Podcast Advertising Basics: How daily news shows place ads in their episodes
What we analyzed
We looked at 10 popular daily news shows to see where they place their ads and how the ads are stacked in each break. The shows we included in our analysis were:
- The Daily (NYT)
- Up First (NPR)
- The NPR Politics Podcast (NPR)
- Today, Explained (Vox)
- Post Reports (Washington Post)
- What A Day (Crooked Media)
- On Point (NPR)
- Start Here (ABC Audio)
- The Gist (Slate)
- The Intelligence (Economist)
Sampling podcast episodes published in 2020, we averaged the ad break positions and number of ads per break.
Podcast Ad Position and Why it Matters
Podcast ads are sorted into one of 3 classifications based on when they play during the show:
- Pre-roll
- Mid-roll
- Post-roll
When Magellan AI analyzes ads, we quality check every ad that comes through the system but generally, we sort ads into the above classifications by position percentage.
- Pre-roll ads are those that begin in the first 10% of an episode.
- Mid-roll ads are those that begin between 10% and 90% of an episode.
- Post-roll ads are those that begin in the last 10% of an episode.
Mid-roll ads are assumed to be the gold standard in podcast advertising because they reach the audience when they’re already deeply engaged with the content and less likely to skip the ad. Publishers and advertisers are well aligned on this assumption: pre-roll ads are typically shorter and less expensive than mid-roll ads.
When are ads played?
Position percentage
Position percentage refers to the percent of an episode completed when an ad starts playing. For example, if an episode of The Daily is 30 minutes long, and pre-roll ads occur in the first 10% of the episode, anything in the first 3 minutes could be considered pre-roll. Mid-roll ads begin between minutes 3 and 27, and post-roll ads begin after minute 27.
How many ad breaks?
It’s up to the publishers how many ads are played in an episode and when. Some publishers will opt to have a single sponsor for a whole episode (or even a whole season) and casually mention the brand in their show’s content. Other publishers may operate more like a TV show with multiple ad breaks in the episode and several advertisers in each break.
In our analysis of these 10 daily news shows, we found that they opt for either 2 or 3 ad breaks per episode.
Death of the pre-roll?
In our analysis of 10 popular news shows, pre-roll ads were clearly the minority. That’s not to say that pre-rolls are never programmed though, even in the shows we analyzed. It was easy to find several examples, including this one on On Point and several on recent episodes of The NPR Politics Podcast. In some cases, the show will place advertisers in both a pre-roll and post-roll position with other advertisers in the mid-roll position, such as this episode of Today, Explained where Peacock and Calm were both played at the beginning and end of the episode.
What are the ad break strategies for news podcasts?
Half of the shows we selected run two ad breaks, half of them run 3 ad breaks.
Shows with 2 ad spots:
Shows with 3 ad spots:
It appears that the shows space their ad breaks out pretty generously but there are some key differences in each show’s approach to ad break placement.
The Daily
Average episode duration: 32 minutes
Today, Explained
Average episode duration: 25 minutes
On Point
Average episode duration: 46 minutes
How many ads are played per break?
Why the structure matters
Edison Research surveyed listeners who consume 5 or more hours of podcast content per week and found that these avid podcast listeners are not very likely to skip ads and tend to have high awareness of the brands mentioned. Yet, in the same study, 50% of listeners claim that they are trying to limit their exposure to advertising. Too many ads piled into one episode, or even in one ad break, can alienate listeners and harm the effectiveness of the ad placement.
Shows with 2 ad spots:
Shows with 3 ad spots:
It’s clear that most ad breaks are only playing one advertiser at a time but looking more closely at the individual shows, you can see that the approach varies.
The Daily
Average episode duration: 32 minutes
Today, Explained
Average episode duration: 25 minutes
What a day
Average episode duration: 22 minutes
Podcast Ad Formats
Baked-in vs. Dynamically Inserted
Magellan AI detected that every podcast on this list has used dynamic ad insertion. NPR makes it clear to advertisers that they have the option to run ads baked-in (recorded into the episode), or dynamically-inserted using audience targeting and attribution technology. Given that the majority of daily news podcasts will be consumed within a day or two of publishing, there’s not much room for these publishers to monetize their back-catalog episodes by serving ads dynamically on an impression basis. However, they can better serve their advertisers if they’re using dynamic-insertion services that all the advertiser more granular audience targeting.
Live Ad vs. Pre-Produced Ad
Given what we know about listener behavior and brand recall, it’s safe to assume that host-read ads and personal endorsements are the listener’s preferred ad delivery. However, with the caliber of content and frequency of shows being so high in a daily news podcast, it’s nearly impossible for hosts to deliver personalized messages for every advertiser. The New York Times, producers of The Daily, specifically outline in their podcast media kit, “Copy should be structured as a verbatim script, not as a list of desired talking points. Endorsements, Host Reads, Music and Ad Libs are not accepted.” These clear guidelines help NYT maintain a high quality of ads and a consistent delivery style for their listeners.
Live ads (also called live reads) are when the podcast host works from talking points or a set script while recording the content of the episode. This allows the host to weave the product or brand endorsement into the topic of the episode and/or give a more conversational and approachable ad. This type of ad puts a lot more work in the hands of the host and producers, and is difficult to maintain consistent quality so you’re less likely to find them in daily news podcasts. Publishers also have to weigh the risks of their hosts appearing biased or untrustworthy by endorsing products. NPR offers and ad product that comes close but it’s not available on their news podcasts and still results in a final script that the host reads.
About Us
Magellan AI captures all ads, whether host-read or pre-recorded, baked-in or dynamically inserted, and classifies ads by podcast content, position, and strategy.
Using machine learning to process hundreds of thousands of podcast episodes, Magellan AI has created the world's largest database of podcast advertising data – covering activity by 19,000 brands across over 30,000 podcasts.
Trusted by advertisers including BetterHelp and ThredUp for media planning and publishers like the New York Times and WBUR for sales intelligence and content acquisition research. Learn more >>
