How to advertise on Girls Next Level: what it costs, who buys, and how to book
Dishant Miyani
Podcast Ad Analytics Head
Girls Next Level sells its host-read inventory direct rather than through one of the big networks, and it's quoted per campaign, not off a published rate card. Spotsnow data shows direct-response reads account for the vast majority of the show's ad load, roughly 98 of every 100 reads, which makes this a coded-offer feed more than a branding feed. Smile Set, the top spender, has run roughly 2 to 3 ads in the recent window, and it's one of roughly 56 to 65 brands Spotsnow has seen advertise here lately. If you're a DTC brand with a vanity URL and a promo code, that mix should read as a green light. Spotsnow estimates all of this from tracked advertiser activity, not audience surveys.
The show profile, roster, and spend estimates referenced here sit on the Girls Next Level page on Spotsnow.
Why Girls Next Level is built for host-read direct response
Holly Madison co-hosts with Bridget Marquardt. Madison is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and the host and executive producer of Investigation Discovery's The Playboy Murders, so she arrives with a credential that isn't borrowed from the podcast itself. The show sits in TV & Film, with spillover into society and culture, leisure, and comedy.
Spotsnow attributes the vast majority of reads on this show, roughly 98 of every 100, to direct response. That matters because the format carries the attribution: a spoken vanity URL, a code, a text-to-number. You find out whether it worked without waiting on a brand-lift study.
Spotsnow estimates reach at roughly 300,000 listeners, and that figure is an estimate, not a counted total. The audience skews strongly female, mostly middle-income, and heavily concentrated in the US.
Forget pricing for a second and look at the format. This is a rewatch-and-recap show built on confession: two women who lived the story picking apart old episodes, interrupting each other, going on tangents. Listeners don't skip the tangents, which is exactly why the ad break survives. A host-read here lands inside a conversation that's already personal, and that sustained attention is the thing a brand is actually renting.
The engagement proof backs it up. Spotsnow data shows an Apple Podcasts average rating of 4.9 from roughly 11,000 to 12,900 ratings, with roughly 170,000 Instagram followers and roughly 76,000 YouTube subscribers. The influence concentrates in the feed and on Instagram rather than spreading thin across five platforms, which is usually the better trade for an advertiser buying audio.
Who is advertising on Girls Next Level
Spotsnow data shows a roster that leans beauty, DTC lifestyle, resale, and telehealth, with a handful of big national names buying produced spots alongside the endorsements.
- Poshmark
- Hers
- Quince
- Mint Mobile
- Jones Road
The anchor advertisers, broken down
Smile Set
Smile Set sells at-home clear teeth straightening, and Spotsnow ranks it the show's top spender with over $20,000 in estimated total spend across roughly 2 to 3 ads. Spotsnow classifies the brand as direct-response. Appearance-conscious listeners who already take beauty recommendations from these two hosts are the cheapest possible audience for a smile product, and the pitch needs no education to land.
Poshmark
Poshmark runs a resale marketplace for secondhand fashion, and Spotsnow estimates over $20,000 in total spend on the show across roughly 2 to 3 ads, classified direct-response. A show built on dissecting what people wore in 2005 has a listener who treats fashion as an archive, and resale is the native version of that instinct.
Hers
Hers is women's telehealth covering skin, hair, mental health, and weight, and Spotsnow estimates over $20,000 in total spend here across roughly 3 to 4 ads, the highest ad count of the three and firmly direct-response. It's a heavy national direct-response buyer, and the fit is close to mechanical: a female-skewing audience that talks openly about body image and mental health all episode long.
The outlier: Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile shows up with produced spots rather than host endorsements, which tells you the inventory isn't single-purpose. A national brand with no beauty angle can still buy this feed for reach and frequency, and Spotsnow data shows insurance, home goods, and auto all doing the same thing. Different objective, same show.
| Brand | Est. total spend | Direct-response | Time of spend (last 1 year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smile Set | over $20,000 | Yes | Within the last 3 months |
| Poshmark | over $20,000 | Yes | Within the last 3 months |
| Hers | over $20,000 | Yes | Within the last 3 months |
All spend figures are Spotsnow estimates.
Why TV & Film brands cluster here
The clustering isn't really about category. It's about what the hosts have standing to say. Madison and Marquardt built the show on relitigating how they were packaged, photographed, and sold in their twenties, which means a read about teeth, skin, hair, or clothes isn't a detour from the content. It's the same subject with a checkout link attached.
That's why the roster skews the way Spotsnow shows it skewing. Beauty, telehealth, and resale brands get a host who can speak to appearance pressure without sounding like she's reading a script, in front of an audience that trusts her precisely because she's been candid about the ugly parts. The nostalgia format helps too: listeners show up weekly for a feed that rewards paying attention, so a two-minute endorsement doesn't get scrubbed. Add the direct-response dominance and you get a feed where performance brands keep re-upping and awareness buyers can still ride along on produced inventory.
How your ad could sound
Host-read Quince endorsement on Girls Next Level
This is the template. Madison opens with continuity, not a pitch: "I know I've told you guys all about how much I love Quince." That framing assumes a returning listener and treats the sponsor as an ongoing part of her life. Then come the specifics, a zip-up cashmere hoodie, a white Italian leather top-handle clutch that matches the bigger bag she carried around Europe. Product proof that detailed can't be faked by a copywriter, and it does more work than any adjective in the script. The handoff out of conversation is clean, too.
Two things a buyer should fix. The vanity URL gets repeated several times and still comes out mangled on the way through, so lock one short, clearly enunciated address and brief the host to slow down on it. And the close leans entirely on "free shipping and 365-day returns," which reduces risk but gives nobody a reason to act today. Pair the guarantee with something time-bound.
View what a great sample ad looks like here.
What makes a show like this convert
- The format carries attribution. Spotsnow attributes roughly 98 of every 100 reads here to direct response, so codes and vanity URLs are what this audience is already trained to hear.
- Host credibility is earned, not rented. Madison is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and an ID series host, and Spotsnow data shows a 4.9 Apple Podcasts average rating from roughly 11,000 to 12,900 ratings.
- The audience matches the roster. Spotsnow estimates roughly 300,000 listeners, skewing strongly female and concentrated in the US, which is the same buyer beauty and telehealth brands chase everywhere else.
- Repeat buying says the math works. Hers has run roughly 3 to 4 ads on the show and Smile Set and Poshmark roughly 2 to 3 ads each, per Spotsnow. Performance brands don't come back to a feed that doesn't pay out.
Girls Next Level in a nutshell
The listener is a woman who watched the original E! series and now wants the uncut version, mostly American, mostly middle-income, and loyal enough to leave a review. The brands already buying her attention are beauty, telehealth, and resale names running genuine host endorsements, with national advertisers filling produced slots around them. Inventory is sold direct, handled through the hosts' representation and the Libsyn marketplace rather than a mega-network, and quoted campaign by campaign. Treat it as a direct-response buy first: bring a code, a clean URL, and enough episodes to measure.
Frequently asked questions
Girls Next Level is sold on a quoted basis rather than a public rate card. Four things move the number: placement (mid-roll host-read prices above pre-roll and post-roll), read type (a host endorsement prices above a produced spot), commitment length (multi-episode flights and category exclusivity price better than a single test), and how close you are to the air date. For market context, a host-read spot on a typical show costs a brand roughly $20 to $30 for every thousand listeners it reaches. In-demand shows clear well above that. The more useful signal for this show is who already buys: Smile Set has run roughly 2 to 3 ads, alongside Poshmark and Hers. Repeat buying at that level tells you more about where a show prices, and what it's worth to the brands buying it, than an outside estimate can.
Ads run on most episodes, so the show is in demand and inventory moves fast. Plan on reaching out sooner than you think you need to.
Figure about 1 week to book, 2 to 3 weeks to produce and run, plus 2 to 3 weeks of lead time, so roughly 5 to 7 weeks end to end.
Girls Next Level is sold direct rather than through one of the large networks. You can approach the hosts' representation, with ad sales running through the Libsyn marketplace, or book through a platform that already has the show in its inventory. You can view different advertising platforms here.
Yes, and they're the core of the roster. Spotsnow data shows roughly 56 to 65 brands advertising recently, with Smile Set, Hers, Poshmark, Quince, Jones Road, and Blissy among the host-read buyers. If you sell skincare, apparel, resale, or telehealth to women, you'll be in familiar company, and you should expect category exclusivity to come up in the conversation.
Spotsnow estimates roughly 300,000 listeners, an estimate rather than an audited count. The audience skews strongly female, mostly middle-income, and sits heavily in the US, with smaller pockets in Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Girls Next Level isn't the only feed reaching this audience. Spotsnow shows which TV & Film podcasts have host-read spots open right now, and which brands already buy them.
Get on the last minute spots email list.
Find incredible discounts and opportunities on premium shows.
Get on the last minute spots email list.
Find incredible discounts and opportunities on premium shows.