach a podcast, keep these points in mind:

• Discuss the audience’s likes and dislikes with the hosts and listen to their ideas and insights.
• Let the host experience the product, especially if you choose host-read ads. Host-read ads are paid commercial messages delivered directly by a podcast host, often about their personal experiences with the brand. This allows your brand's message to be delivered authentically, leveraging the listeners trust in the host.
• Be respectful and willing to work together in your approach. View the whole process as a relationship and collaboration that benefits you both.
• Know your budget — and their charges.
• Be podcast and audience-focused: what’s the benefit for the podcast and its listeners? Equally, get clear on your expectations too. Are you expecting to sell products or gain brand awareness from these ads?

6. Choose your ad type and delivery method

Next, decide on ad formats.

Liaise with the host or podcast team to determine whether you’ll use host-read ads or pre-produced (i.e., you supply the ad pre-recorded) and if they’ll be baked in or DAI. Host-read ads feel more organic and authentic, which can enhance brand equity by building listener trust and driving conversions.

Branded content is another effective format, seamlessly integrating your brand into the podcast through branded episodes or series. This approach can boost audience engagement and deliver authentic brand messaging.

You could choose from one of four combinations, or the podcast advertising team may offer a set format:

• Baked in, host-read ads
• Dynamic ad insertion and host-read
• Advertiser-supplied with dynamic ad insertion
• Advertiser-supplied and baked in

7. Write your ad

Effective podcast advertising starts by understanding what you want people to do after they've heard your ad. Once you know that, you can start writing.

There are many ways to structure podcast advertising, but here's a guide to one of the most popular, as modelled by BetterHelp.

Hook

First grab the listener's attention so they'll be receptive to the ad's message.

E.g. "There are things to be gazelle-intense about. Making healthier choices, getting out of debt for sure. But when it comes to giving people what they need from you, it's better to be intentional, not intense."

Pain point

Mention the specific problem they're facing that your product or service can solve.

E.g. It's easy to get caught up in what people need from you and never give a thought to what you need. So how do you balance the two?"

Benefits

List the benefits they'll get when they try your product.

E.g. "It takes practice and therapy is a great way to learn new skills like balance and setting boundaries that allow you to have enough energy left for others without leaving yourself behind."

Call-to-action

Finally, spell out the action you want them to take, whether that’s visiting your website and making a purchase, downloading a freebie etc. Promo codes can encourage podcast listeners to take action and make it easier to track people arriving because of that ad.

E.g. "Find more balance with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/deloney today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp h-e-l-p .com/deloney."

Then, when your podcast ad is ready, send it to the host and monitor the results once it’s live!

Measuring podcast advertising effectiveness

Brands want 'bang for their buck' when it comes to podcast advertising. That means spending money wisely and understanding the true impact of your brand's podcast advertising campaign.

As podcast advertising continues to grow brands need to track the right metrics to:

1. Know how well their podcast ads are performing, and
2. Get the most out of their future campaigns.

You can assess podcast advertising effectiveness by using a combination of quantitative data (i.e., information you can measure and express as numbers) and qualitative data (info describing qualities, opinions, or experiences).

Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) to gain valuable insights as to how your podcast ads resonate with podcast listeners and how they contribute to the overall campaign performance and increase brand awareness.

Ad recall

How well do your listeners remember the commercial messages they heard during your podcast episode? We call that measurement ad recall and it's one of the most important metrics for evaluating podcast advertising effectiveness. According to Acast, research consistently shows that podcast ads outperform traditional digital ads in terms of ad recall.

This high ad recall rate is largely due to the unique way people consume podcast episodes.

Podcast audiences are usually highly engaged and attentive, and they frequently listen to their favorite hosts while multitasking. Having such a receptive audience makes it more likely that listeners will remember your brand’s message long after the episode ends.

Things to consider when planning your podcast advertising campaign

How can your podcast ad formats maximize podcast listeners ad recall? Think about:

• Pre roll ads vs mid roll ads
• Host read ads vs recorded ads
• Baked-in vs dynamic ad insertion
• Whether you're focusing on brand awareness podcast advertising, or brand sales
• How can your ad content speak to that podcast's audience?

Host-read ads, in particular, tend to be more memorable. That's because they blend seamlessly with the show’s tone and are delivered by trusted podcast hosts.

Campaign performance

Beyond ad recall, measure the overall campaign performance to understand your podcast advertising ROI (return on investments).  You'll need to track some key metrics including website traffic, conversions, and sales that can be directly attributed to your podcast ads.

Quantitative measurements

Brands can accurately measure their campaign's performance by using unique promo codes and vanity URLs (short, easy-to-remember web addresses that redirect to a longer tracking link.) Alternatively, set up a dedicated landing page and only mention it in podcast ads.

Such tools help you track how many podcast listeners take action after hearing your ad, providing clear data on the effectiveness of your ad strategy and ad placements.

Qualitative data

Consider using one question, post-conversion surveys to ask customers how they heard about your brand. Make it super easy and quick for customers to respond. For example, provide a list of possibilities (including podcast advertising) and ask people to check all that apply.

Take note of positive reviews and comments in any DMs or emails from customers. If podcast hosts write their own host-read ads, notice what they say and how genuine they seem.  This data helps you refine your ad content and optimize future podcast ad campaigns for even better results.

Together, qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics help you improve your podcast advertising strategies, so that your marketing campaigns drive real results and contribute to your brand’s growth.

Final thoughts

Now you know what it takes to run a great podcast ad campaign, it's time to get going.

You could go about it the hard way and research everything manually. Or make the most of your time and effort by signing up for a 7-day free trial with Rephonic.

Get started today.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

Podcast Intelligence Engine for Discovery & Insights

If podcasts are part of your PR or sales and marketing strategies this year, you'll want the best insights and information on exactly which podcasts are right for your advertising campaign.

Podcast Guesting Case Study: Ahrefs Vs Semrush

Using Rephonic, we discovered that Ahrefs has made 99 podcast guest appearances, compared to 117 for Semrush. We compare their approaches in this article.

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Podchaser Pro is a premium subscription service within Podchaser, aimed at industry professionals, marketers and PR teams.

It offers ways to find podcasts, view audience and performance stats, and get contact details. It also provides campaign management and team collaboration tools. However, if you're interested in a subscription, chances are you're struggling to find pricing information on their website.

Podchaser Pro pricing

If you've tried digging around online, these four dollar signs on their G2 profile are probably as much information as you've found.

Instead of providing a pricing page on their website, Podchaser will prompt you to request a demo and discuss prices based on your needs and goals. However, we consulted a reliable source and here are the ballpark figures we discovered.

• Access to the Podchaser Pro database would be around $5000 per year for up to three users.
• Solo users can access the database at a slightly cheaper yearly rate—either $3K (including a dedicated Client Success Manager) or $2.5K ($500 less) if you don't want a CSM.

Of course, pricing escalates if you have a big team, so in that case you'd be looking at good deal more than $5K a year.

Rephonic is a Podchaser Pro alternative

Rephonic is the most complete podcast database for PR teams, marketers, and founders looking to book high-impact guest appearances and ad spots.

Rephonic’s biggest advantage over Podchaser Pro is its built-in pitching tool, which lets users send pitches from their own email address (and manage replies) without leaving the platform.

You'll also get access to industry-leading podcast data including podcast listener numbers, audience demographics, guest and sponsor insights, and lots more.

Rephonic is ideal for:

• Agencies who need to research and pitch podcast guesting or sponsorship opportunities for clients.
• Marketing and PR teams looking to book guest or ad spots on shows that align with their brand..
• Podcast producers researching the competitive landscape and looking for cross-promotion opportunities.

Comparing Podchaser Pro pricing to Rephonic

Podchaser Pro seems to start at $2500/year, rising to $5K for three users and more for larger teams.

Rephonic plans start at $99/month (Light) with a maximum monthly cost of $299/month for teams of up to 10 users. Better still, if you opt for the yearly plan you get two months free!

Final thoughts

Podchaser Pro and Rephonic both offer PR teams, marketers, founders and podcast professionals valuable insights into podcasts.

Rephonic offers every tier access to all its data and insights at every level, but even at its maximum $2990/year for teams, Rephonic's pricing plans seem considerably more affordable than those at Podchaser Pro. Plus, you get the added bonus of being able to send pitches straight from Rephonic.

Need to make smarter podcasting decisions? Explore Rephonic today.

How to Get Booked on Podcasts: Full Podcast Guesting Guide

This in-depth guide explains what you can expect to gain from podcast interviews, how to find the right shows, pitch effectively, prep for the interview, and follow up afterward.

Monthly Podcast Appearances or Intense Bursts: Which Is Better?

Podcast sprints or a spaced approach—which guesting strategy works best? Or should you try a hybrid? We break down the pros and cons of all three.

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Not long ago, traditional media were the kings of public relations and marketing. If your clients weren't being quoted in newspapers, smiling into the TV camera or talking to the breakfast host on morning radio, you were in trouble.

How the media landscape has changed; traditional gatekeepers have all but disappeared as creators flood the world with content channels.

Let's check the stats

Blogs have turned print media on its head — today, you can read about anything or everything on more than 600 million blogs.

Viewers are flooding to YouTube, Vimeo, Tiktok and more, with over 113 million channels on YouTube alone.

In contrast, podcasts are the (comparatively) new kid on the block. They're growing fast, and savvy marketers have already spotted the golden opportunities that podcasts bring for PR.

115 million Americans now listen to podcasts every week — and you'll find similar stats in countries like Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

We could go on and on, but why bore you with endless statistics? You get the picture!

Podcasting is mushrooming. And your clients have ever-increasing opportunities to reach their audience through this unique channel.

Why podcasts?

You've listened to podcasts — you know the drill. Guest and host chat, and when the episode's published, the listeners feel right there too.

Podcasts are long-form content. A good interview provides insights and entertainment; often, there's laughter, occasionally tears. Where else will your client get to tell their story and woo their ideal customers for up to an hour at a time?

Podcast listeners tend to stick around to the end of each episode because they're fascinated and because it's so easy to multitask. You can listen in the car, on the train, in the gym, kitchen and even in the bath. Over time, people come to trust their favorite podcast hosts and (by extension) their guests.

How can any other media compete with that?

How your clients benefit from being podcast guests

There are two popular ways to get featured on podcasts, either as a guest or sponsor. However, if PR is the purpose, then guest interviews win hands down.

Why? Because of the timeframe. Your client has 30 to 90 minutes to build rapport with an influential podcast host and their audience. Not only will more people learn about their brand, but clients can also form invaluable networking connections within the podcasting world and in their own industry or niche.

Interviews don't stop at one podcast, either. Many agencies see the value in sending their clients on podcast tours, especially when a new product or service launch is looming.

Drew Gerber, CEO of Wasabi Publicity, added podcasts to his company's list of services and here's why.

Find your clients' ideal podcasts with Rephonic

Your client's goal is to build brand awareness. But it's your job to ensure they reach the right audience. That's where Rephonic saves you time and money. Don't believe us? Here's what Jessica Olivier, Lead Strategist at FRQNCY Media has to say:

Rephonic has helped many PR agencies find, qualify and pitch podcasts on behalf of clients. Get started for free and access listener numbers, audience demographics, contact info and lots more for over three million shows.

How to Get Podcast Transcripts & Search for Keywords

Learn how to get podcast transcripts with Rephonic and get a competitive advantage. Search transcripts for keywords and make better, more accurate decisions.

How to Spy on a Competitor’s Podcast Guesting Strategy

In this article, we break down why piecing together their competitor’s podcast guesting strategy matters and how to use Rephonic to get a clear view of what’s happening behind the scenes.

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With 2700 episodes in the bank, and a vast audience tuning into every episode, the Joe Rogan Experience is possibly the biggest podcast on the planet.

Unsurprisingly, there are many people angling to be guests on the podcast, so what does it take to win a coveted spot?

We examined 50 Joe Rogan Experience episodes and found some fascinating insights into the kinds of guests welcomed onto the popular podcast.

What type of guests does Joe Rogan accept?

Checking the show notes, we found guests are most often described as podcast hosts or co-hosts, comics or comedians or authors (sometimes, all three.) To put some numbers on that, we found that 62% of Joe Rogan’s guests are podcast hosts with over 93k listeners on average, 46% are comics and 46% are authors.

They also have diverse specialties. At the time of writing, the most recent episodes include scientists, intelligence (CIA, UAPs, counter terrorism), philosophy, entrepreneurs, music and investigative journalism and the occasional megastar actor (Adam Sandler and Russell Crowe.)

You’ll probably have more luck becoming a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience if you can claim similar titles, or you’re a podcast host, and your show draws in a lot of listeners.

How to become a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast

Qualify yourself - are you a good fit?

What's your claim to fame?

Do you have a fascinating view point or an interesting career? Are you a standup comedian? Do you host a podcast with a massive audience? Do you have a large following on Twitter, (sorry, X?)

Can you have a conversation lasting several hours? Not everyone can talk for hours at a time. The Joe Rogan Experience is a long form podcast and episodes are rarely under 2 hours. Many go past the three-hour mark. In fact, episode #2171’s discussion with Eric Weinstein and Terrence Howard lasted 4 hours, 3 minutes and 25 seconds.

Joe Rogan has a diverse range of interests, reflected in his choice of podcast guests. For example:

• Martial Arts is a recurring theme. Joe Rogan is a former taekwondo champion and holds black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In fact, there’s a whole subset of 160+ MMA episodes slotted in between the show’s regular episodes.
• Space exploration and science are well-represented, with in-depth conversations on a variety of these subjects in many episodes.
• Hunting - many guests over the years have been hunters, guides and hunting show hosts.
• Politics and political commentary. For example, recent guests include Tulsi Gabbard (former United States Representative), Tucker Carlson (described as “the leading voice in American Politics) and Konstantin Kisin (political commentator and author of “An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West.)

Be relevant

Contribute to conversations about trending topics.

Be prepared for everything from thought-provoking discussions to lighthearted banter. Provide unique insights into your specialty but be ready to argue your case if your opinions differ from Rogan’s firm beliefs.

Have a unique perspective

Joe Rogan chooses guests with controversial opinions and unconventional perspectives.

The podcast encourages candid, thought-provoking conversations and Rogan’s willingness to air different perspectives has sparked both praise and criticism.

So, consider how your ideas and personal anecdotes can enhance (and maybe provoke) the discussion.

Pitch the show? Probably not!

Joe Rogan has been one of the biggest podcasters in the world for a long time.

His email address is not freely available on the internet and his social media accounts are likely managed by a team, not by Rogan himself. That’s why it’s necessary to get yourself noticed. You might think about sending a message on social media, but unless you’re someone like Elon Musk, it probably won’t even get opened.

You need to look for alternative routes.

Consider alternative options

If you want to expand your reach, there are so many other podcasts you could reach out to. Not only do podcast guest appearances boost your profile, they're great examples of your style and the value you bring to a show.

Here's how you do it:

Find suitable podcasts with Rephonic

Rephonic offers several routes towards finding suitable podcasts.

Search for podcasts on the Topic search bar and filter by audience demographics, audience size and active status.

Perhaps you already know the podcasts you want to target? In that case, use the Title search bar option to bring up all Rephonic's information about each show.

Another option is to search for podcasts that are somehow related to the Joe Rogan Experience. Use Rephonic's 3D graph tool or Related section to find podcasts with connections and listeners in common with Rogan's podcast.

Check their stats

Rephonic brings all a podcast's info and stats onto one page to help you qualify whether an interview on that podcast would suit your needs.

That information includes audience numbers, demographics, engagement, links to episodes, social media, ratings and reviews, and lots more.

Contact target shows

Pitch podcasts directly within Rephonic. First, connect your inbox so you can send emails from your own address. Then select the recipient, choose and edit a sequence with your pitch and automated follow-up, review everything, and send.

The best part is that replies come straight into Rephonic, so it is easy to keep track of every conversation.

Final thoughts

It’s difficult to become a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience.

Build up your guesting experience and follow our tips above and you’ll have a better shot at the big shows. A spot with Joe Rogan might be out of reach for now, but keep working on it and you never know your luck.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to Use Podcasts for Link Building [Full Guide]

Quality backlinks should be a vital part of your SEO strategy, and in our opinion, building links via podcast guesting is a highly underrated tactic.

How to Spy on a Competitor’s Podcast Guesting Strategy

In this article, we break down why piecing together their competitor’s podcast guesting strategy matters and how to use Rephonic to get a clear view of what’s happening behind the scenes.

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If you want the fastest route to the right podcast episode, use Rephonic. We have designed our episode search engine to help you:

• Find the right podcasts for a guesting campaign
• Discover the best podcasts for an advertising campaign
• Research existing content to help you produce better podcasts.

You can also use it to get alerts on topics, people or keywords and check on your competitors. Knowing when they're mentioned lets you work out their podcast guesting strategies, see where they advertise or which of their content is mentioned on podcasts.

This article shows how you can search podcast episodes with Rephonic.

How Rephonic's podcast episode search works

When you enter a keyword or phrase into Episodes, our search engine looks for that keyword in:

• Podcast titles
• Show notes
• Transcripts

The results display all the relevant episodes, so you won't miss any conversations that mention your keyword.

How to search podcast episodes

Use Rephonic's search tool and filters

Let’s say we want to see the most recent episodes about “FinTech” and we only want to see episodes with over 5000 listeners and with an audience primarily in the UK.

1. Tap the Episodes button and enter the search term “FinTech”.
2. Add filters. In this case, we’d filter listener numbers and location.
3. Scroll through the episodes and open the ones that interest you most by clicking their titles.

Rephonic's search filters include audience demographics.

An audience search is important if you’re searching for relevant podcasts to pitch as a guest or advertiser because podcast PR works best when you’re speaking to listeners in your target audience.

Let’s change our FinTech search parameters to focus on the episodes’ audiences, rather than their numbers or location.

For example, we’ll look for FinTech episodes that focus on a young, professional audience in the tech industry. This search shows a very different set of results from the one that focused on Listener numbers and location.

Use search operators to optimize your searches

You may be familiar with the advanced search operators available in Google and other search engines. Now you can apply them to podcast episodes during your Rephonic search.

Either term can match: e.g., FinTech OR “financial technology.

Use OR when podcasts might use different labels for the same idea.

Both terms must match: e.g., FinTech AND “small business”.

Use AND when each term narrows the idea and you only want episodes with that intersection.

Exact phrase: “small business” .

Use quotes when the exact wording matters, especially for common phrases and buzzwords that get paraphrased.

Don’t match: FinTech -crypto.

Use a minus term when a keyword attracts a ton of adjacent-but-not-your-topic results.

Create keyword alerts for podcast episodes

Want to know when your product or brand is mentioned on a podcast episode? Or when particular topics or keywords come up? How about when a competitor's episode drops? Or when your own guest interview goes live?

You can set Rephonic to monitor all new podcast episodes for specific names or keywords by setting up an alert.

Here's how you do it.

1. Go to My Account on your home page (top right) check the drop-down menu and select Alerts.
2. Click the blue Create an Alert button.
3. Type the name, topic or keyword in the search bar. (Remember to use quotation marks for a name or phrase.)
4. Select Email daily or weekly. Select daily to get an email within 24 hours of a relevant email's release or weekly to hear within 7 days.
5. Click Create Alert.

How to search for a specific podcast episode

When searching for a specific podcast episode rather than episodes that cover a specific topic, you can enter the name of the episode in the search bar and it will pop up with a link to the episode page on Rephonic.

The episode page includes:

• A Listen button
• A Transcript button
• A link to the podcast page
• Show notes
• Topics covered during the interview
• A summary of the conversation
• Names, including the podcast host and guests
• Sponsors (if appropriate)
• Key Moments - time stamps to memorable or impactful moments from the episode
• Analysis of the episode's overall format and tone

How to search within podcast episodes

Maybe you want to search a specific podcast episode in more detail, or see exactly where they mentioned your keyword or name and what they said.

Here's where Rephonic's episode transcripts come into their own.

You can search for names, topics and keywords within any podcast episode by searching it's transcript on Rephonic.

Learn more about Rephonic's podcast transcript search here, including the top four ways to use them.

Final thoughts

Use Rephonic's podcast episode search engine to find:

• Information for specific episode titles
• Episodes related to a particular keyword or phrase
• Podcasts that feature or mention a specific person

Get more relevant results by adding search filters like Active, Guests or Sponsors and narrow down the options by including audience demographic filters or podcast filters (e.g., listener or episode numbers, social follower numbers).

Try Rephonic free for the first seven days to skip the guesswork and find the right podcast episodes for your guesting, advertising or research needs.

Start your free trial.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to Get Podcast Transcripts & Search for Keywords

With podcast transcriptions at your fingertips, you can research faster and make better, more accurate decisions than anyone working with audio files only.

What is Rephonic? Everything You Need to Know

Rephonic was created to help its users get featured on the right podcasts. So what is Rephonic, how does it work, and how accurate is its data?

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This article explains the five steps you should follow to get your written content discussed and cited on podcasts. A simple way to remember them is: who, what, where, when, and why.

If you want your written content to reach a wider audience, podcasts can be a powerful megaphone.

Podcasts are a high-growth PR channel, with podcast listener numbers expected to swell to 619 million in 2026. So it makes sense to include them in your PR and thought leadership strategies.

Here's everything you need to know about getting your written content mentioned on podcasts.

Key Takeaways

1. Podcast mentions build brand awareness, SEO, and authority when audience fit is strong.
2. Podcast-friendly content includes data, bold ideas, tools, concepts, and frameworks.
3. You can get featured by appearing as a guest or pitching content for episode mentions.
4. Results improve when you target the right shows and send concise follow-ups.

Step 1: Identify your goal

This is the "why."

Each podcast episode spawns lots of written content, including show notes, social media, blog posts and articles. Being featured in front of the right listeners is great for:

Brand exposure

Podcasts often attract a loyal, niche community who trust and respect the podcast host. When they mention you or feature your ideas in their episodes and show notes, listeners see it as a mini endorsement of your work and brand.

When you're featured in podcast episodes, it puts you in front of podcast listeners who are primed to care about the topic but may not follow you on other platforms. And even if listeners don't hear the full episode, they may see your name, brand and link in episode descriptions or on the podcast website.

As James Potter says in this LinkedIn post brands can benefit from real long-term exposure from podcast guesting and having their content featured on podcast episodes. That's because podcasting is a longevity medium. Once published, episodes stay in the backlist, ready for new listeners to access when they discover the show.

SEO

If the show notes include a link to your article or website, it creates a backlink from a relevant site. That can support your domain authority, which in turn helps your page rank better in search results.

At the same time, podcast show notes and transcripts also create indexable web pages that AI-powered searches like Google's AI Overviews see as relevant. That means they can cite you when asked questions that your name or brand ranks for.

Authority and thought leadership

It takes time to be known as an authority, and you’ve probably noticed that many thought leaders appear on several platforms to reach a wider audience.

When a podcast host references your article or ideas (especially as something they learned from or used in their research) it frames you as a source—someone who's worth citing. That's a subtle but powerful signal that you're a worthwhile authority in your industry or niche.

That authority multiplies if the same core idea, framework or tools from your writing is mentioned by more than one podcast host.

Step 2: Choose the right content asset

This is the "what."

Your content doesn't have to be an article or blog post. Podcasts often feature (or reference) other formats too—like videos and interviews.

The key is making it feature-worthy.

So, what might you contribute?

Research or stats

Publish a quotable insight or data point that’s easy to reference in an episode and share it on the channels where people in your industry or niche can spot it—on LinkedIn, for example, or as an article.

Real-world example:

Social Media Examiner has been producing social media marketing industry reports every year since 2009—long enough to gain considerable authority in that industry. Each report and its stats become resources which others can quote in speeches, blog posts and podcast interviews.

Unique/contrarian take

Give podcasters a fresh angle they can react to or debate on-air. Maybe you've written an article, or maybe it's a video.

Real-world example:

Reid Hoffman discusses Pope Leo XIV's views on AI during this Possible podcast episode and follows up by promoting it on LinkedIn.

Tool

Be the “we use X for this” recommendation in a host or guest’s workflow. This can work as a powerful call to action for listeners who trust the podcast and are already looking for the solution your tool provides.

Real-world examples:

In this Tim Ferriss Show 2021 podcast episode, Sam Corcos, CEO and Co-Founder of Levels talks about using Loom. Sam says:

Loom is probably the most important business enablement tool of the last five years, certainly in my experience.

The interview then discusses what Loom is, and how Sam's business uses it.

When listeners follow a particular podcast host, they're often extremely interested in learning about aspects of that host's business, including the products and services they use.

For instance, in this Online Marketing Made Easy podcast episode, Amy Porterfield explained a particular sales strategy and mentioned Calendly as her scheduling tool of choice, saying:

First of all, you've got to have a scheduling tool. We use Calendly because it allowed us to seamlessly connect my teams’ calendars with our video-conferencing tool. It also provides tons of options for you to integrate it.

Concept

Perhaps you've come up with a concept that works so well for you that other people start associating it with you. Having a shareable concept that works is an excellent way to gain podcast mentions and possible even episode titles.

Real-world example:

Nathan Barry (Founder at Kit) first published his Creator Flywheels essay in 2023. The idea resonated with his audience and Nathan has continued to focus on that concept, mentioning it in interviews and articles, on his own podcast and even creating an online course.

All this has made his name synonymous with the Creator Flywheel concept and now, podcast guests mention the concept as the "Nathan Barry flywheel" in their episodes.

Bonus ideas

Here are a couple of other podcast outreach ideas:

• Free resource: This could be a template, checklist, or short guide that complements an episode topic—or a topic or theme the podcast keeps coming back to—and gives them something valuable to link to in their show notes.
• Practical framework: A simple model (3-step method, checklist, “if/then” decision tree) that’s easy to cite. Give your framework a name: e.g., “I’ve been calling this the ___ framework.”

Step 3: Choose the most effective way to get your content featured

This is the "how."

Podcast interview

Do guest interviews on podcasts and tell stories that naturally incorporate your brand. Here's where you can talk about research, numbers, real-world case studies and examples from your own experience. Podcasters will usually give you a chance to make a call to action, so you can mention your website,  social media accounts or other places that link back to your written work and your products.

Occasionally, podcasters will reach out to guests, but usually you have to pitch shows to land a podcast interview.

Podcast mentions

This is when the host cites your content as part of their conversation or solo episode.

They may hear about your content or insights because you're both active on the same social platforms, through recommendations in your network or because you're a noted authority in that niche.

If none of the above is likely, take the initiative and pitch your content to the show.

Start by very briefly giving them some context on who you are and your experience or authority. Then, refer to a specific episode and offer your content as an add-on. You could say something like, “When you mentioned X, I thought this might be helpful for your audience.”

Step 4: Choose the right podcasts

This is the "where."

You could sit around waiting to see if your brand gets featured on podcasts. But you're more likely to see success by being proactive and contacting podcasts that speak to your target audience or demographic.

To find the right shows, use Rephonic to:

Find podcasts that cover your topic

Rephonic has extensive information and audience data on 3 million+ podcasts. However, not all of them are active, and most won't fit your area of expertise or interest.

Use Rephonic's search tool to find podcasts in your industry or niche, then filter your search to locate podcasts that are currently active.

Confirm audience fit

With a list of potential podcasts in place, whittle it down to the right podcasts by checking their audience data.

Reaching the right listeners is crucial to any campaign's success, so focus on podcasts where your ideal customers already listen. Check that each podcast's listeners match your target audience. Do this by checking the Audience tab on their Rephonic information page.

If the audience size matters to you, check that too (Rephonic shows the numbers for listeners per episode, monthly downloads and social media followers and engagement.)

Step 5: Pitch your content

This is the "who."

Now you know where to go and what content to offer, it's time to connect with the podcast creators.

This is really worth doing. After all, you're saving them time and effort by offering content that's valuable for their listeners with little or no work required on their end.

Get the right contact info

Make sure you use relevant emails to contact the podcast host or producer.

Rephonic lists contact info at the top of every podcast page. Just tap the big blue Contacts button on the right to see the email addresses and social media accounts associated with that podcast.

Draft a pitch and follow-up email

Your podcast outreach email should get to the point quickly. Include:

• Who you are and why you can speak with authority
• The content you're offering and why it matters to them and their listeners
• The easiest possible way for them to get your content. Include it in the email or add a link (do what's easiest and quickest for them.)
• Your thanks and contact info.

Two more essentials:

1. Give your email a relevant subject line/hook that makes the creators want to open it.
2. Follow up in a few days if they don't initially reply. It could be that they're interested but put it aside for later. Send a polite reminder to jog their memory.

You might write your own outreach email or change one of Rephonic's templates to suit.

Final thoughts

When a host features your content in their podcast episode, it opens the door for you, your brand and products.

Podcast mentions offer:

• Brand exposure to listeners who are likely to show interest in your products
• Authority in your niche—when top podcasts mention your work they lend you their credibility and trust
• SEO benefits if you're listed in their show notes and transcripts.

These benefits work best when the podcast shares your target audience.

Rephonic is the go-to platform to help you find and approach new podcasts and established shows that speak to listeners in your niche or industry.

10x your podcast outreach with Rephonic. Start with our free trial.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to Write a Podcast Outreach Email With AI (And What to Avoid)

Can AI help you write an effective podcast outreach email? Yes, but it won't give you a winning email at your first attempt. Be smart and use AI for research first. Here's how you do it.

Podcast Guesting Case Study: Ahrefs Vs Semrush

Using Rephonic, we discovered that Ahrefs has made 99 podcast guest appearances, compared to 117 for Semrush. We compare their approaches in this article.

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Targeting podcasts can be an effective way to earn more AI citations and brand mentions, because episodes create a crawlable text footprint that can surface in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews.

People are increasingly using AI tools to find information. That means marketing teams need to teach AI search engines to recognize their brands.

AI pulls from what it sees most often and trusts most, so brands need to put consistent messages in many reputable places to gain that authority and trust.

This article explains why this is the case and how to get your brand mentioned on podcasts.

Key Takeaways

• Repeated brand mentions in the right context are important for AI visibility.
• Podcast interviews produce written content that may be retrieved by RAG-like systems and crawled for AI model training.
• Data-driven studies and valuable insights are more likely to get featured on podcasts.
• Use a tool like Answer Socrates' LLM brand tracker to monitor AI visibility.

How do AI tools like ChatGPT and AI Overviews work?

ChatGPT is a Large language model (LLM) that is trained on massive sets of written data (including books, articles, transcripts, blog posts, newspapers and more) and designed to answer questions using natural language.

As Rand Fishkin (SEO expert) explains, at their core, LLMs are pattern prediction machines.

In his article, Fishkin quotes Stephen Wolfram's essay which explores how LLMs decide what answer to give by predicting the 'best' or 'most probable' word to follow, given the text so far.

As Wolfram explains, LLM models generate answers by choosing the most probable next word based on billions of examples in their training data. You might have heard this called “spicy autocomplete.”

Fishkin says:

"The currency of Google search was links ... The currency of large language models is not links. The currency of large language models is mentions (specifically, words that appear frequently near other words) across the training data."

One problem with LLMs is that their training data is static so if your brand launched after the training cutoff, you don't exist. To counteract this, many models enhance their answers by pulling fresh content from across the web.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews all combine trained model knowledge with web retrieval to different degrees, so the smartest strategy is to optimise for both.

How podcast content increases the chance of AI citations

According to a study by Ahrefs in December 2025, branded web mentions and YouTube mentions correlate strongly with AI visibility.

Podcasts are a great way to generate crawlable brand mentions that search engines and AI tools can retrieve and cite (and they may also be used for training, depending on permissions), making them a worthwhile tactic for brands looking to increase AI visibility.

Let's dive in a bit deeper here.

When you're interviewed on a podcast episode, you and the host will naturally mention your name and your brand several times during the conversation.

Each podcast episode therefore generates lots of content chock-full of relevant keywords linked to your brand or name, including:

• Episode titles: Many podcasts include their guests' names in the episode titles, and sometimes the brand.
• Episode descriptions: Designed to attract podcast listeners, episode descriptions are the brief summaries that appear on platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and apps like Castbox. They’ll likely include your name and details, the episode’s chief topic or theme and key talking points.
• Show notes: These are usually more detailed write-ups and appear on the podcast's website along with a link to the episode. As well as mentioning your name and brand, show notes often include a guest bio and mention their authority or role (e.g., author, founder, CEO, CFO, researcher etc.). They may also have resources mentioned during the episode and links to your website, products or social media account (depending on what's most appropriate).
• Transcripts: Whether it's verbatim AI-produced or edited, an episode transcript is the text version of your audio file so large language models can read it. That means they'll see every mention of your name and bio, your advice, examples and anecdotes, your products and the people they serve. Podcasts often publish episode transcripts on their websites.
• YouTube: Increasingly, podcasters publish on YouTube where, again, they’ll have the guest bio and brand mentioned in the description and YouTube transcripts.

How to target podcasts with Rephonic

Imagine we’ve founded an up-and-coming email marketing company. It’s got the tools and flair to compete with the established players, but we need to get the word out to attract our ideal audience’s attention. And now, we also want our company’s name to be the word that frequently comes after phrases like “email marketing software."

Rand Fishkin shared some compelling ideas on how founders and brands can appear in answers given by ChatGPT and Gemini when he recorded this 5-Minute Whiteboard video last year.

The thing is, our company’s PR team is focusing on podcasts as the best way to reach its target audience, specifically, getting featured on podcasts.

Could they apply Fishkin’s ideas to podcasts?

They sure could, especially if they use Rephonic!

Let's see how to do it.

1. Search for relevant podcasts

Now, Fishkin says that if he wanted to improve LLM visibility for an upmarket restaurant in Seattle: "I would look for all the places on the web that talk about, fine dining and restaurants and Seattle... And then what we would like to do is make sure that our brand is mentioned [on those sites]."

So, in my example, our email marketing firm wants its name, brand and expertise featured in podcasts covering email marketing. Instead of looking for all places on the web, I can use Rephonic to find podcasts that talk about email marketing.

I started with a topic search using the term "email marketing." (I also branched out to searches using other email marketing terms that our company would also like to be known for like "lead generation")

Topic search results can be too broad, so I applied four filters—Active, Guests, Category and Interests —so the search would be more likely to bring up relevant podcasts.

I'd follow up my search by opening each podcast's Rephonic page and researching their listener profiles, audience data, exploring episode topics and what guests they've already interviewed.

Then, I would create a campaign in Rephonic and add each show I wanted to pitch. When pitching, I would make sure to suggest an angle that directly relates to email marketing.

Finally, check if the podcast is on YouTube. As Ahrefs discovered, YouTube mentions correlate strongly with AI citations. So, that YouTube check may help you prioritize which shows to pitch.

Rephonic includes a YouTube section (right above Social proof) in the podcast Overview tab. You'll see the channel title, subscriber and video numbers and links to the latest videos.

2. Look for podcasts with similar audiences

The next tactic Fishkin recommends to for his "best fine-dining restaurants in Seattle" example is to use SparkToro's marketing research tools to find foodie websites that have an audience overlap. This is because the audiences of these websites would probably be interested in reading an article about the best fine-dining restaurants in Seattle.

For our email marketing example, our company's team could use Rephonic's free graph tool to find podcasts with similar or overlapping audiences. This interactive tool reveals the landscape of related podcasts around a specific show.

Each of these shows could be a good fit for our company's podcast PR strategy—particularly podcast guesting—because the audience likely be interested in a conversation about email marketing if it's tailored accordingly. Also, if the host has already interviewed other experts in the digital marketing industry, it will send credibility signals to LLMs and ensure our brand is part of the wider digital marketing conversation.

3. Create alerts with Rephonic

Fishkin also recommends creating alerts for your keywords to "see where [else] are people on the web publishing content that contain the words "fine dining" and "Seattle." Because—in his example—those are also places to connect with in the quest to make 'his' restaurant synonymous with the phrase fine dining in Seattle.

Setting up alerts is a smart idea because there is so much new content—in our case, new podcast episodes—dropping daily that it's hard to keep on top of it all.

Using Rephonic, you don't have to go off-platform or surf the whole web to monitor keywords in podcasts. Set up an Alert and Rephonic will monitor new episodes across its entire podcast database and scan episode transcripts, titles and show notes to find matches for your keywords.

Top 3 ways to gain podcast mentions and improve AI visibility

Podcast mentions can come in different forms, so understanding them can help you spot or create the best opportunities.

1. Pitch data-driven studies to podcasts

Podcasts that cover your industry will often mention companies, brands, or people when discussing new developments. These mentions can be especially powerful because they frame you as relevant and newsworthy.

Example: A marketing podcast referencing your new consumer study or product launch as part of a larger discussion.

Topics are the new keywords. Google and LLMs want to see that your website is an authority on a topic before they're willing to cite/link/retrieve from you.

Bernard Huang, Founder at Clearscope.

✅ Key takeaway:

Reach out to influential podcasts in your field to alert them to cutting-edge research or valuable insights you’ve shared on your website or in social media posts. The host may subsequently mention your name and key points etc. on the podcast. This contributes to the topic ‘web’ you’re weaving to become more visible to large language models.

2. Be a guest on podcasts

Guest mentions are more than name-drops; they come with an implicit endorsement from the host. When a trusted host introduces you to their listeners, it signals credibility, which could carry more weight with listeners.

If many show notes etc., mention our email marketing company in conversations about email marketing tools or digital marketing, LLMs are more likely to include the company's name when they answer questions that include those phrases.

As we've already explained, guest mentions appear multiple times, which creates a much bigger text footprint for AI visibility.

Also, as a guest, you actively shape the conversation so you can guide the way your brand is associated with specific topics or keywords by telling relevant stories, referring to your website, and offering actionable tips.

✅ Key takeaway:

Get interviewed on podcasts. Many podcasts don't interview guests. So, when you're looking for podcasts that do invite people on, using Rephonic's "Guests" filter is a smart choice.

3. Get your interview insights mentioned on other sites

Podcast interviews don’t just live on podcast directories like Spotify and Apple Podcasts — they often spark a ripple effect across the web.

When a guest shares a fresh or thought-provoking perspective, that quote can easily find its way into articles, newsletters, and blog posts written by journalists, analysts, or creators who cover the same topics. Each time a reputable website quotes your insights, it strengthens the association between your brand and those topic keywords.

✅ Key takeaway:
Look beyond the podcast episode itself. Every guest appearance is a chance to create memorable, quotable moments. Use PR software to find relevant journalists, and tools like Reletter to identify newsletters covering your topic. Then share short summaries, key timestamps, or transcript excerpts featuring your strongest lines, so it is easy for writers to quote you, reference your insights, or link back to the episode.

How to track AI visibility

Podcast appearances are great for awareness, but they’re notoriously hard to measure. So how do we know whether our podcast mentions — and our other web mentions — are positively impacting our AI visibility?

We need an AI visibility tracker.

One of the best tools to monitor AI visibility is Answer Socrates’ LLM Brand Tracker. It’s designed to show whether our brand appears in AI answers, how often it gets recommended, and which sources are helping drive those mentions.

Here’s how it works: we enter up to three keywords that reflect the kinds of queries our audience might ask — for example, best email marketing software — then add our brand variations and choose which AI models to monitor.

The tool then runs those prompts, checks whether and how our brand appears in the answers, and reports on metrics like Visibility Score, Share of Answers, Citation Sources, and sentiment. This makes it a practical way to see whether podcast mentions and other brand mentions across the web are translating into stronger AI visibility.

Final thoughts

The brands that LLMs learn today will be tomorrow’s authorities. Every week you wait, your competitors are getting ahead.

So, the answer to "Should I target podcasts to gain AI citations?" is a resounding YES!

Getting mentioned on podcasts is an effective way to build your authority and generate content that trains AI platforms to mention your name or brand during AI-generated answers. Rephonic makes it possible.

Start your 7-day trial and make sure the next time someone asks ChatGPT about your niche, your brand is the one it names.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with four years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

How to Get Booked on Podcasts as a Guest

You want podcast interviews that actually turn listeners into leads, or simply get your message in front of your target audience. But the trick isn’t blasting out as many pitches as you can...

How to Spend a $500 Podcast Guesting Budget

If you're an entrepreneur wanting to grow your personal brand, or a marketing team looking book your founder or C-suite team on podcasts for brand visibility, a podcast guesting budget of just $500 can set up a high-quality campaign.

Follow us:

If podcasts are part of your PR or sales and marketing strategies this year, you'll want the best insights and information on exactly which podcasts are right for your guest interview or advertising campaigns.

That's where using a podcast intelligence engine like Rephonic can really make a difference. Guests, sponsors and podcast hosts use this podcast database to search, analyze, and pitch podcasts all on one platform.

This article dives into the benefits of using Rephonic to access exactly the right podcasts for your campaigns.

Key Takeaways

• Rephonic provides podcast data for over three million podcasts.
• View data such as listener numbers, demographics, socials, chart rankings, reviews, transcripts, guests, and sponsors.
• Rephonic is primarily used by PR teams, marketers and founders.

What is a podcast intelligence engine?

A podcast intelligence engine is a system that collects podcast data at scale, organizes it into something searchable and comparable, then turns it into decisions you can act on.

You might think of it like a business intelligence platform, but instead of working through sales and finance data you have access to vast amounts of podcast data, including podcast transcripts, social media metrics, and podcast audience insights.

Using an intelligence platform like Rephonic can help you look wide across the podcast ecosystem around your industry, zoom down into audience demographics or gather talking points from specific podcast episodes.

5 reasons to try Rephonic's podcast intelligence platform

Rephonic is designed to help you make data driven decisions about using podcasts as a guest, sponsor or host. Using Rephonic can help you find insights around:

• The right guesting and PR opportunities
• Advertising opportunities
• Cross-promo partners

And makes it easy for you to research the podcast landscape so that you or your clients can produce podcasts tailored to suit your audience and industry or niche.

So, with that in mind, let's explore five ways that Rephonic might work for you.

1. Find podcasts with ease

The world has millions of podcasts, covering a vast number of topics and audiences across many categories, countries, languages, and niches. You could spend hours trawling through Apple Podcasts or googling topics. Or you could save time and effort and research with Rephonic.

Let's imagine a founder is looking for podcast guest or advertising opportunities to build awareness and generate sales. Here's how they would use Rephonic's search tool and filters.

#1. Open the home page and enter an appropriate topic or keywords in the search bar.

#2. Add filters to whittle down the options from "everybody" to "podcasts most suited to my topic, experience and goals".

#3. Scroll down the list of podcasts and click on one that looks suitable to see the podcast data Rephonic has amassed and organized into six tabs:

• Overview—for analytics
• Audience—audience demographics
• People—previous guests, with episode summaries and links
• Sponsors—Advertising details
• Feedback—links to ratings and reviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify and other tools
• Charts—How the podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

#5. Listen to recent episodes (go straight to an episode, show notes and transcript by tapping the Latest Episodes button.

#6. Check the Related Podcasts section and the 3D graph to find more podcasts with similar audiences.

2. Get valuable podcast insights

A podcast intelligence platform like Rephonic pulls in information from hundreds of publicly available data points on the web. Then, it adds structure so you can get an overview of the podcast ecosystem and valuable insights into individual podcasts.

All the info is in one place; we've done the searching so you don't have to.

How does it work? First, select the podcast you want to research and open its page on Rephonic to access:

Listener numbers

Found on the podcast's Overview tab. Rephonic shows the number of listeners per episode, monthly listens and Spotify followers. If the podcast has a YouTube channel, you'll also see those subscriber numbers and total video views.

Demographics

Audience demographics can be a key consideration in deciding whether to pitch a podcast (as a guest, advertiser or potential cross-promotion partner), or not.

Under the Audience tab, Rephonic provides a typical listener profile for that podcast’s audience. Then, breaks down the data to show their likely locations, relationship status, gender, age, income, profession, education level, interests and whether or not they’re parents.

Having such a detailed overview helps you compare the podcast's audience with your own target audience to see how well they match.  A good match means these listeners may be more likely to be interested in your interview or ad and go on to buy your product, engage your services, visit your website or listen to your podcast.

Social following

Rephonic shows which channels a podcast uses and how many people follow them there. This information helps you see how engaged their fans are and where. When the podcast or hosts have a firm presence on a platform where you’re also strong, you:

• Each know how to promote there
• Can easily collaborate on posts, tag, share slips and swap audience shoutouts.

That allows you to create episode or ad promotions which are likely to attract more comments and shares than would occur if your social channels were wildly different.

Chart rankings

If chart rankings and audience opinions are part of your criteria, Rephonic's info layout includes Charts and Feedback tabs. Filter your view by country, category and charts to see how each podcast ranks on the relevant Apple, Spotify or YouTube charts.

Then check the ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms or apps. Rephonic shows the overall ratings, an engagement score and an overview of the key themes in listeners' reviews. There's also a link to the actual reviews on each app.

Transcripts

Marketers, podcast guests and hosts usually check podcast transcripts when they need to:

• Research for market intelligence
• Discover their topics and see what's missing from the conversation
• Validate audience fit
• Choose the best podcasts to approach as a guest or sponsor
• Research similar shows when starting a podcast.

Read transcripts of recent episodes by tapping the Transcript button on Rephonic’s episode links.

Previous guests/sponsors

Open Sponsors to see which firms have sponsored the show and listen to or read their ads, and check out the Guest tab to investigate the previous guests on the podcast. Do this to:

• See the topics discussed
• Research specific names (have your competitors on the show?)
• Find information gaps in the playlist
• Discover what you could add to the discussions.
• Learn what other companies and brands have advertised on the podcast
• Listen to previous ads
• See whether ads are usually host-read or recorded

3. Get podcast contact info

When you need to pitch a podcast, you want their contact details fast, so grab them in seconds on Rephonic.

1. Open a podcast page and tap the big blue Contacts button in the top menu.
2. That's it!

You'll find the contact details button in every tab and under the Host info in the People tab as well. You'll see relevant email addresses and links to each of the podcast's social channels.

4. Track keyword mentions on podcasts

Rephonic’s alert tools monitor podcast episodes and notify you whenever your keywords appear in podcast titles, show notes and transcripts.

This is useful to understand when other people mention your name or brand, but it's a sound tactic to employ when you've recorded guest podcast episodes, too. It might be weeks or even months before your episode goes to air and you can't necessarily rely on the podcast host to let you know when it does.

Set up your name as a podcast alert keyword—and ask for daily emails—and Rephonic will notify you within 24 hours of that podcast episode going live. You can then start your promotional program to make the most of the exposure. If you've prepared social media content in advance you can get that going, too.

You'll also get valuable insights into your competitor's podcasting strategies by keeping an eye on their podcast episodes, interviews, advertising or cross-promos too. That's why you can set Rephonic to monitor mentions of brand or company competitors' names and other relevant keywords, too.

These tools are so easy to set up. Here's how you do it:

1. Look for the My Account button in the top right corner of your Rephonic home page.
2. Open the drop down menu and select Alerts.
3. Tap "Create an Alert.
4. Enter the keyword (use quotation marks if it's more than one word).
5. Choose whether to get an email daily or once a week.

That's it! Rephonic will email you whenever your name, company or other keyword is mentioned on a podcast.

5. Build and manage campaigns

Whether you're aiming to be a guest, advertise or cross-promote, keep your podcasting campaigns under control by managing them all on the same platform.

Use the search tool to discover podcasts with listeners who match your own audience and are therefore more likely to understand and act on your message. Then create a campaign in Rephonic and add each podcast that meets your criteria. You can access it via the Campaigns button in the top menu on your Rephonic home page.

You can also save your search term as a Saved Search, then Rephonic will update the list whenever it spots a new podcast that fits.

Your campaign acts as a pipeline manager, helping you to keep track of the podcasts you contact by assigning them a status: Prospect, Pitched, Warm, Followed Up, Booked or Lost.

If you're part of a team, you can share the campaign with them on Rephonic and use the Add a Note feature to keep people in the loop. Everybody on your team will be able to access the note, but you can also use pin to put vital notes about a specific show at the top of that podcast's page.

Final thoughts

When you or your clients are serious about using podcasts as part of a guest, advertising or cross-promotion campaign, get the best chance of success by finding the right shows with Rephonic.

You'll access data and analytics from hundreds of publicly available datapoints on every podcast. That's vital information, but as a podcast intelligence engine, Rephonic lets you go far deeper than seeing the numbers.

With Rephonic you'll:

• Understand podcast themes, topics, guests and listeners
• Spy on your competitors are doing so as to analyze their strategies
• Build podcast lists
• Manage your pitching pipeline
• Set up keyword alerts
• Keep your team in the loop.

Ready for podcast pitching success in 2026?

Use Rephonic to find your ideal podcast partners. Start with a 7-day free trial.

Article credits

Written by Lyn McNamee, podcast-PR writer with years of experience transforming podcast insights into practical, results-focused playbooks.

Edited by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.

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