Unlock Better Performance with AI Optimize & Lookalikes on SmartServe
The best advertising doesn't just reach more people– it reaches the right people.
That's why we're excited to introduce two powerful additions to Podscribe SmartServe that make campaign optimization easier than ever: AI Optimize and Lookalike Audience Targeting.
Whether you prefer hands-on audience control or to hand the reins to AI for automatic optimization, SmartServe now gives you both options.
Let AI Optimize
For advertisers looking for peak performance and are open to letting AI take the wheel, SmartServe now offers AI Optimize. The average brand sees a 3x improvement in impression performance over the advertiser’s average campaign.
Enable AI Optimize within the SmartServe Targeting Profile, and Podscribe’s machine learning models will automatically determine which impressions are most likely to drive results based on your brand's historical performance.
💡 🎯 Want to find out which features matter most for your brand and how your campaigns could perform with AI Optimize?
The model analyzes prior campaign performance to identify the audience characteristics most associated with conversions, then automatically serves impressions to those high-performing opportunities.You can set your desired impressions per day, and the model will adjust the performance threshold necessary to hit the goal.
The following factors may be used for optimization:
listener geo
listener app & device
listener frequency in this campaign and across all of the brand’s campaigns
listener demographics
content of ad
ad placement, eg pre/mid/post
prior listener engagement with the brand
time of day & day of week
To learn more about AI Optimize, check out this Help Article →
If you want to learn more or get started, please send us a message.
Reach More High-Value Listeners with Lookalike Audience Targeting
One of the most effective ways to grow a campaign is by finding more listeners who resemble your existing customers.
You can also retarget those who took an action AND target lookalikes at the same time to expand reach.
With SmartServe Lookalike Audience Targeting, advertisers can reach households that share similar characteristics with their existing customers and website visitors.
Site visitor re-targeting achieves ~5x the performance of regular campaigns. While this tactic is highly effective, its scale is inherently limited by the size of the brand's existing audience.
Lookalike audiences address this limitation by identifying listeners who closely resemble the brand’s audience. Based on our early tests, we expect lookalike audiences to deliver a 1.5-2.5x better performance while expanding reach. Lookalike audiences are built using signals such as:
Listening behavior
Geographic location
Household similarities
Device characteristics
Lookalike targeting offers a compelling balance between efficiency and scale, helping advertisers continue growing once their retargeting pool begins to plateau.
Coming soon:
- Configure the similarity threshold to balance audience scale and precision.
- Lookalike performance prediction to help estimate campaign outcomes before activation.
Which Feature Should You Use?
Both features are designed to improve campaign performance but they offer different levels of control.
AI Optimize is best for advertisers who:
Want the strongest performance with minimal effort
Prefer automation over manual optimization
Trust machine learning to continuously identify the best opportunities
Lookalike Audience Targeting is ideal for advertisers who:
Want greater control over audience selection
Like testing specific targeting strategies
Want to increase the scale of visitor retargeting campaigns
In many cases, AI Optimize will naturally incorporate the same audience signals that marketers would otherwise configure manually, allowing advertisers to focus less on targeting and more on creative strategy.
Both solutions are built on the same attribution and measurement data already available within Podscribe, so the insights you already rely on, can be turned directly into activation strategies.
Smarter Campaigns, Less Manual Work
As digital advertising continues moving toward AI-driven optimization, audio advertising should be no different.
SmartServe's newest capabilities help advertisers spend less time managing audiences and more time creating great campaigns, whether that's by expanding reach with Lookalike Audience Targeting or letting AI automatically optimize delivery for maximum performance.
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✅ Availability & Pricing
- Lookalike Audience Targeting is available today within SmartServe.
- Try AI Optimize at a discounted $1.50 CPM through the end of 2026 ($3 CPM, thereafter).
To learn more about SmartServe or activate these features, please send us a note below.
