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Easy mode

  • Updated

When you just want one fixed audio segment to play, every time, in a specific spot - skip the whole campaign / tag system and pin the asset directly to a marker.

When easy mode is right

Use direct insertion when:

  • You're running a house ad for your own podcast network and want it on every episode forever.
  • You need a legal disclaimer at the start of every episode of a specific show.
  • An always-on sponsor pays a flat retainer (no impression tracking needed) and just wants their audio in every episode.
  • You're testing Dynamic Content for the first time and want to verify the assembly pipeline works before setting up tags and campaigns.

Use full campaign mode when you need:

  • Rotation (different listeners hear different things).
  • Date windows (a campaign that runs for 3 weeks only).
  • Per-listener frequency caps ("at most 1 play per listener per week").
  • Impression tracking and revenue attribution.
  • Multiple advertisers competing for the same slot.

You can mix both on the same show - even on different markers of the same episode.

Two paths to direct insertion

Path A: Per-episode marker with a pinned asset

Use when you want the asset on one specific episode (or a handful).

  1. Open the episode in the editor.
  2. Go to the Markers tab.
  3. Click + Add marker and pick the position (Pre-roll, Mid-roll, Post-roll). For mid-roll, you'll also set the timestamp.
  4. In the marker's details, set Asset override to the asset you want to play. Pick an asset version from your library.
  5. Save.

That's it. When the episode is next assembled (within ~5 minutes, or trigger it manually from the Shows page with the regenerate button), the pinned asset plays in that slot. No campaign matching happens - the override wins.

To swap the asset later, edit the same marker and pick a different asset (or asset version). The episode will re-assemble on the next scheduler tick.

To remove the override, edit the marker and clear the asset field. If the marker also has tags, it'll then fall back to campaign matching; if not, the marker stays empty.

Path B: Show-wide pre-roll or post-roll via Show settings

Use when you want the asset on every episode of a show, including future ones.

  1. Go to Dynamic Content → Show settings and open the show.
  2. Enable Default pre-roll (or post-roll).
  3. Set the Default asset field to the asset you want to play.
  4. Save.

From now on:

  • Every new episode you create gets a pre-roll marker auto-spawned with that asset pinned.
  • Existing episodes don't change automatically. To apply the new default to your back-catalogue, go to Dynamic Content → Shows → [your show], select the episodes you want to update (or "Select all"), and click Apply on the Pre-roll card in the bulk action bar.

To replace the asset later: edit Show settings, pick the new asset. New episodes pick it up immediately. For existing episodes, run Apply again on the bulk action bar to overwrite.

To remove it: turn off Default pre-roll in Show settings (stops it on new episodes), then use Remove on the Pre-roll card to delete the existing pre-roll markers from your back-catalogue.

What you give up in easy mode

Direct insertion is genuinely simpler, but it has trade-offs you should know:

  • No rotation. Same audio for every listener. If your sponsor wants variety, you'll need to swap the asset manually.
  • No impression / spend tracking. Direct-insert markers don't generate impression rows. The Revenue dashboard won't show them.
  • No date windows. The asset plays until you remove it. If you want a sponsor message that auto-expires on Dec 31, use a campaign instead.
  • No frequency caps. Every download of the episode plays the asset; you can't say "at most once per week per listener".
  • No mid-roll auto-placement. Mid-rolls in easy mode still need per-episode timestamps. Use the Apply mid-roll defaults bulk action on the Shows page to apply your show's mid-roll templates across episodes you've already prepared.

If any of these turn into "actually we do need that" later, you can graduate to campaigns without redoing the markers: add tags to your markers (Show settings → Default pre-roll tags), then create a campaign on those tags. The pinned-asset override stays until you clear it; once you do, the marker starts matching campaigns the usual way.

A small worked example: house ad on every episode of a show

You want every episode of "In de wandelgangen" to start with a 15-second promo for your other show, "Growth Minds":

  1. Upload the promo MP3 under Dynamic Content → Assets. Name it "Growth Minds promo v1". Springcast attaches it as version 1 automatically.
  2. Go to Dynamic Content → Show settings → In de wandelgangen.
  3. Tick Default pre-roll.
  4. Set Default asset to "Growth Minds promo".
  5. Save.
  6. From now on, every new episode of that show gets the promo pre-roll attached automatically.
  7. To apply to back-catalogue: open Dynamic Content → Shows → In de wandelgangen, tick the episodes (or "Select all"), and click Apply on the Pre-roll card.

To later swap the promo for "Growth Minds promo v2": upload the new audio under Assets, set it as the active version, then re-run the bulk Apply on the Shows page. Existing episodes re-stitch with the new promo within ~5 minutes.

Tips

  • For house ads that rarely change, easy mode + a single asset is genuinely easier than wiring up a campaign. Don't over-engineer.
  • If you want both an always-on house ad and the option for an advertiser to bump it: skip the pinned asset and use a campaign on a House tag with a fallback. Then a bookable Premium tag with House as its fallback gives you the both-worlds outcome.
  • The bulk Apply / Remove actions on the Shows page work the same whether the marker is direct-insert or tag-based. You don't lose any bulk-editing power by choosing easy mode.
  • Want to clear out all your testing markers and start fresh on a few episodes? Use the Reset action on the bulk action bar - it strips pre/post markers and clears mid-roll contents while keeping the mid-roll timing in place.

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