Andrea De Marsi, founder and CEO of PodSEO and co-founder of Spreaker, joins PodBiz to break down one of podcasting’s longest-running challenges: discoverability.
Andrea explains why simply creating great content is not enough. Podcasters also need to think like marketers, from optimizing how their shows appear in Apple Podcasts and Spotify to building a presence across search, social media and increasingly, AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.
“Podcasting is basically a product like any other product, and it needs a little bit of time and effort to make it popular, to make it discoverable, so that people can discover it, like it, enjoy it and become loyal to it.” — Andrea De Marsi
The conversation also looks back at Andrea’s journey building Spreaker, its merger with BlogTalkRadio and eventual acquisition by iHeart Media. He shares what he learned about programmatic advertising, adapting a startup to changing markets and maintaining company culture through rapid growth and acquisition.
• Why audience growth remains the foundation of podcast monetization
• Why podcasters need to develop a marketing mindset
• How podcast search differs from traditional web search
• Why Apple Podcasts and Spotify can make discovery difficult
• How AI is creating another opportunity for podcast discovery
• Why consistent short-form content can support audience growth
• How Spreaker evolved from web radio into a podcast hosting platform
• What helped programmatic advertising work for independent creators
• How Spreaker maintained its startup culture through acquisition
• Why founders need to know when to pivot — and when to let something go
(01:58) Where is the money in podcasting?
(04:16) Why podcasters struggle with marketing
(09:25) Building a marketing mindset with PodSEO
(12:54) Why podcast discovery is still difficult
(19:41) Using social clips to feed discovery
(22:51) How Spreaker got started
(27:18) Merging Spreaker and BlogTalkRadio
(31:20) Betting on programmatic podcast advertising
(36:20) Building a strong company culture
(38:41) Navigating the iHeartMedia acquisition
(43:09) Podcasting’s wave of consolidation
(46:45) Learning to adapt outside your comfort zone
(49:02) Measuring entrepreneurial success
(50:50) Why employee retention matters
(52:34) What Andrea would do differently
(55:07) What makes podcasting unique
Andrea De Marsi is the founder and CEO of PodSEO, a platform designed to help podcasters improve discoverability across podcast apps, search, AI and social media. He previously co-founded Spreaker, helping grow the company from an early web-radio platform into a major podcast hosting and monetization business before its acquisition by iHeartMedia. His background spans engineering, podcast technology, programmatic advertising and entrepreneurship.
“What we are actually creating is more like a tool that helps you get into the mentality of a marketer, so that you do all the necessary steps in order to market your product.”
“You have to cover the search engines of the listening applications, but you also have to cover the recommendations of the AI engines. You have to cover your web presence. You have to cover the websites that are talking about podcasts and making recommendations.”
“Companies are not the technology that they produce. Companies are not the data center where the software runs. Companies are made by people. If you are able to attract the right people, and if you nurture the culture of the company in a certain way, then you can succeed.”
“Podcasting is unique. There’s a higher quality of the content. There’s a higher quality of the topics. They are less cliché, and they do not necessarily follow fashions and trends. You can find real gems within the podcast industry that are more difficult to find in other media.”