The local business playbook

Route one: geo-targeted programmatic

AudioGo is built for exactly this buy: metro targeting, in-platform creative help, SMB-sized budgets (no current published minimum we could verify). Spotify offers geo targeting with a published 250.00 floor Spotify Ads help center · Jul 2026. Your spot runs in podcast content consumed inside your service area; the shows are national, the ears are local. The head-to-head: AudioGo vs Spotify.

Route two: local shows, priced by handshake

Every metro has podcasts about its sports, food, politics, and business. None of them publish rates, and this page will not pretend otherwise: expect to email the host and negotiate a flat fee. Convert every quote to an implied CPM against honest download numbers (ask for the dashboard screenshot) and sanity-check it against the published host-read band. What a local show sells that programmatic cannot: the host telling your actual neighbors to use you.

The minimum viable local test

About $500-1,000 over four weeks on one programmatic platform, one metro, one offer (the structure of the $500 testapplies). Measurement that fits a local business: a tracked phone number, a “mention this ad” offer, or a landing page you use nowhere else. Against local radio for the same money: radio still publishes rate cards through reps and reaches broader-but-older; podcast programmatic targets tighter and skews younger. Run both if the budget allows; make them share a tracked offer so the comparison is real.