The interesting thing about this is that the listener already isn't likely to be a converted customer from the ad anyway, and these podcast ads are recorded in

The interesting thing about this is that the listener already isn't likely to be a converted customer from the ad anyway, and these podcast ads are recorded in place for forever (and as such are usually, in my experience, a fix cost and not variable like ad images). So, it doesn't seem likely that the creator is making "less" as you imply, at least not immediately.