Programmatic FAQs

Programmatic Ads make it really easy to set your podcast to monetize on auto-pilot, with automated ads being inserted into your podcast from approved ad categories.

What are Programmatic Ads?

Programmatic Ads are automated ads that are inserted in your podcast episodes, with ads from advertisers whose categories you’ve approved.

How does it work?

When you enable Programmatic Ads, you can select which ad slots to open up on your episodes - pre roll, mid roll, post roll, or a mix of all three. You then select which categories to block (to stop inappropriate ads being delivered to your audience), save your settings, and then ads will start to be inserted when available.

What ad categories can I block?

Captivate Programmatic Ads follows the industry-standard IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) category blocking format, that allows you to set broad categories to highly specific niches. This ensures ads from brands that don’t align with personal beliefs, for example, aren’t published to your podcast.

Can I control what ads play on my episode?

You can control the categories, but then the ads from approved categories are automatically added, so you wouldn’t know which ads are playing. But you can feel confident it’s only ads that relate to your podcast and audience, based on your category blocking.

How do advertisers choose my podcast?

Based on your niche and category blocking, only advertisers that fall into that criteria would have access to your show. They don’t “choose” the podcast specifically - instead, it’s based on your settings and their requirements (amount of monthly downloads, for example).

What happens if no advertiser purchases my inventory?

Your automated ad slots won’t be filled, and just your own promos will run instead (if you have those in place).

How much can I expect to earn?

This is based on a multitude of factors - your podcast niche, categories, downloads, expected impressions, etc. Generally, Programmatic Ads are based on CPM (how much you can earn per 1,000 impressions) so the larger your audience, the more revenue you can expect to make.

How do I get started?

First you’ll need to make sure you have Stripe enabled and connected on your account to process your earnings - full details here on setting that up. Then, click the Programmatic tab in your Captivate dashboard and follow these steps.

Note: Programmatic Ads is a beta release in the US initially, with more countries to follow in due course.

Updated on: 24/06/2026