What’s the difference between pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads?

When setting up PAID on RSS.com, you’ll come across three types of ad placements: pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll. Here’s what each one means and how they behave across your podcast:

Pre-roll Ads

These ads play at the beginning of your episode, typically right before your content starts.

• When activated, pre-rolls apply globally to your entire episode catalog.
• You don’t need to manually set them for each episode.

Post-roll Ads

These ads play at the end of your episode, after your content has finished.

• Like pre-rolls, automatic post-rolls are also applied globally.

One or two ads per pre-roll and post-roll

Pre-roll and post-roll each let you choose Single or Double. Single plays one ad, and Double plays two back to back. Set them in the Audio Ads section of your PAID page, under Pre-Roll and Post-Roll. The choice applies to all your audio episodes, and when you switch either one on, it starts at Single.

Mid-roll Ads

These are inserted somewhere in the middle of your episode. Learn more on how to use mid-rolls here.

There are two types:

• Automatic mid-rolls: These are placed by our system based on estimated best placement. They apply globally to your episodes.
• Manual mid-rolls: You can set these at specific timestamps in individual episodes.

Manual mid-rolls take priority: If you manually place a mid-roll in an episode, it will override the automatic mid-roll for that episode. This gives you full control over the timing and context of the ad break.

Video episodes

Everything above describes your audio episodes. Video episodes on the Max plan use a set layout of one pre-roll, automatic mid-rolls and two post-rolls, which you do not need to configure. How video ads and revenue work covers video.