Ad protection rules
Simplecast Professional
Brand safety
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Watching the first ads land on your show feels like cashing in on a bet, and you did bet on this podcast, after all. Then the euphoria wears off, and the second-guessing starts. What if there’s an ad for a company I don’t align with? What if it makes my listeners distrust me? Am I a sellout? Nobody likes handing over the reins, and you don’t have to.
Simplecast Professional allows you to take control of the ad experience. Ad protection rules let you decide which ads play on your show, and using them well protects both your audience and your income.
Brand safety vs. ad protection rules
If you’ve spent any time around podcast advertising, you’ve probably heard the term brand safety. It sounds like it should protect your show, but it was built for advertisers. It keeps their ads away from podcast content that could damage their reputation. Ad protection rules do the reverse for creators, keeping ads that could damage your reputation off your show.
Brand safety has been an industry standard for years, and for good reason. But brands aren’t the only ones with a reputation on the line. In podcasting, the creator’s credibility is the product, so your show deserves protection of its own.
Why ad quality matters for your podcast
One bad ad can undo months of trust. A scam advertiser, a competitor’s product, a cringey spot right after your most personal segment, and your listeners start to wonder whether you care what they hear. Your name sits next to every ad that plays, whether you picked it or not.
Listeners came for you, and they listen closely, ads included. Nine in 10 podcast listeners take some action after hearing a podcast ad, like researching a product or visiting a website, according to a SiriusXM Media Podsurvey study. Every ad on your show borrows a little of their attention and trust, which is exactly why advertisers want the slot.
What ads can you block on your podcast?
Ad protection rules work like a door policy for your ad breaks. You can apply one to a whole show or to a single ad slot, and each rule can block ads by category, brand, or language.
|
Block by |
What it blocks |
Example |
|
Category |
Every ad for a type of product, like gambling or politics |
Skip political attack ads in an election year |
|
Brand |
Every ad from one company |
Keep a rival brand off your show |
|
Language |
Every ad in a language you choose |
Block ads your audience can’t understand |
Categories follow standard labels set by the IAB, the ad industry’s main trade group. They describe what an ad is selling, like gambling, automotive, or politics. A category block is your broadest move, and a brand block your most precise.
Exceptions keep the broad move from becoming a blunt one. Block all of automotive, then allow the one car brand you’d recommend anyway. Some ads don’t carry a category at all, so add uncategorized to your list to catch them.
Language is the easiest filter to overlook, and it’s the one listeners notice first. An ad your audience can’t understand isn’t unsafe so much as wasted, for you and the advertiser. You can block any supported language, along with ads in unlisted languages or ones the system can’t identify.
Setting up ad protection rules
Start from your show’s values and work outward. The best rules read like an editorial policy, not a panic list. If you can’t explain why a category is blocked, it probably shouldn’t be.
Picture the ads that would make you wince mid-episode. Then create a rule in your Simplecast Professional account and decide whether it guards your whole show or just one ad slot, like the spot after your most personal segment. Block the categories, brands, or languages that don’t fit, and let in the brands that do.
How ad protection rules affect your revenue
Your rules only apply to ads placed automatically through the AdsWizz Audio Marketplace for Podcasts. Sponsors you sign directly always come first, so your rules never touch those deals. The Marketplace then fills any open slots with the best-paying ad that fits your rules, which means every block narrows the field of ads competing for those slots.
Blocking one brand removes one advertiser, but blocking a category can remove many. Start small, and go broad only where an entire category is wrong for your show.
Once your rules are set, watch how they play out. It’s tempting to chase fill rate, the share of your ad slots that actually sell, but a full ad break isn’t a win if listeners fast forward through it. Your Simplecast dashboard shows both your revenue and how many of your slots are selling, so give it a few weeks after any change before deciding whether the trade-off is worth it. As your show and your advertisers change, revisit your setup.
Your ad breaks are part of the show
As more podcast ads are bought and placed automatically, the shows that hold their value will be the ones that curate their ad breaks as carefully as their episodes. Advertisers have spent years protecting their brands, and now your show has the tools to do the same.
Want help setting rules that fit your show without leaving money on the table?
Connect with the Simplecast team, and we’ll help you build rules that protect your listeners and your revenue.