How to advertise on Grumpy Old Geeks: what it costs, who buys, and how to book

Grumpy Old Geeks sells its host-read inventory direct, quoted per campaign rather than off a public rate card, and Spotsnow attributes an almost fully coded, direct-response mix to the feed: nearly every read carries a promo code, a URL, or both. The anchor advertiser, Delete Me, has run roughly 7 to 8 ads here, all host-voiced. For a buyer weighing this show, that mix means one thing: it's a conversion buy, not a branding play. Spotsnow estimates all of this from tracked advertiser activity, not audience surveys.

The full show profile lives on Grumpy Old Geeks on Spotsnow, with the roster and spend estimates referenced throughout this guide.

Why Grumpy Old Geeks is built for host-read direct response

Hosts Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFillippo dissect the week's tech news, and they read the ads themselves. The show sits in information technology and services territory when you look at who buys it, even though the feed itself files under technology.

Spotsnow data shows the read mix is almost entirely direct response, in the high-90s percent range. That's the whole reason a coded offer works here: listeners hear a URL like joindeleteme.com/GOG or a checkout code, and the buy gets attributed cleanly. Spotsnow estimates reach at roughly 120,000 listeners, and that's an estimate, not an audited count. The audience skews male, mostly late 30s through 50s, high-income, and concentrated in the United States with a Canadian and UK tail.

What sells the format is the tone. The banter runs right up to the ad and hands off without a hard seam, so attention doesn't drop through the break. A host-read borrows that trust. When Schulmeister says privacy "is not theoretical for me," the endorsement lands as opinion, not copy.

Influence shows up in the feed, not across social. Spotsnow data shows an Apple Podcasts average rating of 4.9 across roughly 5,400 to 6,300 ratings, with a YouTube channel near 1,300 subscribers. The engagement is concentrated where it converts: in the show itself and in the reviews of people who keep coming back.

Who is advertising on Grumpy Old Geeks

The roster is deep and mixed: Spotsnow tracks roughly 53 to 62 advertisers over the last three months, tilted toward tech and DTC direct response but with programmatic brands running produced spots too. Recognizable names include Shopify, Delete Me, Toyota, American Express, and Hims.

The anchor advertisers, broken down

Delete Me

Delete Me removes your personal data from broker sites. Spotsnow data shows roughly 7 to 8 ads on the show and estimated total spend over $30K, all direct-response host-read. It fits because this audience knows exactly how exposed personal data gets, and the host frames it from lived experience.

Shopify

Shopify is the commerce platform behind the show's own merch store. Spotsnow data shows roughly 9 to 11 ads across host-read and produced, with estimated total spend over $10K. The fit is first-person: the hosts sell their gear through Shopify, so the endorsement is just them describing their own setup.

StoryBlocks

StoryBlocks sells stock video, audio, and templates on a subscription. Spotsnow data shows roughly 2 ads here and estimated total spend over $8K, direct-response host-read. It fits the creator slice of the audience, the ones who make video and podcasts themselves.

The awareness outlier

Not everyone here chases a code. Big programmatic buyers like Toyota, Carvana, and American Express run produced spots on the feed, which tells you awareness money lands here too, even if the show's engine is coded conversion.

All spend figures are Spotsnow estimates.

Why technology brands cluster here

This audience has been online forever, and it treats tools and privacy as decisions, not impulses. That's the tell. Delete Me, a data-removal service, and StoryBlocks, a stock-media subscription, aren't fishing for casual clicks; they're reaching people who already understand the problem and want the fix. The hosts' authority does the qualifying. When two guys who obsess over what went wrong on the internet vouch for a privacy product, the skepticism that usually kills a tech pitch works in the advertiser's favor instead. Shopify seals it: the hosts run their store on it, so the read is a demo, not a claim. That combination, a high-income tech audience plus hosts who use what they sell, is why IT and DTC money keeps landing on this feed.

How your ad could sound

Here's an actual host-read for Shopify, tied to the show's own merch store.

What works: the credibility is baked in. "All of that merch is sold through our very own Shopify storefront" isn't a testimonial, it's a fact about how the show runs. The little sound-effect callback for a sale gives the read a payoff, and the handoff back into the episode is clean. The CTA is plain: "Start your free trial at shopify.com slash grumpy," repeated so it sticks.

Worth improving: the offer is soft. A free trial is fine, but there's no urgency and no reason to act today rather than next week. And the URL only shows up at the very end. Front-loading "shopify.com slash grumpy" once early, then closing on it, would catch the listener who tunes out before the last line.

View what a great sample ad looks like here.

What makes a show like this convert

1. The format is coded and native. Spotsnow data shows a nearly all direct-response read mix, so every spot is built to track a click, not just impress one.
2. The hosts have earned trust. A 4.9 Apple rating across thousands of reviews means listeners take a recommendation from Schulmeister and DeFillippo at face value.
3. The audience is the pitch. High-income, US-heavy, tech-native listeners who take privacy and tools seriously match exactly what IT and DTC advertisers want.
4. Brands come back. Delete Me's roughly 7 to 8 ads on one feed is a brand re-buying because the math worked the first time.

Grumpy Old Geeks in a nutshell

You're reaching an estimated 120,000 listeners who skew male, high-income, and US-based, the kind of tech-native crowd that already knows what it's buying. Delete Me, Shopify, and StoryBlocks all run host-voiced, coded spots here, and the hosts read them personally. The show sells direct, quoted per campaign, with no big network gate. If your goal is measurable conversion rather than pure awareness, this is a direct-response feed built for exactly that.