During my days working in a podcast ad sales organization it seemed that we were always on the lookout to sign specific genres of shows based upon advertiser demand. Business and Health & Fitness are two that particularly come to mind, because there was constantly a limited supply of inventory but a surplus of B2B or wellness brands wanting to advertise.

It’s understandable that if you’re representing a project management platform that you’ll likely reach a receptive audience with a Business podcast. Similarly, the listeners of a wellness show in the Health & Fitness category may well be a little more tuned in to an ad for supplements. But, here’s the thing: people are multi-dimensional. 

Senior business decisions makers don’t only listen to business podcasts. In fact, only a minority of monthly podcast listeners who are senior decision makers at work report that they’ve listened to a business podcast in the last 30 days. That’s according to the Triton Digital / Signal Hill Insights Demos+ survey. 

A similar theme applies to Health & Fitness. While the wellness show audience might be more inclined to think seriously about supplements, Demos+ shows that 68% of monthly podcast consumers have taken them in the last thirty days. At the same time only a fifth of monthly podcast consumers have tuned into a health and fitness podcast in that time, according to The Podcast Landscape 2025 from Sounds Profitable.  

This means advertisers who overfocus on podcast genres that strictly match their product category are missing out on reach for a large proportions of their target consumers, while also hampering frequency with those they do reach. Luckily, we have tools to assist planners in breaking out of the genre box. 

Find the Right Consumers Outside Genre Boundaries

Leveraging Demos+ data, Triton Digital’s US Podcast Ranker lets ad buyers search for podcasts with audiences that are more likely to purchase certain consumer categories compared to the average. Doing a quick scan of the top 50 shows for those who purchase supplements we can see there are only four Health and Fitness genre podcasts. There are just as many Comedy and Sports shows, and five times as many News shows. 

It’s a similar story for Senior Decision Makers, where there are only seven Business podcasts among the top 50 that overindex for this audience. 

None of this argues against an advertiser choosing genres with strong alignment. Rather, it’s advisable to broaden scope. Let’s explore this strategy another way.

Overlaps Between Podcast Genres Drive Reach and Frequency

Business podcast consumers aren’t only interested in, er, business – they like some fun and games, too. 41% tune into Comedy podcasts. The same proportion is also consuming News shows. 

Health & Fitness listeners also enjoy a good laugh, with 45% checking out Comedy shows in the last month. 30% include News in their diet, and 24% like to spice things up with True Crime.

Including other genres in a campaign increases reach, and also enhances frequency. If a listener only has one Business podcast in their weekly queue, and your brand is only targeting this genre, then you’re limiting how well your message gets reinforced with them. Adding in Comedy or News helps you cut through.

Deep podcast audience insights uncover where your target market really is. We’re here to help you find them.

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