---
title: 'Podcast guesting for founders: how to get booked on the right shows'
description: Podcast guesting means appearing as a guest on other people's shows to reach their listeners, and for a founder the result depends mostly on choosing shows your buyers already listen to, then pitching each host an episode their audience would want.
slug: /blog/podcast-guesting-for-founders-how-to-get-booked-on-the-right-shows
page_type: explainer
lead_prompt: podcast guesting
entity: Kite
category: AI marketing agent
author: Devon Wells and Kite
date_published: '2026-10-22'
date_modified: '2026-10-22'
---

# Podcast guesting for founders: how to get booked on the right shows

## Key Takeaways

- Podcast guesting means appearing as a guest on someone else's podcast so you can reach the listeners who already trust that host. Hosts need guests: Pew Research Center found that 76% of top-ranked U.S. podcasts brought on at least one guest in 2022.
- The show you pick decides most of the outcome. When Podseeker sorted 416 declines that hosts sent its customers in 2026, 30.3% were for wrong fit and only 1.0% were for a generic pitch or a guest without credibility.
- Most guests reach a show through someone the host already knows. In Buzzsprout's 2026 survey of 271 podcasters, 69.7% said at least one of their last three guests came from their personal network, so ask for introductions before you pitch cold.
- A pitch that gets booked offers the host an episode their listeners would want, shows that you've heard the show, and fits in a short email. Follow up once or twice, because about one booking in five comes after a follow-up.
- Give every appearance its own link, so you can see which shows bring visitors and customers. That's how founders like Chris Burres tied his podcast spending to revenue.

## What podcast guesting is and why founders do it

Podcast guesting is appearing as a guest on another person's podcast to talk about what you know with their audience. For a founder, it's a way to spend an hour with people who might buy from you, introduced by a host they already listen to every week.

The opportunity is large because most shows depend on outside voices. In Pew Research Center's study of the most popular podcasts in the United States, 76% brought on at least one guest in 2022, about one in five featured guests regularly, and 5% had a guest in almost every episode ([Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/02/06/most-top-ranked-podcasts-bring-on-guests/)). Pew looked only at top-ranked shows, and the smaller, focused shows a founder usually lands are a different group. Still, a 2026 count of 490 active shows of all sizes by PodcastPlacer, a booking service, found that 54.5% had a guest in at least one of their last ten episodes, so guests remain a normal part of the medium ([PodcastPlacer](https://podcastplacer.com/research/podcast-guest-statistics)).

Founders guest for several reasons at once. The listeners hear your reasoning at length, which an ad can't do. The episode page usually links to your site. The recording gives you clips and quotes to reuse. And the host's invitation works as an endorsement. Tom Griffin, who ran the podcast program at the health startup Levels, put it this way: your brand "becomes implicitly validated by the host who has invited you on" ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).

It's worth being clear about what guesting costs and what it tends to return. Most shows don't charge, but the time is real. Griffin's founders did more than 100 interviews in six months, and he spent about half his working hours coordinating the program at first. He budgets about three hours of founder time per interview for the first 10 to 20 shows, covering preparation, the recording, and follow-up, then about two hours after that. Levels' website traffic more than doubled over the same stretch, though Griffin notes that other marketing ran at the same time, and he says the goal was "education and awareness, and not revenue" ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).

Expect a slow calendar, too. In Interview Valet's 2026 data on its clients' bookings, a host who says yes usually does so within a week, but the recording is usually one to three months after the invitation, and the episode often goes live two to eight weeks after that. Interview Valet's sample covers the top 20% of shows in five industries, so smaller shows may move faster ([Interview Valet](https://offers.interviewvalet.com/hubfs/2024%20State%20of%20Podcast%20Guesting%20Report.pdf?hsLang=en)).

## What makes a show the right one

The right show is one your buyers already listen to, that books outside guests, that's still publishing, and where you can offer an episode its audience would want. Getting those four things right matters more than anything you do in the pitch.

The clearest evidence comes from why hosts say no. Podseeker, which sells podcast pitching software, read the email threads behind 416 declines its customers received on pitches sent between July and September 2026. Wrong fit for the show was the biggest reason at 30.3%. The next were a show that was fully booked or not taking pitches (27.2%) and a show that required payment or an application form (16.3%). A generic pitch or a guest without credibility accounted for 1.0% ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026)). Those are only the declines hosts wrote back, so pitches that hosts simply ignored aren't counted. But they show that most avoidable rejections are settled before you write a word.

Hosts say the same thing when asked directly. In Buzzsprout's 2026 survey of 271 podcasters, 87.8% said a relevant topic mattered most when deciding on a guest, followed by the guest's expertise at 62.0%. A personalized pitch mattered to 18.5%, and the guest's audience size to 14.4% ([Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts)).

Some shows will never be the right show, however good the pitch. Gergely Orosz, who hosts The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, says his episodes typically reach more than 500,000 people and that his show doesn't take self-pitches at all. His guests built major technology, work at companies he finds relevant, or have a decade or more of deep expertise. He says a founder talking about their own startup would be a waste of time for almost all of his listeners ([The Pragmatic Engineer](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/why-youre-not-getting-a-response-to-your-podcast-pitch-from-me-or-others/)). Founders who pitch a show like that aren't losing on wording. They picked a show whose format has no place for them.

### Should you aim for big shows or small ones?

Start with smaller shows whose listeners match your buyers, then work up as you build a record. Smaller shows say yes far more often. In Podseeker's data on 6,546 pitches sent between April and August 2026, pitches to shows with an estimated audience under 100 listeners per episode booked 5.7% of the time, shows with 100 to 1,000 listeners booked 3.8%, and shows with 10,000 to 100,000 listeners booked 0.3% ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026)). Small shows also give you practice. Griffin's advice is that your first 15 appearances aren't really for awareness at all, because their point is "practice" ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).

Size alone doesn't make a show right, though. Chris Burres, founder of the supplement company My Vital C, has done 125 guest appearances. He says most were on shows with around a hundred to a thousand listeners that "really didn't move the needle," while each of the seven booking companies he hired landed him about one show good enough to pay for the company ([East Coast Studio](https://eastcoaststudio.com/podcast/29000-and-125-podcast-guest-appearances-later-explosive-results-achieved-by-chris-burres/)). Melissa Kwan, CEO of eWebinar, had a similar experience with an agency whose shows were "fairly low quality" and not always in her area of expertise ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). The lesson from both is to choose for audience match first and size second, rather than accepting any show that will have you.

## How to find podcasts to be a guest on

The best list starts from the shows your buyers and your peers already appear on, then gets cut down by a few quick checks. You don't need an expensive database to build it.

Start with these sources:

- **Ask your customers what they listen to.** It's the most direct way to learn which shows reach your buyers ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).
- **Search for founders like you.** Type the name of a founder at a similar or adjacent company into Apple Podcasts, and it returns the shows they've been on. Those shows have already decided someone like you is worth an hour. Griffin says two hours of this kind of searching will give you "a well-curated list of 100 shows" ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).
- **Follow the related shows.** On a show's Apple Podcasts page, the "Listeners Also Subscribed To" section points you to neighboring shows with an overlapping audience ([The Copywriter Club](https://thecopywriterclub.com/pitching-podcasts-mai-kee-tsang/)).
- **Search the open web.** Jason Bay of Blissful Prospecting found sales podcasts through searches like "best B2B sales podcasts" and by asking on LinkedIn for people's favorites ([Jason Bay](https://medium.com/@blissfulprospecting/how-i-cold-emailed-my-way-onto-27-of-the-top-sales-podcasts-6205bddecb35)).

Then check each show before it earns a place on your shortlist:

- **Is it still publishing?** Bay required an episode in the last 30 days. A show that's been quiet for 90 days probably has no one reading its inbox ([PR News](https://www.prnewsonline.com/podcast-guesting-is-a-core-pr-strategy-heres-how-to-get-your-client-booked/)).
- **Does it book guests like you?** Look at the last several episodes. If the guests are all authors and academics, a founder pitch is a long shot.
- **Is the host someone you'd enjoy talking with?** Bay listened to at least one full episode of every show he pitched, and Mai-kee Tsang notes that a host "can tell" when you've only read the description.
- **Does it charge guests?** Some shows do. Tim O'Hearn, a first-time author, says the first host to answer his pitch asked for $6,000 ([Tim O'Hearn](https://www.tjohearn.com/2025/04/24/podcast-placements-as-a-nonfiction-author/)). Decide your policy before you pitch.
- **Who handles bookings, and how do you reach them?** On larger shows, a producer often books guests. Check the episode credits or LinkedIn ([PR News](https://www.prnewsonline.com/podcast-guesting-is-a-core-pr-strategy-heres-how-to-get-your-client-booked/)).

Treat audience numbers from podcast databases as rough guides. When The Podcast Host compared Rephonic's download estimates with the real numbers from 14 shows, the estimates averaged 51.6% accuracy, with individual shows ranging from 5.7% to 98.9%. Rephonic's founder suggests asking hosts for their real numbers ([The Podcast Host](https://www.thepodcasthost.com/business-of-podcasting/podcast-download-rephonics/)). A show's recent guests, the comments on its episodes, and how actively the host promotes each one tell you more about whether listeners are paying attention.

Guest-matching platforms like PodMatch and MatchMaker.fm are another way in, because every host there is already looking for guests. Jordan Blair of Buzzsprout pitched one show through PodMatch, heard back 40 minutes later, and recorded the next week ([Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts)). The shows skew small, though. O'Hearn found his early PodMatch bookings were mostly independent shows with small audiences, and Erich Archer, who did 32 interviews through PodMatch in 2025, stopped because "the right shows got harder to find" ([Erich Archer on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ericharcher_full-transparency-i-paid-64month-for-podmatch-activity-7413999091967361024-lkQ8)).

## Where most bookings come from

Most guests get on shows through people the host already knows, so the fastest route to a booking is usually an introduction. In Buzzsprout's survey of 271 podcasters, 69.7% said at least one of their last three guests came from their personal network. Cold email pitches and referrals from past guests each came up 28.0% of the time, guest platforms 22.5%, and PR agencies 19.9% ([Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts)).

Levels shows what using your network looks like in practice. By Griffin's count, 58% of the company's shows came from introductions, 16% from inbound requests, 15% from an agency, and 9% from cold outreach. His best move was looking up every investor and advisor in Apple Podcasts to see which shows they'd been on, then asking each one for an introduction to specific hosts. He says that approach "probably got 30 bookings" on its own, and that asking a direct question rather than "let me know if you know anyone" raised response rates by up to 50%. Levels had more than 150 well-connected investors, which Griffin calls an unfair advantage ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)). The same method works with a smaller network. Look up where your investors, advisors, customers, and founder friends have been guests, and ask each for one specific introduction.

Every appearance also makes the next one easier. Kwan says she booked 99 appearances over two years with no fees, partly through her own outreach and partly through hosts who heard her elsewhere and founders who referred her to shows they'd been on, a favor she returned ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). Griffin notes that inbound invitations only started once Levels' founders had been on dozens of shows.

Cold pitching still works when each pitch is genuinely written for its host. Bay had 11 appearances from friends' shows and a Slack group before he started cold emailing. He then sent personalized emails to 76 hosts of sales podcasts, with topic ideas and, for some hosts, a short video made just for them, and booked 27 interviews ([Jason Bay](https://medium.com/@blissfulprospecting/how-i-cold-emailed-my-way-onto-27-of-the-top-sales-podcasts-6205bddecb35)).

## How to pitch a podcast host

A pitch that gets booked offers the host an episode their listeners would want, comes from someone who has clearly heard the show, and fits in a short email. The host is deciding whether you'll make their audience glad they listened, so write about the audience rather than about you.

Podchaser's 2026 pitching report passes on the advice of Doug Downs, who produces more than 20 podcasts: "Pitch an episode idea, not a guest" ([Podchaser](https://www.podchaser.com/articles/webinars/state-of-podcast-guest-pitching-report)). Anuj Agarwal, writing in PR News, shows the difference with two openings. "Jane is an award-winning fintech founder with 20 years of experience" leaves the producer to invent the episode. A pitch that picks up where a recent episode ended and promises two surprising findings from a test with 50,000 customers is an episode they can picture ([PR News](https://www.prnewsonline.com/podcast-guesting-is-a-core-pr-strategy-heres-how-to-get-your-client-booked/)).

A strong pitch usually has five parts:

- **A real reference to the show.** Mention a specific point from a recent episode in your own words. Blair built her pitch to a customer-experience host around one idea from that host's content that she genuinely agreed with ([Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts)).
- **One episode idea for their listeners.** Griffin's advice is not to pitch your product but to think about the listener, connect your story to a larger industry trend, and look for a take that's new ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)).
- **One line of credibility.** A link to a past interview or a concrete result is enough.
- **Easy logistics.** Offer flexible times or a scheduling link.
- **A short length.** Agarwal suggests keeping it under 150 words: "If the case can't be made in that space, the angle isn't there yet."

Here's what that might look like from a founder whose software helps physical therapy clinics fill cancelled appointments, writing to the host of a show for clinic owners:

> Subject: Episode idea: what clinics do in the first hour after a cancellation
>
> Hi Dana, your episode with Marcus on front-desk turnover stuck with me, especially his point that most no-shows get handled by whoever happens to be free. We've watched about 200 clinics deal with same-day cancellations, and the ones that refill the slot almost all do it within the first hour, with one specific kind of message. I'd love to walk your listeners through what those clinics send and what they stopped doing. Here's a recent interview so you can hear how I talk: [link]. Happy to work around your recording schedule.

Then follow up, but not endlessly. In Podseeker's data, 22.6% of bookings started only after at least one follow-up ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026)). Blair follows up once after about a week, adds something useful like a new angle, and caps it at two follow-ups ([Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts)).

Expect most pitches to go unanswered, even good ones. Podchaser's survey of 25 producers and agency owners, covering 108 podcasts, put the median acceptance rate at 5% ([Trent Anderson on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/growthtrent_the-state-of-podcast-guest-pitching-2026-activity-7424111528758652929-66YU)). Podseeker's customers booked 3.3% of their pitches overall and 6.2% when they pitched shows its software rated as a very high fit ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026)). Fit roughly doubles your odds, and a few dozen well-chosen pitches is a realistic plan for your first several bookings.

## Who should do the booking work

You can book yourself, use a matching platform, buy pitching software, hire an agency, or hand the work to an AI marketer. The table shows what each option costs and what it leaves to you, using prices as published in October 2026.

| Approach | What it costs | What you get | What it still asks of you |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Book yourself | No fee | Full control, and the relationships with hosts stay yours | Time: Levels planned on half of one person's week, while Kwan spent about an hour a week |
| Matching platform | PodMatch guest plans are $32 or $64 a month. MatchMaker.fm is free for 30 days, then $15 a month | Hosts who already want guests | A strong profile, and acceptance that many shows are small |
| Pitching software | Podseeker is $99 a month. PodcastPlacer charges $0.20 per pitch sent | A show database, drafted pitches, and automatic follow-ups | Choosing the angle and approving the pitches |
| Booking agency | Published plans run from $499 to $1,950 a month | Someone else researches, pitches, and schedules | Checking what counts as a "booking" and how much say you have over each show |
| AI marketer such as Kite | Kite has a free plan. Its Growth plan is $100 a month with $100 in AI credits | Show research, a pitch for each host, sending, and follow-ups | Approving each round of pitches until you trust it, and naming the hosts you already know |

Prices come from [PodMatch](https://www.podmatch.com/), [MatchMaker.fm](https://www.matchmaker.fm/), [Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/pricing), [PodcastPlacer](https://podcastplacer.com/), and [Kite](https://kite.ai/pricing). The agency range spans Convokast at $499 a month as listed by [Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/podcast-booking-agency-cost), [The Expert Bookers](https://www.expertbookers.com/podcast-booking-prices) at $700 for two confirmed bookings a month or $900 for four, [Get On A Pod](https://getonapod.com/) at $1,000 a month with a three-month minimum, and [Heartcast Media](https://www.heartcastmedia.com/podcast-booking/) at $1,250 or $1,950 a month on 12-month terms.

If you consider an agency, read the terms closely. Kwan paid one agency $6,000 for 12 episodes and found she still owed $500 for a slot she turned down, because the agency had done its job by placing her ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). Burres paid between $180 and $450 a show across seven companies and says the dearest one didn't get him better shows. Asked whether he needed them at all, he said, "we probably could have done it all ourselves internally" ([East Coast Studio](https://eastcoaststudio.com/podcast/29000-and-125-podcast-guest-appearances-later-explosive-results-achieved-by-chris-burres/)). Podseeker suggests asking whether "booking" means a host agreed, a date was set, the episode was recorded, or it was published ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/podcast-booking-agency-cost)).

## Can AI pitch podcasts for you?

Yes, when it knows your business well, decides whether each show fits before it writes anything, and works from the show's actual recent episodes. The documented cases that worked had all three, and the ones hosts complain about were set up without them.

Hosts' complaints are easy to find. Orosz says he gets 10 to 20 pitches a week from PR and marketing teams, most of them AI-written, all sent to a show that doesn't take self-pitches ([The Pragmatic Engineer](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/why-youre-not-getting-a-response-to-your-podcast-pitch-from-me-or-others/)). Pierce Freeman, who hosts the podcast Pretrained, received about twenty similar pitches, most of them one email plus two follow-ups. When he asked one sender which service they used, the answer was PodPitch, which builds its show list by pulling from podcast directories and then writes and sends the emails. The pitch he quotes picked up a theme from a real episode, and Freeman still spotted it, mainly because it was longer than any busy founder would write ([Pierce Freeman](https://pierce.dev/notes/the-grey-market-of-podcast-appearances)). In Podchaser's small producer survey, 68% named AI-generated templates as the top reason for an immediate no ([Podchaser](https://www.podchaser.com/articles/webinars/state-of-podcast-guest-pitching-report)). What these setups share is that the shows came from a bulk list, the same kind of email went to every host, and nothing checked whether the guest belonged on that particular show.

The documented successes were set up the other way. Airfleet, a B2B website agency, built a Claude skill to book its own team. It found about 600 shows, scored each one on fit, reachability, how recently it published, and audience size, and kept 81 strong fits. It matched each show to one talking point, wrote a 90-to-130-word email that paraphrased a recent episode and never pitched Airfleet, and sent only after the author approved the batch. The campaign drew replies from almost 70% of hosts and seven guest offers, a rate the author calls "the ceiling, not the baseline" ([Airfleet](https://www.airfleet.co/blog/podcast-guesting-outreach-skill/)).

Jasz Joseph, a marketing consultant, built a custom GPT after her assistant kept struggling to recognize which shows fit her work. She gave it her website, services, bio, past projects, ideal clients, and the industries she avoids. For each show, it decides whether the show fits and explains why, asks for the last three to five episode descriptions, and only then drafts the pitch. She went from zero bookings the previous quarter to 10 in just over two months ([ActiveCampaign](https://autonomous.activecampaign.com/stories/build-a-podcast-pitching-gpt)). Her first version, which simply turned a pasted show description into a pitch, wrote pitches that didn't fit the audience. Adding her context and the fit check is what changed the results.

Kite works this way by design. Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. During onboarding it builds a knowledge base of your positioning, customers, and competitors, so every pitch starts from what makes your story worth an hour. Kite runs podcast outreach the same way it runs [media outreach](/use-cases/media-outreach). It finds shows that recently covered your topic, researches their recent episodes, and writes each host a pitch explaining why you fit their audience. It sends each pitch individually from your team's Kite address or your connected Gmail, or leaves them as Gmail drafts if you'd rather send them yourself. By default it asks for your approval before each round goes out, and you can give it more autonomy once you trust how it pitches. After a few days it follows up in the same thread with something new, and when a host replies, it tells you and suggests a response. If you already know some hosts, tell Kite, and it puts them first.

## How to prepare and make each appearance pay off

An appearance pays off when you've prepared for that host's audience, given listeners one clear next step, and tracked what each show brought in. Most of that work happens before and after the recording.

Prepare for the specific show. Bay listens to a full episode, reads up on the host, and prepares a few topics he knows well. In the first few minutes of the call, he asks the host who the audience is, what roles they hold, and what they respond to ([Jason Bay](https://medium.com/@blissfulprospecting/how-i-cold-emailed-my-way-onto-27-of-the-top-sales-podcasts-6205bddecb35)). Tell stories rather than selling. Burres says that when you try to sell, listeners' "sales alarms go off," and when you tell a story, they listen ([East Coast Studio](https://eastcoaststudio.com/podcast/29000-and-125-podcast-guest-appearances-later-explosive-results-achieved-by-chris-burres/)).

Give listeners somewhere to go, and give every show its own link. Bay builds a separate landing page for each podcast with a free one-page guide on the topic they discussed. Burres gives each show a unique web address with a coupon code that exists only on that page and is never said aloud, so every sale through it can be traced to the show. He says he spent about $29,000 on booking companies and can directly trace $82,000 in revenue this way ([East Coast Studio](https://eastcoaststudio.com/podcast/29000-and-125-podcast-guest-appearances-later-explosive-results-achieved-by-chris-burres/)). Kwan's numbers show the same effect from the other side. When she cut back on guesting for a year, her share of demo traffic from podcasts fell from over 10% to about 4% ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). If your site runs on Kite, Kite can build a landing page for each show, and its built-in analytics show the visits and form submissions each page brings in.

Help the episode become a page that people and AI answers can find. Omnibound, which sells AI-search tools, found no public study that measures whether guest appearances change which brands AI assistants name, but it points out that an episode can only be cited through a page, such as the host's episode page or a YouTube video ([Omnibound](https://www.omnibound.ai/blog/podcast-guesting-ai-search-visibility)). Ask whether the episode will get a transcript, send the exact spelling of your name and company, and write your own short summary page that links to it. Kite tracks which pages ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude cite for your buyers' questions, so you can see whether an episode page starts to show up.

Finally, look after the relationship. Levels sent each host flowers after the episode and wrote to whoever made the introduction to say how it went. Griffin says people are "extremely pleasantly surprised when loops get closed," and more likely to introduce you again ([First Round Review](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/)). Share the episode on your own channels, cut a few short clips, and ask the host whether they know another show you'd suit.

## Where to start

If you're starting this month, begin with the shortest path to a yes. Ask five customers which podcasts they listen to, and look up the shows where your investors, advisors, and peer founders have been guests. Ask each person who knows a host for one specific introduction. Then pick 10 to 15 small, active shows whose listeners match your buyers, and send each one a short pitch built on a recent episode and a single episode idea. Give every appearance its own link so you know which shows to go back to.

If you'd rather hand off the research, writing, and follow-up, see how Kite runs [media outreach](/use-cases/media-outreach), the same process it uses to pitch podcast hosts.

## Common questions

### Do podcast guests get paid, and should you pay to be a guest?

Guests usually aren't paid, and most shows don't charge them either. Some shows do charge. Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carman told NPR in 2022 that her reporting found guests paying up to $50,000 for a single appearance, mostly in wellness, cryptocurrency, and business shows ([NPR](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116802781/some-podcast-guest-chairs-go-to-high-bidders-without-telling-listeners)). Kwan paid for two well-known shows and says they were "expensive and did not give much of a boost" to traffic or revenue, and that she'd probably only repeat the cheaper one ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). If a show asks for a fee, weigh it the way you'd weigh any ad buy, by how closely its listeners match your buyers.

### How long does it take to get booked on a podcast?

When a host is interested, the answer usually comes quickly. In Podseeker's data, the median booking was confirmed about five days after the first email, and 90% of bookings were confirmed within about seven weeks ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026)). The recording and release take longer. Interview Valet tells its clients to expect the recording one to three months after the invitation and the release two to eight weeks after that ([Interview Valet](https://offers.interviewvalet.com/hubfs/2024%20State%20of%20Podcast%20Guesting%20Report.pdf?hsLang=en)). Plan for a first episode to go live two to four months after you start pitching.

### Is PodMatch worth it for a founder?

PodMatch is a good way to get your first few appearances quickly, because every host on it is looking for guests. Guest plans cost $32 or $64 a month ([PodMatch](https://www.podmatch.com/)). Users' results vary widely. Blair booked a show within an hour of pitching, while Archer stopped after a year because good matches got harder to find. Use it for practice and early reps, and keep pitching the shows your buyers listen to directly.

### How many podcasts should you pitch each week?

Pitch a small number of shows you've actually researched, every week, rather than a large batch once. Kwan sent 10 to 15 pitches every Wednesday after checking that each show had guests and recent episodes, and followed up once ([Melissa Kwan](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing)). Podseeker suggests three to five personal pitches each business day and a review of your results after the first 20 to 30 ([Podseeker](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/ai-agents-booking-podcast-guests)). If few hosts answer, look again at which shows you chose before you rewrite the email.

## Sources

- [Most Top-Ranked Podcasts Bring On Guests](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/02/06/most-top-ranked-podcasts-bring-on-guests/), Pew Research Center
- [Podcast Guest 2026 Statistics](https://podcastplacer.com/research/podcast-guest-statistics), PodcastPlacer
- [State of Podcast Pitching 2026: What Gets Guests Booked](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/state-of-podcast-pitching-2026), Podseeker
- [How to Get Booked on Podcasts in 2026](https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/get-booked-on-podcasts), Buzzsprout
- [The Playbook This Startup Used to Get Their Founders on 100+ Podcasts in 6 Months](https://review.firstround.com/the-playbook-this-startup-used-to-get-their-founders-on-100--podcasts-in-6-months/), First Round Review
- [The State of Podcast Guesting 2026](https://offers.interviewvalet.com/hubfs/2024%20State%20of%20Podcast%20Guesting%20Report.pdf?hsLang=en), Interview Valet
- [Why you're not getting a response to your podcast pitch from me or others](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/why-youre-not-getting-a-response-to-your-podcast-pitch-from-me-or-others/), The Pragmatic Engineer
- [$29,000 and 125 Podcast Guest Appearances Later: Explosive Results Achieved By Chris Burres](https://eastcoaststudio.com/podcast/29000-and-125-podcast-guest-appearances-later-explosive-results-achieved-by-chris-burres/), East Coast Studio
- [How I guested on 99 podcasts for free in 2 years](https://www.melissakwan.com/p/podcast-marketing), Melissa Kwan
- [What I learned pitching 101 podcasters in 30 days and getting booked on 33 shows](https://thecopywriterclub.com/pitching-podcasts-mai-kee-tsang/), The Copywriter Club
- [How I cold emailed my way onto 27 of the top sales podcasts](https://medium.com/@blissfulprospecting/how-i-cold-emailed-my-way-onto-27-of-the-top-sales-podcasts-6205bddecb35), Jason Bay on Medium
- [Podcast Guesting Is a Core PR Strategy. Here's How to Get Your Client Booked.](https://www.prnewsonline.com/podcast-guesting-is-a-core-pr-strategy-heres-how-to-get-your-client-booked/), PR News
- [Podcast placements as a nonfiction author](https://www.tjohearn.com/2025/04/24/podcast-placements-as-a-nonfiction-author/), Tim O'Hearn
- [We Compared Real Podcast Downloads to Rephonic's Estimates](https://www.thepodcasthost.com/business-of-podcasting/podcast-download-rephonics/), The Podcast Host
- [Full transparency, I paid $64/month for PodMatch in 2025](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ericharcher_full-transparency-i-paid-64month-for-podmatch-activity-7413999091967361024-lkQ8), Erich Archer on LinkedIn
- [The State of Podcast Guest Pitching Report (2026)](https://www.podchaser.com/articles/webinars/state-of-podcast-guest-pitching-report), Podchaser
- [Podchaser's Annual State of Guest Pitching Report (2026)](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/growthtrent_the-state-of-podcast-guest-pitching-2026-activity-7424111528758652929-66YU), Trent Anderson on LinkedIn
- [How Much Does a Podcast Booking Agency Cost?](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/podcast-booking-agency-cost), Podseeker
- [Get clients booked on high-fit podcasts](https://www.podseeker.co/pricing), Podseeker
- [How to Use AI to Get Booked as a Podcast Guest (2026)](https://www.podseeker.co/blog/ai-agents-booking-podcast-guests), Podseeker
- [PodMatch](https://www.podmatch.com/), PodMatch
- [MatchMaker.fm](https://www.matchmaker.fm/), MatchMaker.fm
- [AI agents that get you booked on podcasts while you sleep](https://podcastplacer.com/), PodcastPlacer
- [Podcast Booking Agency Cost & Packages](https://www.expertbookers.com/podcast-booking-prices), The Expert Bookers
- [Get On A Pod](https://getonapod.com/), Get On A Pod
- [Done-For-You Podcast Guest Booking With 900+ Real Relationships](https://www.heartcastmedia.com/podcast-booking/), Heartcast Media
- [The grey market of podcast appearances](https://pierce.dev/notes/the-grey-market-of-podcast-appearances), Pierce Freeman
- [Podcast guesting outreach skill](https://www.airfleet.co/blog/podcast-guesting-outreach-skill/), Airfleet
- [Zero bookings to 10 in two months with a podcast-pitching GPT](https://autonomous.activecampaign.com/stories/build-a-podcast-pitching-gpt), ActiveCampaign
- [Podcast Guesting for AI Search Visibility: What Is Proven](https://www.omnibound.ai/blog/podcast-guesting-ai-search-visibility), Omnibound
- [Some podcast guest chairs go to high bidders, without telling listeners](https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116802781/some-podcast-guest-chairs-go-to-high-bidders-without-telling-listeners), NPR