Advertise on the right podcasts. Skip the ad network markup.
CastFox finds the active podcasts whose listeners match your customer profile, gives you audience demographics on every show, and hands you verified host and ad-sales contacts. Built for DTC brands, SaaS marketers, agencies, and growth teams who buy direct instead of paying network fees. Free to try, no credit card.
The fastest way to plan podcast ads in 2026
Podcast advertising works because listeners are loyal, attention is undivided, and host-read endorsements convert at rates that put display ads to shame. But finding the right shows manually is brutal. Most brands end up overpaying ad networks for generic placements, or chasing PodMatch-style marketplaces that only show a tiny slice of the actual podcast universe.
CastFox solves it. We index every podcast on earth (5M+), then surface the ~1M that are still publishing and accepting direct ad inquiries. The AI matches your customer profile to shows whose listener demographics actually overlap, ranks them by reach and topical fit, and hands you verified contacts for hosts, producers, and ad-sales teams. You build your ad plan in minutes, negotiate direct, and skip the 30-50% ad network markup.
No Spotify Ad Network minimums. No Acast vertical restrictions. No PodCorn fee bites. Just every podcast in the world, intelligently ranked, with audience data and contacts ready.
Built for ad buyers. Not a generic podcast directory.
5 million podcasts exist worldwide. Most ad-buying tools either resell network inventory (limiting you to whoever pays a markup) or dump every show on you with no audience data. CastFox surfaces the ~1M active shows that take direct ad inquiries, with demographics, reach estimates, and verified contacts on every single one.
Active shows only
Podcasts dormant for 90 or more days are hidden by default. The 90-day filter is calibrated against millions of feeds: shows that miss this window almost never come back. You stop pitching dead inventory and only pay to reach audiences that exist this month.
Audience demographics on every show
Age, gender, income, education, interests, and geographic distribution. Not self-reported and not blind network averages: real listener-signal data per show. You see exactly who you are reaching before you commit a dollar of budget.
Audience-matched smart search
Describe your customer in plain English: "DTC supplement buyers age 25-44", "early-stage SaaS founders", "new parents in major US metros". The AI returns shows whose listener base actually matches that profile. You buy by audience, not by guesswork.
From customer profile to ad list in 3 steps
Describe your audience. Get a ranked list of shows whose listeners match. Export the contacts and pitch directly. The whole flow takes minutes.
Describe your customer audience
Enter your ICP in plain English: "women 30-50 in major metros buying premium skincare", "SaaS buyers at $10M+ ARR companies", "high-income parents researching private schools". Optionally add product, brand voice, and geography for tighter matching.
AI ranks active shows by audience match
Results sort by audience overlap, reach, and activity, with demographic breakdowns visible on every card. Stack country, language, category, listener size, and activity filters for surgical targeting. Skip dormant shows automatically.
Export contacts and pitch direct
Click any show to see verified host, producer, and ad-sales contacts. Export the full list as CSV with audience data, reach estimates, and contact emails baked in. Pitch direct, negotiate the rate, and skip the network markup entirely.
What to look at before you buy ad space
Reach is not enough. The right podcast is one where the audience matches your customer, the show is active, and the host can deliver a read that does not feel like an ad. The three signals that matter:
Audience match
Demographic overlap with your customer profile. Age, income, geography, interests. A 5K-listener show with perfect overlap beats a 500K-listener show with 5% overlap, every time.
Reach and activity
Estimated monthly listeners plus chart position. Filter to shows still publishing (90-day activity window). Dormant shows do not deliver impressions, no matter what their archive looks like.
Topical fit and brand safety
Does the show actually talk about your category? Is the host’s tone aligned with your brand? CastFox indexes 114M+ episode transcriptions, so you can verify topical fit and check brand safety in seconds.
Why brands switch to CastFox
Lower CPMs, better audience match, more campaigns shipped per quarter. The math is one-way.
Buy by audience, not by category
Ad networks bucket shows into broad verticals (business, health, sports). Useful, but not where the money lives. CastFox lets you describe your actual customer in plain English and returns shows whose listeners match the profile, regardless of which generic category they got slotted into.
Skip the 30 to 50% network markup
Spotify Ad Network, Acast, Megaphone, and other intermediaries take a cut on every placement. CastFox hands you direct host and ad-sales contacts so you negotiate rates yourself. Same inventory, sometimes better, at zero markup.
Audience data on every show
Most ad networks only share demographic data inside their own dashboard for shows in their roster. CastFox provides demographics on every podcast in our index, including independents and shows the networks do not represent.
Find shows the networks miss
Niche shows with 2K to 50K loyal listeners convert better than 500K-listener generalist podcasts, but ad networks rarely carry them. CastFox surfaces these shows and gives you the contacts to reach them directly.
Verify brand safety in seconds
Search 114M+ episode transcriptions to confirm a show talks about (or does not talk about) topics your brand cares about. Catch language, controversy, or off-brand content before you commit budget.
Build campaigns in minutes
What used to take a media-buying agency two weeks (build an audience-matched podcast list, gather contacts, build a media kit) takes you one focused session. Ship more campaigns per quarter with the same headcount.
Why podcast advertising works
Podcast ads outperform display, social, and most paid acquisition channels on a per-impression-converted basis. Here is the structural reason why.
High engagement
Listeners actively choose to tune in, headphones on, full attention. Host-read ads feel like genuine recommendations from someone the listener already trusts. Recall and intent are dramatically higher than scroll-based formats.
Targeted audiences
Every podcast attracts a specific community. Choosing the right shows places your brand directly in front of the people most likely to buy, instead of paying for impressions across an undifferentiated network.
Measurable results
Track campaigns with unique promo codes, vanity URLs, and pixel-based attribution. Podcast advertising is now as measurable as digital, with the trust premium of host-read endorsements built in.
Every way to advertise on podcasts
From DTC launches to enterprise B2B campaigns, every podcast ad strategy starts with the same problem: finding the right shows for your audience.
DTC brand advertising
Direct-to-consumer brands use CastFox to find podcasts whose listeners are their customers. Filter by audience income, gender, geography, and category. Skip the supplement-podcast bidding war and find the niche shows whose audience over-indexes on your buyer profile. Pitch direct with verified contacts. Skip the 30-50% network markup and lock in better CPMs through host-read endorsements.
SaaS and B2B advertising
B2B advertisers know the truth: a 5K-listener show whose audience is exactly your buyer converts better than a 500K-listener generalist business podcast. CastFox surfaces those niche shows. Filter by audience seniority, company size, industry vertical. Pitch the hosts directly. Build pipeline at LinkedIn-ad cost with podcast-ad trust.
Product launch ad campaigns
Product launches need fast list building and concentrated reach. Build a launch-ready podcast ad list in minutes: audience-matched, demographically verified, contacts ready. Concentrate ad spend across 20-50 shows in launch week and stack appearances across host-read formats for compounding awareness.
Niche audience targeting
The most overlooked move in podcast advertising is buying niche. Shows like founder podcasts, parenting podcasts, retirement-planning podcasts, and hobbyist podcasts deliver hyper-engaged listeners at fractions of generalist CPMs. CastFox surfaces them automatically when you describe your audience. Niche is where the LTV is.
International podcast advertising
Run ads on Canadian podcasts, UK podcasts, Australian podcasts, Spanish-language podcasts, French podcasts, German podcasts, or shows in dozens of other markets. Country and language filters ensure you reach the audience you actually care about. Most ad networks only sell US inventory; CastFox indexes 100+ Apple Podcasts country storefronts.
Agency podcast media planning
Agencies use CastFox as a podcast media planning tool: build client-specific lists in seconds, pull demographics into the media plan, hand off CSV exports to the buying team. White-label friendly. Replace expensive podcast ad-network retainers with a tool your media team can drive directly.
Replace Spotify Ad Network, Acast, and PodCorn
CastFox is a comprehensive Spotify Ad Network alternative, Acast alternative, and PodCorn alternative for advertisers who would rather build their own list and negotiate direct. 5M+ shows instead of network rosters. Real audience data instead of category buckets. Verified host contacts instead of network-mediated only. Direct deals instead of 30-50% markup.
CastFox vs the alternatives
What changes when audience matching is AI-driven and host contacts come built in.
| What you need | CastFox | Manual research | Ad networks (Spotify, Acast) | PodCorn / SponsorBuilder |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Podcast coverage | 5M+ shows, every platform | One directory at a time | Network roster only | Marketplace opt-ins only |
| Active-show filter | Auto, 90-day default | Manual | Limited | No |
| Audience demographics | Per-show, every podcast | Hard to find | Network-roster only | Self-reported |
| Verified host contacts | 2M+ verified | Manual scraping | Network-mediated only | Limited |
| AI audience matching | Plain-English ICP | Keyword search | Pre-defined verticals | Pre-defined verticals |
| Country and language scoping | 100+ countries, 7+ languages | Hard | Limited | Limited |
| Direct deals (no markup) | Yes | If you find contacts | No, 30-50% markup | Marketplace fees |
| CSV export for CRM | Yes | Manual copy-paste | Limited | Limited |
| Brand safety check | 114M+ transcribed episodes | Manual sampling | Limited | No |
| Cost | Free core, paid scale | Time only | Network markup | $40+ / month + fees |
How AI audience matching works
Audience matching is the part advertising tools usually get wrong. Most tools either categorize shows into broad verticals (Business, Health, Sports) and let you pick a bucket, or run keyword search across show titles. Both approaches miss the actual signal: the listener composition of each individual show.
CastFox flips it. You describe your customer in plain English: "women 30-50 in major US metros buying premium skincare and beauty" or "SaaS founders at seed-to-series-B companies". The AI builds a multi-signal audience vector (demographic, geographic, behavioral, interest-based), then ranks every show in our index by how closely its listener composition overlaps that vector. The shows you see at the top are not the shows whose title matches, they are the shows whose audience actually matches.
Underneath, the listener-signal data comes from a combination of Apple Podcasts chart position across 100+ country storefronts, host-declared audience data where available, and our independent listener-signal index built from anonymized listening behavior across millions of accounts. The result: a podcast match list that reads like a senior media-buyer\u2019s shortlist, generated in under a minute.
Every podcast advertising feature
The full toolkit for ad buyers, on one screen. Everything below is included in the free tier.
Who uses CastFox for podcast advertising
Whatever you are buying, the right audience-matched podcast moves the number further than a generic placement ever will.
Brand marketers
Find shows that align with your brand values and reach consumers who match your ideal customer profile, not generic verticals.
Media buyers
Compare audience demographics, reach estimates, and CPM benchmarks side by side. Optimize the buy without the network markup.
DTC brands
Discover podcasts whose listeners are your customers. Drive purchases through host-read endorsements at better economics than paid social.
Agencies
Build data-backed podcast ad plans for clients in minutes. Export lists with audience data, contacts, and reach metrics. White-label friendly.
Startups
Stretch ad budget by finding niche shows where your message resonates with early adopters. Better LTV per impression than category-bucket buys.
Enterprise
Scale podcast advertising across multiple brands and verticals with comprehensive data, audience comparison, and list management tools.
114.4M+
Searchable Episodes
5M+
Podcasts Indexed
2M+
Verified Contacts
20
Free Credits on Signup
Podcast advertising questions
How does AI audience matching work?+
How is this different from Spotify Ad Network, Acast, or Megaphone?+
How is this different from PodCorn or SponsorBuilder?+
Can I see audience demographics before buying ad space?+
How accurate is the demographic data?+
How do I contact podcasts about advertising?+
Can I filter by country, category, language, and audience size?+
Does CastFox negotiate ad rates for me?+
Can I use this for product launches, brand campaigns, or DTC?+
Is it free?+
Your next podcast ad campaign starts here
Free. AI-matched. Demographics included. Direct host contacts. Zero ad-network markup. Try it without giving us a credit card.