Channels and formats
What is podcast advertising?
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what it means here
Here is what the term means for a UK buyer
The definition above holds anywhere. Buying media in the UK adds the detail below, including where AdBuyMCP does something different.
Dynamically inserted advertising is what a programmatic plan buys: targetable, reportable and removable. Host-read is an endorsement and costs more per thousand, and Acast inserts its host reads into episodes for as long as the campaign runs. UK self-serve minimums are low. Spotify's UK page says Ad Studio campaigns start at £250, and Acast has quoted $250, £250 or €250 for its self-serve. Acast prices a host read per show per week, from a $25 to $40 CPM (checked 20 October 2026). Named-show buying happens through private marketplace deals, which are negotiated before they are executed.
How does an AdBuyMCP awareness plan buy podcasts?
Podcasts are one of four channels inside an awareness plan's monthly price, bought by show and category in the business and tech shows a B2B market chooses. They are aimed by show, category and location: Acast sells a Business & Finance category and a Business Leaders audience attribute, and Spotify's self-serve podcast ads target by category, age, gender and location. Those are the sellers' own descriptions, checked 20 October 2026.
Host-read sponsorships take four to six weeks to book, with each podcaster approving the advertiser, and a named show arrives as a private marketplace deal specification, because the deal has to exist before a plan can spend against it. AdBuyMCP's catalogue grades the translation 65 out of 100 at content level: you reach people who listen to the shows your audience listens to. The weekly report counts the podcast line in downloads and ad deliveries, and a download is not a confirmed play.
How is podcast advertising measured?
Podcast response is measured on properties you own: promo codes, vanity URLs and pixel events, matched to the campaign by a key it cannot change. Those are observed responses, correlated with the campaign.
Whether the audio caused them is a separate question, answered by a powered geo-lift test. A national podcast buy usually has no markets to hold out, so its evidence is delivery plus observed response, each under its own label.
Sources: Spotify Advertising UK, Small business advertising, checked 20 October 2026; Acast, Campaign targeting, 16 December 2024, checked 20 October 2026; Acast, How to book a host-read sponsorship, 8 April 2025, checked 20 October 2026.
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related terms
These terms sit next to this one
Most confusion in media buying comes from two adjacent terms being used interchangeably, so these are the neighbours worth reading next.
Digital audio advertising
Audio advertising delivered through streaming music, digital radio and podcasts, bought by show, genre, publisher segment and daypart. Distinct from broadcast radio in that individual impressions are counted and targeting is applied per listener session.
Private marketplace (PMP)
A negotiated arrangement in which a publisher makes specific inventory available to specific buyers at agreed terms, transacted programmatically through a deal identifier rather than in the open auction.
Frequency
The average number of times the people in an audience see an advert in a period, usually a week or a whole campaign. It is impressions divided by the people reached, so it describes the audience on average and says nothing certain about any one person.
Attribution
Assigning credit for an outcome to the advertising touchpoints that preceded it, according to a rule the advertiser chose. It describes correlation in a conversion path, and it cannot show on its own that the advertising caused anything.
same group
These terms are also in Channels and formats
The channels UK advertisers buy, and the words the sellers use for them.