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Take full control of your audio with Insertion Points
Insertion Points allow you to select the exact timestamp within your episode where you can add in dynamic audio such as ads, intros and/or outros, timely news, and really anything else. The sky’s the limit!
This article shows you where to find Insertion Points, when’s the best time to use them, and how to use them to your advantage.
What even is an Insertion Point?
How Insertion Points Work with Audio Blocks
Adding Insertion Points After Uploading
Editing Existing Insertion Points
Further Resources
What even is an Insertion Point?
Great question! An Insertion Point is a marked time in your podcast episode(s) where you want a dynamic piece of audio to play.
For example, say you play the same intro for every single episode. Instead of “baking it in” to each episode, you can mark the timestamp 00:00:00 as your first Pre-Roll Insertion Point and assign an Audio Block with custom audio to that spot in your episode. Every time someone tunes in to your show, our system checks whether or not there’s an Insertion Point and adds in the audio for that listener. If you placed a Pre-Roll Insertion Point at the 00:00:00 timestamp and assigned your Audio Block with Custom Audio, then the listener should hear your intro audio clip as soon as they start the episode.
Insertion Points are categorized between pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll. The definitions of these Insertion Points depend on the length of your episode.
For episodes 20 minutes or longer:
- Pre-roll is the first 5 minutes of your episode
- Mid-roll is any point after the first 5 minutes and before the last 5 minutes
- Post-roll is the last 5 minutes of your episode
For episodes less than 20 minutes:
- Pre-roll is the first 10% of your episode
- Mid-roll is after the first 10% and before the last 10%
- Post-roll is the last 10% of your episode
What’s great about Dynamic Insertion is that you only need to go to one place when you want to change the audio that spans your entire catalog. So, you only need to update So, you only need to update the Custom Audio clip you created when you want to change the intro to your show.
How Insertion Points Work with Audio Blocks
As you may know from above, Insertion Points need an Audio Block assigned to them in order to play. The Audio Block is the dynamic piece of content that plays when our system checks the Insertion Points in your show. You can assign an Audio Block, such as the Default Ad Block, to multiple Insertion Points across one or more episodes.
We recommend reading through our Audio Block Help article for a deeper understanding of this component of Dynamic Insertion.
Adding Insertion Points After Uploading
There are a few different ways to add Insertion Points to your freshly-uploaded episode depending on whether or not you’re opted in to RAP.
If you’re opted in to RAP, then the Insertion Point Screen pops up immediately after your episode is fully processed. We insert 1 Pre, 1 Mid, and 1 Post-roll point automatically for you. The Pre-Roll spot starts at 00:00:00, the Mid-Roll spot is placed at the exact middle (50% mark) in your episode, and the Post-Roll spot is placed at the very last timestamp in your episode.
If you’re not opted in to RAP, then you should see a gray Insertion Points button on the episode page after your episode finishes processing.
Additionally, if you opted in to Cross-Promotions, then we automatically add a second Pre-Roll Insertion Point and a second Post-Roll Insertion Point.
Regardless of how you get there, the Insertion Point Editor allows you to add or remove as many Insertion Points as you wish. Additionally, you don’t need to publish the episode before adding Insertion Points. You can add them to a drafted episode, too!
There are a couple of different ways you can add Insertion Points to your episode.
The first way to add Insertion Points is to click on the red ‘+ Pre Roll’, ‘+ Mid Roll’, and ‘+ Post Roll’ buttons located above the waveforms. Clicking on the ‘+ Pre Roll’ button places an Insertion Point at the beginning of the episode, clicking on the ‘+ Mid Roll’ button places an Insertion Point at the exact point you placed your cursor on the waveform, and clicking on the ‘+ Post Roll’ button places an Insertion Point at the very end of the episode.
The second way is to click the red-and-white Add button located underneath the waveforms on the right-side of the page. Simply enter the timestamp you wish to add the Insertion Point and click the Add button. The Insertion Point then populates on the waveform in the exact timestamp you entered.
You can then assign an Audio Block to any recently created Insertion Points. You should see a drop-down field with Unassigned present. Simply click on that drop-down and select an Audio Block from the list of options.
Once an Audio Block is selected, you can see how many “spots” (determined by the ‘play-up-to’ setting in the Audio Block) are present. In the example image above, you see that the Default Pre & Post Roll Ad Block has 2 spots, meaning up to 2 audio files play back-to-back.
Don’t forget to click the red Save button to finalize and add the Insertion Points to your episode.
Editing Existing Insertion Points
Need to make some changes to Insertion Points? Then look no further! You can edit any and all Insertion Points with our Insertions Point Editor. To find this editor, simply navigate to the Dynamic Insertion page and click on the Insertion Points tab near the top. From there, click on the 3 dots (...) to the right of an episode and select Edit:
You can edit the placement, Audio Block assignment, and even delete Insertion Points in the Insertion Points Editor:
If you’d like to change the placement of an Insertion Point, simply drag the Insertion Point in either waveform. The top waveform is the entirety of your episode, while the bottom waveform is the zoomed in, or zoomed out, version of your episode. You’ll notice a blue highlight shrink and expand on the top waveform if you zoom in or out on the bottom waveform.
You can also change the placement of an Insertion Point by entering the exact time in the timestamp text field directly next to the Insertion Point title. For example, for an ad break after your intro, you could put 00:01:30.00 to have an ad play at the one-minute 30-second mark.
If you need to change the Audio Block assigned to that Insertion Point, then click the Audio Block drop-down box and select the Audio Block you wish to play at that timestamp.
If you want to change an Audio Block assigned to multiple Insertion Points, then you need to use our Bulk Assign feature. See this section of the Audio Block help article for detailed instructions.
If you need to delete an Insertion Point, then click on the 3 dots (...) at the very right of the page and click Delete Insertion Point:
The Insertion Point then disappears from the waveforms and Insertion Points list.
Further Resources
Now that you have a better understanding of Insertion Points, you may want to read over these articles to complete your arsenal of Dynamic Insertion knowledge:
- Read more about Audio Blocks and their role within Dynamic Insertion.
- Learn how to make Dynamic Insertion work for you with our Dynamic Insertion Cookbook.
- Ready to start monetizing? See Dynamic Insertion for the RedCircle Ad Platform (RAP) to understand how our Dynamic Insertion technology works with our Advertising Platform.