How to Serve a Campaign Through Podscribe’s SmartServe – Podscribe

Overview

Serving ads through Podscribe gives you precise control over who hears your ads, which creative they hear, and how often they hear it. You set the rules once, then deliver and measure from one place.

Podscribe’s SmartServe uses VAST technology to allow advertisers to activate campaigns directly from their Podscribe dashboards and target the highest-performing audience segments.

What are VAST tags?

A VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) tag in Podscribe is a standardized ad-serving link that delivers your audio creative to your target audience and tracks it at the same time. Each VAST campaign is associated with a specific advertiser and creative set, ensuring accurate ad delivery, targeting, and frequency control.

How to activate a Podscribe SmartServe campaign?

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For Advertisers:

Go to By Campaign > Hover/select your campaign > Impression Pixel.

Click “Set Up” on the <VAST> banner at the bottom.

Upload your creative file and select your Serve Mode.

Click on Manage Targeting Profile

Create a new profile or select an existing one

Set targeting rules to include or exclude audience segments

Set frequency to limit how often a listener hears the ad

Set criteria for matching listeners by shows, geos, device types etc.

Toggle the campaign status to Active.

Copy the generated VAST tag URL.

Send that URL to your publisher for trafficking.

That’s it! Once implemented, the ad will serve via Podscribe with full measurement and targeting functionality enabled.

—> Watch this video walkthrough with voiceover to learn more.

For Publishers

Receive the advertiser’s Podscribe VAST URL.

Traffic it in your ad server or hosting platform like any third-party VAST creative.

Deliver as usual. Podscribe enforces the Targeting Profile in-tag. You keep your normal reporting and controls.

When an advertiser asks for a Podscribe VAST tag, we can help you set up fast! Reach out to partnerships@podscribe.com.

Targeting capabilities with Podscribe via VAST tags

Targeting is controlled through a Targeting Profile that defines the rules, criteria and frequency of serving an ad. Each VAST campaign links to one Targeting Profile, but one profile can be shared across many campaigns. Targeting profiles can be copied, renamed, reset to default or deleted.

Understanding Targeting Profiles

When viewing reports (e.g., Genre, Audience, etc.), you can now:

Identify your best-performing segments.

Click to target those specific segments. This automatically creates a targeting profile.

In other words, you can target only the best-performing segments, or activate the top audiences directly from within the Podscribe interface.

Targeting Options - Read more here

Target / Exclude (anti-target)

By Segment:

Those who took an action already

Those exposed to an ad already

By Media Type, By Publisher, By Campaign

By Event: Install, Lead, Purchase, Signup, Visit

By timeframe: From 1 day and up to 12 months.

Key Definitions

1. Rules: Rules define targeting and exclusion logic. Segments you can target or exclude:

Those who took an action already like visit, install, sign up etc. with a lookback window in days, weeks, or months

Those who were exposed to an ad already: by media type such as podcast, SAI, simulcast, by publisher, or by specific campaign, with a lookback window in days, weeks, or months

2. Frequency: Frequency defines how often a listener can hear an ad. You can control exposure with:

Global Frequency across the advertiser

Campaign Frequency for a single campaign

3. Criteria: Criteria define conditions for matching listeners. All criteria combine with AND logic. For example: show, episode, geo, audience etc.

4. Serve Modes

Sequential per Listener: Serves creatives in a set order for each listener (e.g., first visit = Ad 1, second = Ad 2, then loops).

A/B Test Mode – Splits delivery across creatives for testing, either evenly or by custom percentage (e.g., 10%, 50%, 40%).

How does Podscribe use or handle VAST tags?

A VAST campaign is created per clname (campaign external name).

If you create a VAST campaign inside any measurement campaign, Podscribe links that same VAST campaign to all other campaigns that share the same clname.

A VAST URL is only available after you upload at least one creative.

When an ad platform such as Adswizz requests the tag, Podscribe’s DSP service selects the creative based on your serve mode and targeting profile.

Serving ads through Podscribe’s SmartServe delivers DSP-level precision with more transparency and control. It’s live in your Podscribe dashboard right now. Try it out!