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When new advertisers launch a campaign on Acast’s ad platform, the most common question we hear is: “How much should I spend?”
The truth is, there’s no magic number—because budget should always follow strategy. The better question is: “What am I trying to achieve?”
Your campaign objective should determine how you allocate spend. Whether you're looking to build awareness, drive conversions, or balance scale and efficiency, here’s our suggested approaches for thinking about budget in a way that makes sense for your goals.
Choosing the right ad format for your objectives
Firstly, let’s take a look at the two main ad types and how they impact your budget:
Pre-recorded ads (announcer-read ads): You provide the creative, and Acast dynamically inserts your ad across podcasts that match your targeting. Pre-recorded ads also provide more granular targeting capabilities including location, age, gender and audience attributes. These ads have a lower CPM starting at $15, making them a cost-effective way to scale reach.
Host-read sponsorships: The podcast host delivers your message in their own words, making the ad feel more organic and trusted. This format comes at a premium CPM starting at $25 but offers higher engagement—great for brands wanting listener engagement.
Awareness campaigns: prioritizing reach and frequency
Before you launch a podcast awareness campaign, you first need to take stock of your current brand awareness. Are you just starting out and needing to spread the word about your business to as many people as possible? Or do you need to deliver repeated touchpoints with your target audience to build brand affinity?
Depending on your requirements for brand awareness, your budget could be optimized for reach (how many unique listeners hear your ad) or frequency (how often they hear it).
Maximizing reach: A broad, untargeted campaign across a wide network of podcasts will deliver the highest possible number of impressions at the lowest CPM (cost per thousand impressions or downloads). Our pricing model is based on CPMs and using additional targeting features will increase your CPM.
Optimizing frequency: Running your ad multiple times ensures brand recall, with a sweet spot typically between three to five impressions per listener.
Budget and ad format strategy
If you have a niche audience: Prioritize precision over scale. For pre-recorded ads, use detailed targeting (categories, locations, audience demographics and attributes) to ensure your message reaches the right people, even if that means a higher CPM. If you don’t have very specific geographic criteria, you can also book host-read sponsorships on podcasts that closely align with your audience’s interests.
If you have a broad audience: Maximize reach by running pre-recorded ads across a wide range of shows with minimal targeting. This keeps CPMs lower and ensures your ad is heard by as many people as possible. Mix in host-read sponsorships on high-reach podcasts to strengthen brand recall.
Performance campaigns: focusing on conversions
For campaigns that aim to drive website traffic, sign-ups, or sales: budgeting decisions should be guided by benchmarked conversion rates.
A great place to start with benchmarks is Podscribe’s Performance Benchmark reports.
What’s a good conversion rate? Industry benchmarks suggest that 5.7% of attributed visitors from podcast ads go on to make a purchase.
Targeting for efficiency: Tighter audience targeting—such as interest-based or geographic targeting—can increase engagement but will raise your CPM.
What Can You Expect from a $10,000 Podcast Ad Campaign?
If you’re wondering what kind of results you can achieve with podcast advertising, let’s break it down using industry benchmark data.
With a $10,000 budget, and looking at CPMs of $15 to $25, which determines how many impressions your ad will receive. Based on Podscribe’s performance benchmarks, here’s what that could mean in terms of site visitors and conversions:
CPM | Total Impressions | Estimated Site Visitors (0.19%) | Est. Purchases from attributed visitors (5.7%) | Cost Per Conversion |
15$ | 666,667 | 1,267 | 72 | $139 |
25$ | 400,000 | 760 | 43 | $233 |
Important note: We’re using broad industry benchmarks that include all types of campaigns, industries, and businesses. Your actual results may vary depending on factors like audience targeting, ad creative, and the type of product or service you’re promoting. Use should use your own landing page conversion rate for more accurate estimates.
Budget and ad format strategy
Start with a test budget: Run an initial campaign and measure conversion rates before scaling. This should be what you typically allocate for other test channels, and refer back to your goals of conversion volume (number of purchases or signups you want to drive) vs efficiency (cost-per-conversion).
Use A/B testing: Experiment with different creatives, call-to-action messaging, and targeting criteria to find the most cost-effective approach.
Combine pre-recorded ads with host-read sponsorships: Studies have shown that combination campaigns deliver a 26% increase in brand favorability and 14% increase in purchase intent. Adding pre-recorded ads to host-read sponsorships are the recommended choice for advertisers looking to maximize overall performance.
Track ROI: Leverage attribution tools (such as Acast’s free pixel tracking with Podscribe), vanity URLs and promo codes to measure impact and refine spending decisions.
Final thoughts: start smart, scale strategically
There’s no one-size-fits-all budget, and that’s the beauty of Acast’s ad platform—you control where and how your money works hardest. Start with a budget that matches your goals, test what works, and refine your approach.