Spotify’s Megaphone, a podcast advertising and publishing platform, introduced three new features to enhance podcast publishers’ monetization options. 

The updates focus on improving advertisers’ ability to reach targeted audiences and streamlining the ad management process.

“With thousands of podcasts fighting for the same top brand advertisers, it’s increasingly important for publishers to offer more differentiated and versatile ads ready to deliver as soon as the contract is signed,” Megaphone said in a news release. 

• Contextual Targeting – allows publishers to target or exclude campaigns based on topics discussed within podcast episodes.
  
  Spotify’s first-party classification technology automatically generates episode-level topics such as “careers,” “books/literature,” and “health.” This feature is free to Megaphone customers with podcasts opted into the Spotify Audience Network.
  
• Segment Editing – enables publishers to remove audio segments, including previously baked-in ads, and replace them with dynamic ad locations without re-uploading the audio file. The feature aims to introduce new monetization opportunities across content catalogs.
  
• Bulk Order Editing – allows publishers to manage multiple elements across multiple orders on a single screen, including pacing, delivery logic, and rates. This follows Megaphone’s recent update to its Campaigns experience, which facilitated the booking and management process.

Megaphone is rolling out these features to all customers across all markets.

Publishers like YMH Studios already use Megaphone for hosting, distribution, and advertising solutions and are seeing strong revenue results.

“The Spotify Audience Network has been such a powerfully positive supplemental tool to help us achieve industry-leading fill rates of 90% and above,” Alan Abdine, Head of Ad Revenue at YMH, said in a statement. 

He described Megaphone as the company’s “probably most important tool in addition to direct sales to maximize the monetization potential of shows and inventory.”