• by Fern Siegel , April 26, 2023

Podcast company Acast has added a new feature to its self-serve podcast ad platform, which was released in November.

The new capability, called Audience Segments, is meant to deliver more efficient buying and accurate targeting at scale.

Previously this kind of podcast ad targeting was bought through a sales rep. Now, media buyers can better target audiences for campaigns bought through self-serve. The significance: Media buyers with smaller budgets can now access professional-level features.

Campaigns on self-serve start at $250.

Audience Segments is available to advertising is the U.S., Canada and Australia. Acast offers more than 92,000 podcasts.

“We built our self-serve advertising platform as a response to the market demand from advertisers and have continued to innovate in ways that keep their needs central to the product,” said Niklas Lagerberg, product manager at Acast. “We’ve seen not just more advertisers, but more experienced advertisers booking podcast campaigns through the self-serve platform.”

Audience Segments leverages Nielsen data to enable brands to target listeners in specific categories, such as business leaders, high-income earners, tech enthusiasts, travelers, parents and pet owners.

Acast also works with third-party vendors, including Podsights, ArtsAI, Claritas and Veritonic, for impression tracking, verification, brand uplift and attribution.

“As a media brand, we knew podcast advertising would be a seamless inclusion to our media mix. What we didn’t know was just how easy Acast’s self-serve platform would be to book the campaign, identify our target audiences, and measure the results,” said Claudia Collins, head of marketing and membership at Tortoise Media, which promotes its podcast slate on Acast.