SpotsNow today announced the launch of its marketplace for last-minute podcast advertising, designed to solve a familiar industry challenge: agencies with budget they need to spend quickly, and publishers with premium inventory that often goes unsold.

Often described as the “Hotel Tonight for podcast ads,” SpotsNow gives agencies and advertisers a centralized way to discover and activate time-sensitive host-read podcast placements, while helping publishers monetize remnant inventory, introduce new brands, and build long-term advertiser relationships.

Rather than changing how buying or selling works, SpotsNow is built to fit naturally into existing workflows, giving both sides a faster and more transparent way to act when timing matters most.

A Better Way for Publishers to Sell Through Their Inventory

For publishers and networks, particularly in the mid-market, consistently filling inventory remains a persistent challenge, even for high-quality shows. At the same time, bringing net-new advertisers into a network has become increasingly difficult, with rising acquisition costs, long sales cycles, and limited sales bandwidth making it harder to reach brands that are not already in the ecosystem.

As a result, valuable inventory often goes unsold, not due to lack of audience or performance, but because it is difficult to surface those opportunities to the right buyers at the right moment.

SpotsNow creates a new inbound channel for publishers, acting as both a monetization tool and a marketing vehicle for net-new advertiser discovery. By placing time-sensitive inventory in front of agencies and advertisers actively looking to test new shows, SpotsNow helps publishers fill open spots while also introducing their network to new brands, expanding relationships beyond a single buy and strengthening the broader advertising ecosystem.

Publishers can:

• List unsold or discounted inventory for free
• Control lead times, pricing, formats, and visibility
• Determine which partners see specific offers
• Bring net-new brands into their ecosystem
• Convert short-term buys into long-term advertiser relationships

The platform fee applies only to net-new brands introduced through SpotsNow (not agency buys)

“These are incredible shows with loyal, niche audiences,” said Cam Pritchard, Founder of SpotsNow. “SpotsNow helps them get discovered by brands that are actively looking to test.”

Solving the Buying Problem

For advertisers and agencies, last-minute budget is a reality of modern media buying. If it is not spent, it often disappears. Yet activating quickly or testing new podcasts across the long tail of shows has historically been slow, manual, and highly relationship-dependent.

“One of the hardest challenges in media buying is what happens when budget opens up late in the planning cycle,” said Jess Robine, SpotsNow Advisor and EVP of Media at ARM. “It’s not uncommon for up to 20% of agency budgets to go unspent. Buyers often have days (not weeks or months) to deploy that spend before it’s lost, and there’s no simple way to see what high-quality inventory is actually available. Too often, teams are left sorting through dozens of emails and timelines just trying to move fast enough.”

That fragmented process creates an administrative burden for agencies, making it difficult to quickly assess fit across advertisers, audiences, and objectives. As a result, buyers often default to the same shows instead of testing new podcasts that could better support campaign performance.

SpotsNow was built to centralize that experience, giving agencies a single destination to:

• Browse last-minute podcast opportunities in real time
• Quickly evaluate fit across shows and audiences
• Test new podcasts efficiently for the brands they represent
• Access special or exclusive inventory shared directly by publisher partners

Instead of parsing inboxes and spreadsheets, agencies can simply log in and see what is available, when speed matters most.

Supporting Agencies with Zero Fees

SpotsNow is explicitly designed to strengthen, not disrupt, existing agency and publisher relationships.

• No fees on agency buys
• Agencies continue to plan, buy, and manage campaigns the way they always have with their own insertion orders and payment terms

“Our goal is to support agencies in doing what they do best: buying great media and supporting a healthy ecosystem,” said Pritchard. “SpotsNow is additive, not competitive.”

How It Works

For publishers:

• Upload your show roster via CSV or work directly with a SpotsNow account manager
• Turn listings on or off at any time
• Define lead times, discounts, and minimum buys
• Decide exactly which inventory appears on the platform

For advertisers:

• Browse live last-minute opportunities
• Request placements directly
• Pay only when a show approves
• Receive a full refund if a spot doesn’t run

At launch, SpotsNow is showcasing February and March open inventory, with new opportunities added continuously.

Early Momentum Across the Industry

SpotsNow is already seeing strong early adoption with over 200 open spots, with leading podcast networks placing premium inventory on the platform, alongside agency partners and brands eager to discover new shows and test efficiently.

“This is about creating more wins across the board,” said Pritchard. “Advertisers spend budget they would have lost on news shows they can test. Publishers monetize inventory they could not sell. And the industry builds stronger, longer-term partnerships.”

Availability

SpotsNow is live today. Publishers can list inventory for free, and advertisers can browse and request last-minute opportunities immediately.

To explore open spots or join the monthly inventory email list, visit https://spotsnow.io.

This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.