How to advertise on The Confessionals: what it costs, who buys, and how to book

The Confessionals sells its host-read inventory direct through Tony Merkel's own company, Merkel Media, quoted per campaign rather than off a public rate card. Spotsnow attributes roughly 98% of the show's tracked ad activity to direct response, which tells you almost everything about how brands use it: promo codes, vanity URLs, and coded attribution, not vague awareness plays. Rumble Premium, the top spender, has run roughly 6 to 7 ads on the feed. For a buyer weighing the show, that mix reads as a place where the math has to close, and repeat buyers say it does. Spotsnow estimates all of this from tracked advertiser activity, not audience surveys. Explore the full The Confessionals profile for the underlying numbers.

Why The Confessionals is built for host-read direct response

Host Tony Merkel is the show's creator and a faith-based investigative interviewer who built the feed around firsthand paranormal and spiritual accounts. He also runs the company that sells the ads, which keeps the read close to the source.

The show sits in society and culture, with a heavy paranormal and religion lean, and most of Rumble Premium's category work rolls up to information technology and services. With roughly 98% of ads classified as direct response by Spotsnow, the format does real work here. A code or a dot-org URL read in Merkel's voice ties a sale back to the episode, and that attribution is the whole point. Spotsnow estimates the show reaches roughly 176,000 listeners per drop, an estimate rather than an audited count.

Long-form interviews are the reason a host-read holds. Merkel spends an hour or more earning trust from a witness telling a strange story, and the audience stays through the slow parts. That sustained attention is exactly what a host endorsement borrows when the ad break arrives. The listener isn't skipping; they're leaning in.

Influence shows up in the feed and on Instagram, where Spotsnow data shows a following of roughly 226,000. The engagement here is concentrated in the podcast itself and its Instagram community rather than spread thin across every platform, which is a fair read on a show whose audience comes for the host, not for a viral clip cycle.

Who is advertising on The Confessionals

The roster is large and mixed, spanning direct-response endorsers and big produced-spot buyers. Spotsnow tracks roughly 415 to 485 brands in recent activity. Recognizable names include Rumble, Quince, Progressive, Indeed, and Shopify.

The anchor advertisers, broken down

Rumble Premium

Rumble Premium sells a free-speech video platform and ad-free viewing tier. Spotsnow data shows it has run roughly 6 to 7 ads with estimated total spend over $20K, all classified as direct response. It fits because the show's alt-media, faith-and-freedom audience overlaps almost perfectly with Rumble's own creator base.

Banyan Botanicals

Banyan Botanicals sells Ayurvedic herbal wellness products. Spotsnow data shows roughly 8 to 9 ads and estimated total spend over $20K, entirely direct response. It carries the heaviest host-read commitment of the three, which makes it the true anchor buyer. A spiritually minded, self-directed-health audience is exactly who reaches for an alternative wellness routine.

Quince

Quince sells affordable-luxury DTC essentials, from cashmere to cookware. Spotsnow data shows about 5 ads and estimated total spend over $10K, again all direct response. Its presence proves a mainstream retail brand using coded attribution can convert on a paranormal feed, not just niche endorsers.

The awareness outlier

Big brands like Starbucks, McDonald's, Toyota, and Samsung also appear, running produced spots rather than host-reads. That's a different objective, awareness money flowing in alongside the DR reads, and Spotsnow shows it running here too. The signal for a buyer: this feed absorbs both jobs.

All spend figures are Spotsnow estimates.

Why society and culture brands cluster here

The through-line isn't the paranormal topic; it's the trust. Merkel's audience treats him as the reason they showed up, and a self-directed, curious, mostly US listener who buys into unexplained stories is the same listener open to trying a supplement, a platform, or a DTC essential on a host's word. That's why the heavy DR buyers stack up: Banyan and Rumble aren't renting reach, they're renting belief. When the host reads a code, the audience that already trusts his read on a cryptid encounter extends that trust to the offer. A produced spot from a national brand gets attention; a Merkel endorsement gets action. If your product needs a recommendation to sell, this is where the format earns its keep.

How your ad could sound

Host-read endorsement on The Confessionals

This host-read for the nonprofit Wipe Every Tear shows Merkel's style at full strength. What works: it's first-person and personal, with the host putting his own credibility on the line and even reading a phone number live, which he frames as a deliberate act of trust. The emotional hook lands, "there is really a way for this to stop," and the destination repeats cleanly as wipe every tear dot org. The audience matches the mission, so the read feels native.

What a performance buyer would tighten: the ask is scattered. It stacks call, volunteer, and donate in one breath, so no single action wins. A spoken phone number is easy to lose in audio, and there's no urgency or deadline to push a listener now. Swap the number for one coded URL, pick a single primary action, and the same warmth would convert harder.

View what a great sample ad looks like here.

What makes a show like this convert

1. The format does the attribution work. With roughly 98% of ads classified as direct response by Spotsnow, codes and URLs tie sales back to the read.
2. Host credibility carries the offer. Merkel spends full episodes earning trust from witnesses, and that trust transfers to the brand he endorses.
3. The audience is primed to act. Spotsnow estimates roughly 176,000 mostly US listeners who skew male and adult, curious enough to try what the host recommends.
4. Brands come back. Rumble Premium's roughly 6 to 7 ads, and Banyan's even heavier run, are the clearest proof the math works: nobody buys twice on a channel that doesn't return.

The Confessionals in a nutshell

The listeners are mostly US-based, adult, and male-leaning, drawn in by paranormal and faith-driven long-form interviews. The brands already buying, Rumble Premium, Banyan Botanicals, and Quince, run coded host-reads, while national names buy produced awareness spots on the side. The show is sold direct through Merkel Media, quoted per campaign. Bottom line for your media plan: it's a direct-response play first, with room for an awareness buy if that's your goal.

The Confessionals isn't the only feed reaching this audience. Spotsnow shows which society and culture podcasts have host-read spots open right now, and which brands already buy them.