OUR FOUNDING LETTER

By: Dan Granger

Forward: Oxford Road was born on the 4th of July, 2013. What follows is a gently updated document referred to as our, “Founding Letter”. This was my way of introducing our newborn agency to the world and making clear the principles for which we stand. Five years later, our little startup agency is now a leader in our field. We have launched 9 of the top 20 advertisers in the Podcast universe, ranked #398 on the Inc 500, and successfully helped 10 companies become or maintain the classification of “Unicorns” through launching performance marketing efforts on Podcast, Radio, and TV. Our strategic position stems from a strong foundation of offerings in Media, Messaging, and Measurement. Our proprietary methodology for generating, scoring and optimizing ad copy, Audiolytics™ is the most advanced in our field. Oxford Road enjoys a diverse client base of innovative brands that are all products or services we believe in and would use ourselves. Through this we have a united organization that provides meaningful value in the marketplace, but also for the individuals and families who depend on it, as well as the charities we have been able to support. Five years later, many of our circumstances have changed. But our core values remain consistent. We exist to serve people through performance.

Thank you all for helping us get to where we are today. I hope you are able to live out the same purpose in your own life and enjoy the fruits of your labor in the way that Oxford Road has done for me. Happy birthday, America. Long live Oxford Road.

-Dan

FOUNDING LETTER

WRITTEN BY DAN GRANGER

JULY 4, 2013

“The secret to career happiness is to get paid to do that thing that made you weird as a kid.”

Not sure who said it, but I really like that one.

Every business is in some way, a fractal of its founder. So it’s good you should know a bit about me.

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, on a street called Oxford Road. It was my incubator. Winters below zero with snow measured in feet. Golden Septembers that would make a Californian jealous. I did a show on public access TV when I was six and had a poem published in our local newspaper at 10. I had a sometimes controversial opinion column in high school and some of my articles caused protests. I always loved media. Not for its ability to report about people’s actions, but for its ability to cause them. Small wonder I fell into advertising.

My street, Oxford Road, was where I learned I could make decisions to ruin my own life or influence others to ruin theirs. It was also where I learned I could lead people and inspire them to be a force for good and they could inspire me in the same way. I tested everything. I learned. I worked. I optimized and I grew.

I built some relationships on that street that are standing strong today. To me, that’s what really matters. We start with our best guess at how to do things and by hard knocks we learn how to do them better. During the growth process, we form relationships that never end. As an advertising agency we value people. Our relationships within our organization and our relationships with our clients and partners are important. As are our relationships with our clients’ customers. Our ability to connect with our clients’ customers is the real measure of the value we bring.

Our Agency is here to provide a platform for growth. Advertising done well will do one of two things: help a good business succeed faster or help a bad business fail faster. We look for companies that are changing the world with their products and services, that we can believe in and that we will use, and recommend to people we care about. If they believe in us, we find ambassadors in all walks of life to advocate for our clients to their tribes. We influence the Influencers, then we optimize and scale our messages to the masses. If we treat the audience well, we will be successful. If not, we deserve to fail.

We believe firmly in accountability. Don’t judge us by Cost Per Point. Don’t count how many sporting events we take you to or big nights on the town. You won’t be impressed. Our job is to get you more customers at a price you can afford, over and over again. We don’t value branding, creativity, or industry awards above real customers taking action. Your sales and profit are our primary goal and focus. We obsess over it.

We scrutinize over every detail. We err on the side of overworking. When we hit a goal, it means we can do better. We will not stop until the world knows you, trusts you, and gives you their money.

When it comes to your product or service, we subscribe to Ogilvy’s “We sell or else” philosophy. And we don’t offer transparency in advertising performance as a suggestion. We demand it. Hold us accountable and watch what we do.

As we demand innovation for the clients we work with, we demand the same for ourselves. If we look and sound like other agencies, slap us. We’re going to do things differently here.

Oxford Road is a path. We want your business to benefit from our quirks, our scars, and our character.

I hope you’ll take a stroll with us.

Sincerely,

Dan Granger
CEO & Founder

November 2025: ORBIT Rankings and Insights on the Top 15 Performing Comedy Podcasts

ORBIT ranks podcasts by actual advertiser performance, not exposure or vanity metrics. Built on real campaign data across 500+ advertisers managing $1.6 Billion+ in annual spend.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Comedy’s #1 in advertiser investment. But ROI shows some funny business.

November 2025 ORBIT Rankings

Below are the Top 15 Performing Comedy Podcasts, ranked by advertiser results over the past 12 months.
These are the shows that consistently outperformed benchmarks and delivered measurable ROI.

Top 15 Performing Comedy Podcasts - November 2025

November 2025 ORBIT Insights

Laughter, Not the Best Medicine: Comedy claims the most ad spend, but as a genre, performance is in the bottom tier. So why the outsized investment? It may be due to brand safety concerns, where Comedy appears to be a safer option for scaling over, say, Politics and Government. Stop treating Comedy as a safe default. It’s a sophisticated category that requires real expertise.
The Best vs. The Rest: While the genre is soft overall, the top 15 Comedy podcasts boast elite-tier performance. These shows represent distinct comedy styles and formats, from advice to game shows. The takeaway? There are no guarantees in Comedy performance, but there are lots of ways to turn funny into money.
Category Matters: Not all Comedy advertisers are created equal. High-spend categories, like gambling and shopping, actually underperform, while premium lifestyle brands excel. The lesson: audience fit beats budget size.
The Summer Slump: Scaling Comedy spend? Take the Summer off. In 3 of the last 4 complete years (2021, 2023, 2024), Q3 performance was weakest. Instead, use Q2/Q3 learning, testing, and incremental optimization, then scale in Q1 where performance is historically best.

Unlock past ORBIT insights

How ORBIT Works (And Why It’s Different)

ORBIT normalizes performance across different advertiser goals—whether that’s target CAC, desired ROAS, or cost per qualified lead. This allows direct comparison across campaign types, something download-based rankings can’t provide.

The difference:
Many tracking tools tell you who’s advertising and estimate spend, count ad occurrences, or measure downloads and reach.

ORBIT shows which podcasts made money and which ones didn’t.
We factor in what advertisers paid, what they were trying to achieve, how it was measured, including survey-based attribution data, and whether the investment delivered ROI. That’s the difference between counting impressions and measuring profit.

Our methodology:

Minimum 3 distinct advertisers per show
Minimum 3 paid drops per advertiser
At least 50% of placements must exceed advertiser goals
12-month rolling analysis updated monthly
Attribution-normalized across pixels, codes, URLs, and modeling

For Chief Audio Officers

ORBIT eliminates guesswork from podcast planning:

De-risk initial buys by seeing which shows have proven track records with similar advertisers
Optimize faster with normalized performance data across attribution models
Find hidden gems before they become expensive tier-1 shows
Break category assumptions with data that shows where your customers actually listen
Scale with confidence, knowing which placements consistently deliver ROI

The era of buying podcast ads based on download numbers is over. ORBIT shows you which shows drive performance, before you spend a dollar.

“This is what happened when real companies spent real money. If you want to know which podcasts work, start here.”
— Dan Granger, CEO, Oxford Road

Subscribe to The Influencer for monthly ORBIT updates

ORBIT: The Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool

Joe Rogan Didn’t Make the Top 15. Critical Role Did. Here’s What $1.6 Billion in Performance Data Actually Reveals.

The first podcast rankings based on ROI, not downloads. Built on real campaign results from hundreds of advertisers.

After more than a decade of development, Oxford Road is unveiling ORBIT: a first-of-its-kind Benchmark Intelligence Tool built on real campaign outcomes from across the industry.

ORBIT aggregates over $1.6 billion in verified podcast spend, across hundreds of advertisers and 120+ genres, then normalizes it into one question: What actually worked?

It doesn’t tell you which podcasts are popular. It tells you which ones drive ROI. Which ones convert. Which ones are worth the check you’re about to write.

The First ORBIT Rankings

Below are the Top 15 Performing Podcasts, ranked by advertiser results over the past 12 months.
These are the shows that consistently outperformed benchmarks and delivered measurable ROI.

What ORBIT Reveals

Big reach ≠ big results: Joe Rogan and most tier-1 mega-shows didn’t crack the Top 15. Only 3 of the top performers (20%) are household-name podcasts. Advertisers systematically overpay for reach while ignoring shows that deliver better returns.
Comedy and politics dominate. 11 of the top 15 performers are comedy or news/politics shows—the exact categories many advertisers deliberately avoid due to brand safety concerns. Controversial content, when aligned with brand values, drives action.
Stop buying your own industry. We tested it: Tech companies don’t perform better on tech podcasts. Finance brands don’t win on business shows. There’s no statistically significant lift from matching your industry to your genre. Your customers listen to the same shows everyone else does: comedy, true crime, politics. The genre silo is costing you discoveries.
Faith-based shows overperform. Religious podcasts, particularly Christianity-focused content, rank in the top 6 genres for consistent ROI across multiple verticals—a finding impossible to surface without normalized, goal-based data

How ORBIT Works (And Why It’s Different)

The difference:
Many tracking tools tell you who’s advertising and estimate spend, count ad occurrences, or measure downloads and reach

Our methodology:

Minimum 3 distinct advertisers per show
Minimum 3 paid drops per advertiser
At least 50% of placements must exceed advertiser goals
12-month rolling analysis updated monthly
Attribution-normalized across pixels, codes, URLs, and modeling

For Chief Audio Officers

ORBIT eliminates guesswork from podcast planning:

De-risk initial buys by seeing which shows have proven track records with similar advertisers
Optimize faster with normalized performance data across attribution models
Find hidden gems before they become expensive tier-1 shows
Break category assumptions with data that shows where your customers actually listen
Scale with confidence, knowing which placements consistently deliver ROI

The era of buying podcast ads based on download numbers is over. ORBIT shows you which shows drive performance, before you spend a dollar.

“This is what happened when real companies spent real money. If you want to know which podcasts work, start here.”
— Dan Granger, CEO, Oxford Road

Subscribe to The Influencer for monthly ORBIT updates

So What is a Podcast? We Polled Over 4,000 People, Launched a Docuseries, and May Have Started a Revolution.

What’s a Podcast?: The Revolution Redefined

Twenty years ago, “What’s a podcast?” was an innocent question—asked with curiosity, maybe confusion. Today, it’s a loaded one, with real consequences for creators, platforms, advertisers, and the future of the medium itself.

“ Why does the definition of a podcast even matter? If we don’t define it clearly, we leave it to others to decide.”

Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road & Veritone One)

That’s why we’re taking the question head-on with two major releases this week:

In collaboration with Edison Research we surveyed over 4,000 Americans, and interviewed 30+ creators, executives, and thought leaders to propose a clear, inclusive, and actionable definition of podcasting. This is more than semantics—it’s about protecting the open, intimate, creator-first medium we all believe in.

Download the White Paper Here

In this new three-part documentary series, hosted by Allyson Marino (Founder, Lipstick & Vinyl), we trace the evolution of podcasting from pirate radio roots to today’s billion-dollar ecosystem.

️Episode 1: The Genesis – The Accidental Revolution (2004-2013)

From MP3 uploads by the great Robin Williams to Adam Carolla’s marketing test runs, we explore the DIY spirit that launched a media movement.

Featuring Ira Glass, Adam Carolla, Leo Laporte, and more.

Episode 2: The Explosion – Mainstream and the Pod-Demic (2014-2022)

Serial broke podcasting wide open—and brands, platforms, and creators flooded in. Then came the COVID boom, and eventually, a sobering correction.

Featuring Bryan Barletta, Pete Birsinger, the Meiselas brothers, and more.

Episode 3: The Crossroads – Identity Crisis and the Future (2023-Present)

With the rise of video podcasts and closed platforms, the power has shifted. Can we protect the creator-led, listener-first DNA of podcasting while embracing growth?

Featuring Guy Raz, James Cridland, Dan Franks, AJ Feliciano, and more.

Watch Here

Listen Here: Spotify

Listen Here: Apple

Help Shape the Future

We’re not here to gatekeep—we’re here to rally. Podcasting has always thrived when creators, platforms, and advertisers build together.

So we’re inviting YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and others to help create a shared definition, an open attribution framework, and a future where the medium remains open, inclusive, and built to last.

Sign the Petition Here

Podcasting has never been just another media channel. It’s personal. It’s powerful. And it’s ours to protect.

“This is what made podcasts special. And this is what we must preserve—lest we find ourselves defined out of existence.”

Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road & Veritone One)

November 2025: ORBIT Rankings and Insights on the Top 15 Performing Comedy Podcasts

ORBIT ranks podcasts by actual advertiser performance, not exposure or vanity metrics. Built on real campaign data across 500+ advertisers managing $1.6 Billion+ in annual spend.

Comedy’s #1 in advertiser investment. But ROI shows some funny business.