Tobias Jang's podcast, "Platform Watchers," has never been the biggest show in its category. It has never trended. It has never been featured in a "Best Podcasts of 2025" list. Its 78,000 monthly listeners represent a relatively modest audience by industry standards. It generated $500,000 in advertising revenue last year.
The math sounds impossible until you understand the CPM. While most podcast advertisers pay $18-25 CPM for general audience shows, Tobias's show commands $6.41 RPM — over $6 for every 1,000 downloads. That's roughly 3-4x the industry average, and it's because of who listens: senior marketing executives, brand directors, and agency decision-makers at companies with significant media budgets.
The Listener Demographic Strategy
"I could have chased downloads," Tobias told us. "I could have had a broader show. I chose to go deep on platform strategy and algorithm analysis because I knew that if I could attract the right 78,000 people, they'd be worth more to advertisers than 500,000 random listeners." He was right. His show's average listener has a household income of $220,000 and 72% are in managerial or executive roles.
"Audience quality is the most underrated concept in creator monetization. Everyone optimizes for audience size. Almost nobody optimizes for audience value."