When using Podbean’s Ads Marketplace or Dynamic Ad Insertion, you need to define where ads should appear in your episodes. This guide will show you how to manage your ad placements using both automated and manual tools.


  1. Before You Get Started: Key Concepts
  2. Where to View and Manage Ad Time Slots
  3. Auto Setup: Smart Slot
  4. Manual Setup 
    1. Set time slots for a single episode 
    2. Batch set or remove time slots
  5. Frequently Asked Questions



1. Before You Get Started: Key Concepts


What is an Ad Position?


Ad position refers to the area within your episode where an ad is placed:

  • Pre-roll: At the beginning of an episode.
  • Mid-roll: During the middle of an episode.
  • Post-roll: At the end of an episode.



What is an Ad Time Slot?


A Time Slot is a specific timestamp within an episode where an ad is allowed to play. For example, you might set a mid-roll time slot at the 20:00 mark.


Ads can only be inserted where time slots are available. If an episode only has a time slot at 20:00, ads will only play at that specific moment. Ads will never be inserted into positions without a designated time slot.



Introducing AI Slot Pick


Podbean AI Slot Pick is a feature that helps you effortlessly find and set mid-roll time slots for episodes. It combines sentence-break detection with AI-assisted contextual analysis to identify natural pauses suitable for ad insertion. This saves you time and effort while helping create a smoother ad experience for listeners.



2. Where to View and Manage Time Slots


Once you’ve joined the Ads Marketplace or started using Dynamic Ad Insertion, you’ll find the Ad Time Slots menu at the bottom of the sidebar. Click it to open the Manage Ad Time Slots section, where you can view and manage time slots for your eligible podcasts and episodes.



You can also open it from the Set Ad Time Slots button on your podcast dashboard’s Episode List page.




3. Auto Setup: Smart Slot


Podbean provides the Smart Slot feature that fully automates the slot setting for you.


To set it up, open the Manage Ad Time Slots section, select a podcast, and click Smart Slot Settings.



You can choose which ad positions to enable Smart Slot. By default, all positions are selected:

  • Smart Pre-roll: Automatically sets a pre-roll slot at the very beginning of each episode.
  • Smart Mid-roll: Uses AI Slot Pick to automatically set mid-roll time slots at suitable natural breaks in each episode.
  • Smart Post-roll: Automatically sets a post-roll slot at the very end of each episode.




What happens after enabling?


When ads start running on your podcast for the first time, Podbean will automatically apply your Smart Slot Settings to your 100 most recent episodes.


Moving forward, the settings will also automatically apply to each new episode you publish.



4. Manual Setup


You have the flexibility to set or adjust time slots manually, either one episode at a time or across several episodes.


A. Set time slots for a single episode

  1. In the Manage Ad Time Slots section, click on an episode to open its time slot settings page.
  2. Listen to the episode to find suitable time points for ad insertion.
  3. Click the Add new slot button and select the ad position of the slot.
  4. Adjust the slot’s timestamp if needed. You can also click Preview to listen around the timestamp or Remove to delete the slot.
  5. When you’re done, click Save in the top-right corner.



You will then see the time slots successfully applied to that episode.



Notes:
- The time slot you set corresponds to the timestamp in your original, ad-free episode audio. You do not need to account for ad lengths when setting time slots.
- Each episode can have 1 pre-roll slot, up to 20 mid-roll slots, and 1 post-roll slot.



B. Batch set or remove time slots


You can also manage time slots for multiple episodes at once. In the Manage Ad Time Slots section, click the checkboxes on the left to select the episodes.


To add slots, click Batch Set and choose an ad position:

  • Pre-roll: Set a pre-roll slot at 00:00:00 or a custom timestamp in each selected episode.
  • Mid-roll: Let AI Slot Pick find suitable natural breaks and set mid-roll slots in each selected episode.
  • Post-roll: Set a post-roll slot at the very end of each selected episode.



To remove slots, click Batch Remove and choose the ad position.




5. Frequently Asked Questions

  • How many ad time slots can I set per episode?
    You can set 1 Pre-roll, 1 Post-roll, and up to 20 Mid-roll time slots for each episode.

  • Can one time slot play multiple ads? How is the order determined?
    Yes, each slot can accommodate up to 3 ads. For more details regarding ad delivery and playback order, please refer to our detailed FAQ: Deep Dive into Ad Priorities and Playback Logic.

  • What does "No Slots Found" mean?
    If you see the “No Slots Found” message, it means AI Slot Pick did not find a clear natural break or a suitable insertion point as mid-roll time slot in that episode.
    You can still set your mid-roll slots manually, or simply ignore the message if you don’t need mid-roll ads for that episode.

  • Can I protect specific episodes from ads?
    Yes. Ads only play where time slots are set, so an episode with no time slots won’t have ads inserted. If an episode already has time slots, you can remove any slot you don’t want individually or in bulk.

  • Can I set slots for video episodes?
    No. Currently, Podbean only supports ad insertion for audio episodes. Video episodes do NOT support ad time slots at this time.