Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company, has developed a new self-serve advertising platform to enable brands of any size and budget to reach the highly engaged audiences across the more than 88,000 podcasts within the Acast Marketplace. This new platform is a major step in democratizing the global podcast advertising industry as it allows advertisers to start their podcast advertising journey for as little as $250.

“Podcasts have the most highly engaged audiences of any form of media out there today and there should not be a barrier to entry for brands to connect with these listeners,” said Niklas Lagerberg, Acast Product Manager. “With Acast’s new self-serve platform dedicated purely to podcasts, we’ve created a unique opportunity for small businesses, as well as larger brands curious about podcast advertising, to dip their toes into the waters on a scale that works for their business needs and budgets.” 

Acast’s self-serve platform is available to advertisers globally just in time for the holiday shopping season. According to Deloitte’s annual holiday forecast, retail sales are expected to total nearly $1.5 trillion during the November to January timeframe. 

Amid those projections, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), are well-poised to experience higher demand this season. In fact, according to Capterra’s 2022 Holiday Retail Preparations Survey, 63% of SMBs expect to see higher holiday profits compared to 2021. Moreover, this same survey found that 45% of SMBs expect to offer more holiday deals this year because of inflation and 85% expect to increase holiday marketing spend across one or more channels.

Among those SMBs increasing marketing spend ahead of the holidays is Toy Corner, an Ireland-based independent toyshop.

“As a local, independent business we were looking for an efficient and effective way to tell our target market about our latest products. Podcast listening in Ireland is booming – we’re big fans ourselves – so to find that Acast has created an easy-to-use platform for realistic marketing budgets like ours is brilliant,”said Owner of Toy Corner, Hazel McCarthy.

In addition to SMBs, Acast’s self-serve platform is a smart route for podcasters to also become advertisers and promote their own shows and products to their relevant audiences within the podcast environment.

Acast is the global leader in podcast advertising that works with more than 2,400 advertisers each year. In addition to small businesses, Acast also partners with major brands including Amazon, State Farm, Macy’s, Ikea, Klarna, Ulta Beauty, and more.

For more information on Acast’s self-serve platform, please visit: https://www.acast.com/advertising/self-serve.