As podcast advertising enters a new phase of accountability and performance, Next Broadcast Media (NBM) is advancing industry standards through a partnership with NumberEight, the leader in privacy-first audience intelligence, to bring verified audience insights and precision targeting to both managed and self-serve podcast campaigns—ushering in smarter, data-driven advertising across the Middle East, North Africa (MENA), and beyond.

Through this partnership, advertisers using NBM’s AdManager.fm platform can go beyond downloads and basic placement data—gaining independent, third-party visibility into who their campaigns are reaching and why it matters. NBM’s focus on innovation and advertiser transparency makes it one of the first regional networks to adopt this level of verified audience intelligence.

NumberEight’s data enhances planning and reporting with meaningful, ID-less audience intelligence, empowering advertisers to connect with listeners more confidently and respectfully across culturally diverse markets.

For media buyers, the partnership means greater precision, clearer reporting, and better ROI. By combining NBM’s deep market expertise with NumberEight’s AI-driven audience modelling, advertisers gain actionable insights that help them plan, measure, and optimise campaigns with confidence.

"Advertisers want two things: precision and proof," said Adel Saadi, co-founder of Next Broadcast Media. "With NumberEight, we’re able to deliver both. This partnership fundamentally enhances how we plan, target, and optimise podcast campaigns—whether fully managed or through AdManager.fm. It reinforces our commitment to leading data-driven audio advertising in MENA and beyond, and allows us to scale privacy-safe audience targeting where digital audio is growing fastest."

For NBM, this partnership also cements its role as a bridge between global audio technology and emerging podcast markets. Podcasting is no longer a US - only medium—it’s a truly global channel with vibrant growth across EMEA, LATAM, and MENA. Yet many regions remain underrepresented in targeting infrastructure. NumberEight addresses this gap by creating ID-less Affinity Audiences derived primarily from first-party data and rich podcast content metadata, modeled at scale through advanced machine learning. This approach enables nuanced audience understanding across cultures and languages—supporting smarter media decisions in regions where identity-based targeting is either unavailable or inappropriate.

These segments—including high-demand audiences such as Gen Z, Streaming Lovers, Affluent Consumers, and Female Empowerment—allow brands to reach real listeners with cultural relevance, without relying on personal identifiers.

Advertisers benefit not only from better targeting across NBM’s curated podcast inventory, but also from improved campaign planning, delivery, and optimisation. The integration also enables lookalike audience discovery, expanding reach while maintaining campaign precision. Within AdManager.fm, NumberEight’s audience profiles power optimised targeting packages that bring added accountability and efficiency to every media buy.

"Partnering with NBM extends our mission to make podcast advertising smarter and more inclusive," said Abhishek Sen, CEO/co-founder, NumberEight. "Together, we’re helping advertisers move beyond downloads to reach real audiences with measurable impact—especially in emerging podcast markets like MENA, where cultural and language relevance is key."

As podcast investment accelerates across the globe, the collaboration between NBM and NumberEight represents a major step forward for the industry. By combining NBM’s deep expertise in podcast advertising with NumberEight’s cutting-edge technology, transparency, and insight to create campaigns that are both data-driven and deeply human.

For media buyers and advertisers looking to run data-driven podcast campaigns with verified reach and impact, visit AdManager.fm or contact the NBM team to learn more.