Understanding and using smart ad breaks
Smart ad breaks is a feature available to creators using Automated Ads. It helps save time by automatically inserting ad breaks into an episode, which can assist with optimizing the ad break location and quantity to help maximize your earnings.
Smart ad breaks finds natural breaks to insert ad locations while minimizing interruptions to your listeners.
The type and number of ad breaks automatically inserted depends upon the length and content of your episode:
- Shorter than 8 minutes: Includes an ad break with room for up to one ad to play before your episode
- 8-20 minutes long: Includes an ad break with room for up to two ads to play before your episode, and another ad break with room for up to two ads to play after your episode
- 20 minutes or longer: Includes the ad breaks for 8-20 min episodes, as well as one or more ad breaks placed within your episode, each with room for up to two ads to play. The placement of these ad breaks is determined based on the content of your episode.
How to use smart ad breaks for new episodes
On web:
- Click New Episode.
- Upload your episode.
- On the Monetize step, click Use smart ad breaks.
- Once the ad breaks have been inserted, click Edit to review and adjust the ad break locations if you'd like.
How to use smart ad breaks for existing published episodes
On web:
- Go to Episodes and select an episode.
- If the episode already has ad breaks, click Replace ad breaks, then Insert automatically. If you choose to automatically insert ad breaks, the episode’s existing ad breaks will be removed and replaced.
- If the episode doesn't have any ad breaks, click Use smart ad breaks.
- Once the ad breaks have been inserted, click Edit to review and adjust the ad break locations if you'd like.
Note: Ad breaks take about 3 minutes to process per hour of content. In some rare cases, it may take as many as 10 minutes per hour of episode content. You can always publish your episode before the ad breaks have been processed; they'll be automatically added to your episode once they're available.
Where smart ad breaks aren’t available
Smart ad breaks aren't supported for episodes that contain multiple episode segments.
We advise not using smart ad breaks if your episode includes baked-in ads, as smart ad breaks may inadvertently be placed within the baked-in ad.