If you make a podcast, Pocket Casts offers a few ways to help listeners find your show: you can book a paid ad placement in Discover, suggest your podcast for a featured spot in Discover (free, chosen by our curation team), get a direct link and badges for your show, and subscribe to the Pocket Casts Partner Newsletter. All of these are collected on our Podcast Producers page, and this guide summarizes each one.
Pocket Casts does not host podcasts. To be advertised or featured, your show needs a public RSS feed from a podcast host. See Podcast Hosting if you are just getting started.
Pocket Casts offers paid ad placements in the Discover section. One ad runs on all three platforms: the iOS app, the Android app, and the desktop and web apps. You book a placement yourself by choosing a spot in the booking platform on our Advertise your Podcast page.
- Where it appears: depending on the spot you book, your ad appears in the carousel at the top of Discover alongside featured picks, in the Discover feed, or on a Category page. Paid placements are labeled Sponsored so listeners can tell them apart.
- How long an ad runs: every ad runs for one week, from Monday to Monday.
- What you need to provide: your podcast’s RSS feed, which is used to pull in your show’s title and artwork. Some placements also need a short description or tagline of up to 140 characters; you’ll be asked for it while booking if so.
- Targeting: ads are not targeted by region, demographics, or individual listener data. For Category ads, you choose which Category page your ad appears on.
- Content review: the podcast being advertised is reviewed before the ad goes live. Pocket Casts won’t advertise shows that promote racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or any other form of oppression, discrimination, exclusion, violence, or harassment.
- Results: at the end of the week your ad finishes, you’ll receive an email report with unique impressions, total impressions, taps, plays, and subscribes.
For questions about pricing, bulk discounts, paying without a credit card, or changing an ad after you’ve booked it, email bookings@pocketcasts.com. Pocket Casts also occasionally partners with podcasters on promo swaps (cross-promoting each other to your audiences); these are assessed case by case, and you can express interest using the promo swap form on the Advertise your Podcast page.
The Featured section of Discover is human-curated. To give every podcast an equal opportunity, our curation team chooses featured shows on merit, and a featured pick can’t be paid for. Paid placements are a separate option and are labeled Sponsored in Discover (see Advertising your podcast in Discover above).
To suggest your podcast for a featured spot:
- Make sure your show has a name, a description, artwork, and a well-formed RSS feed.
- Make sure your feed has at least 1–2 episodes, or one episode and a trailer.
- Get a Pocket Casts share link for your show. If your podcast is not in Pocket Casts yet, submit it using the Pocket Casts Submission Form first. See Linking to my show for details.
- Email your share link to curation@pocketcasts.com.
Things to keep in mind:
- The curation team mostly looks to feature new and emerging podcasts, or podcasts beginning a new season, but no podcast is out of the question.
- Advance notice of a new show is ideal, but Pocket Casts does not pre-promote shows. Your show needs episodes in its feed before it can be featured.
Submitting your feed with the Pocket Casts Submission Form gives you a direct link to your show in the format https://pca.st/ followed by a short code. If you’ve forgotten your link, just submit your feed again to get it. See Linking to my show for more.
To add a Pocket Casts badge to your website, download the badges from the Podcast Producers page. They come in large, medium, small, and tiny sizes, in PNG and SVG, each with dark and light versions. You can link to the images directly or copy them to your own web server.
The Pocket Casts Partner Newsletter is a monthly email for podcasters, with news about curation opportunities, how to advertise with Pocket Casts, and insights into Pocket Casts. You can subscribe from the Podcast Producers page and unsubscribe at any time.
No. Featured picks are chosen on merit by our curation team. You can book a paid placement in Discover instead. It may appear in the same area as featured picks, but it’s labeled Sponsored. See Advertising your podcast in Discover above.
No. Submitting your podcast to Pocket Casts and suggesting it for a featured spot are both free. Only ad placements in Discover are paid.
See How To Update a Podcast for Authors for changing your feed URL or artwork. If you still need help, contact our support team and include your full RSS feed URL.
