Note: The Spotify Audience Network allows publishers on Megaphone to monetize unsold inventory within their podcasts to brand advertisers. For information about the Spotify Audience Network and how to submit your podcasts, please reach out to the support team via live chat.

Podcasts opted into the Spotify Audience Network have the ability to exclude categories of advertisers from running in episodes. For example, a podcast that has blocked the category of "Non-Alcoholic Beverages" would prevent ads from a coffee shop or a soda brand from running within the podcast.

Though category exclusions can be setup in advance of Spotify Audience Network opt in, only podcasts with confirmed acceptance into the Spotify Audience Network will have ads from the Spotify Audience Network delivered. Please reach out to the Megaphone Support team with any questions regarding your show's status in this program.

To manage category exclusions for your podcast, start by navigating to the podcast via the "Podcasts" button on the left-hand menu and selecting the show from the list of podcasts. Once on the podcast dashboard, click the "Settings" button in the top right corner.

The podcast settings page contains four tabs. Select the "Spotify Audience Network Settings" tab to customize the Spotify Audience Network ad preferences for this podcast. In addition to selecting category exclusions, you can also set price floors which will prevent ads sold at a CPM threshold or lower from running in your podcast.

Below the price floors section, you can click the "Select" button in the "Advertising Category Exclusions" section to begin selecting categories to block from running on the selected podcast.

Upon clicking the "Select" button, you will be presented with a brief reminder related to the category exclusions. Please be aware that failure to select and save category exclusions could result in unwanted Spotify Audience Network ads playing in the podcast episodes. Please make sure to browse through and familiarize yourself with all categories before saving. If you still have questions after browsing through the categories, please reach out to our Support team for assistance in finding categories or answering general questions.

To move on, click the "Got It! Thanks" button and the category exclusion view will open after accepting the warning:

From here you can expand category groupings to make selections, select an entire grouping of categories, or use the search bar to find and select additional categories to block. A total count of the selected excluded categories will be tallied in the top left corner of the view. Once you've made all your category decisions, click the "Select" button.

The category exclusions will be applied to the podcast after clicking the "Select" button. Once satisfied with your selections, click "Save" in the top right corner to block Spotify Audience ads from the advertisers within these categories from running. To cancel the selections, simply close without saving and you will be returned to the Podcast Dashboard without the category exclusions being applied to the podcast.

You can add or remove categories at any time throughout your podcast's participation in the Spotify Audience Network. As always, if you have any questions or need assistance please reach out to our Support team via the Live Chat button on the bottom right corner of the screen.