Audio and podcast advertising
Asked as “audio advertising platform”, and as “podcast and streaming audio ad platform”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
34%
Contested · StackAdapt 20%
34AudioGo20StackAdapt16Spotify Ads Manager30others
34% of first choices, contested.
The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
03
Spotify Ads Manager16%8%26accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 16% now.
Spotify Ads Manager16%8%26accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 16% now.07
Spotify Audience Network2%10%10accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.
Spotify Audience Network2%10%10accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.08
Spotify Ad Studio2%40%10criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.
Spotify Ad Studio2%40%10criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
The floor is 12 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. How the floor is measured
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
0203
04
05
060708
09M10
A11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01AudioGo34%
AudioGo34%02StackAdapt20%
StackAdapt20%03Spotify Ads Manager16%
Spotify Ads Manager16%04Acast7%
Acast7%05Libsyn Ads2%
Libsyn Ads2%06Triton Digital2%
Triton Digital2%07Spotify Audience Network2%
Spotify Audience Network2%08Spotify Ad Studio2%
Spotify Ad Studio2%09The Trade Desk2%
The Trade Desk2%10Megaphone0%
11AdvertiseCast0%
What they warned about
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Acast11%
4 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid Acast self-serve** under $5K budget — you'll get run-of-network junk.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Spotify Ad Studio40%
4 of 10 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, and similar major platforms are not "avoid" platforms by default; they are widely used, but they still have limitations in measurement, targeting, and addressability” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
The Trade Desk40%
4 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 6 models
“For most mid-market firms, the setup fees, minimum spends, and learning curve make it overkill compared to StackAdapt.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt
Spotify Ads Manager8%
2 of 26 labels negative · 2 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid: Self-Serve Audio Ads on General Streaming Platforms (e.g., Spotify Ads Manager) *for Direct-Response / ROI Campaigns*” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
79 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1026 links across 211 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
56 answers · 91 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Guideflow42 answers · 42 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Acast41 answers · 58 citations · 14 models
vendor site · Hey Sid36 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
26 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
vendor site · AudioGo25 answers · 42 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Spotify19 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
49 answers · 12 models
42 answers · 12 models
36 answers · 11 models
33 answers · 11 models
30 answers · 12 models
21 answers · 10 models
19 answers · 12 models
19 answers · 9 models
18 answers · 10 models
16 answers · 7 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “audio advertising platform”, “best audio advertising platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AudioGo audiogo.com | 34% | 112 | 1,600 | 10 | 5,614 | $491 | 70 | 2 |
| Spotify Ad Studio spotify.com Spotify Ads Manager 16%, Spotify Advertising 2%, Spotify Audience Network 2%, Spotify Ad Studio 2% | 21% | 89 | 3,600 | 66 | 473,414,163 | $49 | 40 | 1 |
| StackAdapt stackadapt.com | 20% | 376 | 8,100 | 167 | 26,512 | $18,665 | 39 | 4 |
| Acast acast.com | 7% | 87 | 4,400 | 967 | 165,594 | 9 | ||
| Spotify Ads ads.spotify.com | 4% | 12 | 5,400 | 2,367 | 28,508 | $49 | 1 | |
| Libsyn Ads libsyn.com | 2% | 39 | 210 | 0 | 337,220 | 62 | ||
| Triton Digital tritondigital.com | 2% | 42 | 390 | 16 | 5,151 | 6 | ||
| Hey Sid heysid.com | 2% | 41 | 70 | 22 | 452 | 15 | ||
| Amazon Ads | 2% | 18,100 | 2,303 | |||||
| Amazon DSP amazon.com | 2% | 149 | 22,200 | 1,498 | 1,681,997,879 | $106,125 | 115 | 3 |
Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (ads.spotify.com, audiogo.com, g2.com). The first result for “audio advertising platform” is viantinc.com.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best audio advertising platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which podcast and streaming audio ad platform would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top audio and podcast advertising platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best audio advertising platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an audio advertising platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which audio and podcast advertising platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Spotify read as Spotify Ad Studio
Unresolved, counted raw
AdRoll for Podcasts
AdsWizz AudioMax (by Audacy)
Adwell.me
Audacy Creator Lab formerly Podcorn
Audible Ads
AudienceScience
Castro
Chartable
Gimlet
Global Podcast Network
MillionPodcasts
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Podbean AI Platform
Podseeker
Podtrac
ProspectBase
Quill
Radiotopia
SXM Media
Spotify Ad Manager
Spotify for Creators
TuneIn
TuneIn Ads
Wavve
Yes& Beacon
YouTube Audio Ads (via Google Ads)
Zephr
iHeart Media / iHeartRadio Advertising
iHeartMedia Advertising
iHeartPodcast Network
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.