Maybe I’m the only one but paying for More Power Users to get rid of ads then having Relay podcast ads at the end irks me to no end. I turned off renew for More Power Users due to this.
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Interesting… I do not subscribe to More MPU… However, I assumed when there will not be any ads even if it’s from the same network…
I do not know why I assumed that. Apple does this all time… advertising Arcade etc with notifications etc…
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I feel the same, it really annoyed me when these came up after paying so much to not be getting adverts.
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Let me guess… This was a “mistake” and “shouldn’t have happened”. 
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I totally agree. I’m more than willing to pay for no ads because I hate them that much. But if I pay I don’t want any ads at all.
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A thought for what it is worth—and all/many of you—may have already done this. But if not, instead of posting the complaint here (a valid one I believe), why not just discreetly email @MacSparky and @ismh and let them know?
I am not a subscriber so I have no stake in this matter. I listen to MPU and other podcasts on my runs and I simply tell Siri to skip forward x amount of time. I’ve learned by paying attention approximately how long ads are on each podcast so the process is quite accurate. 
That said, I know ads are important for supporting a podcast and the podcasters. Accordingly, I make a practice of only skipping ads that I’ve heard a LOT, e.g., TE or for apps/services/products I’m already using. For new services or products I’ll listen a few times even if I’m not interested (pillow ads?) to support the podcasters.
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If that is accurate, I’ll stop listening to new pillow ads. 
That said, I can’t imagine there’s not some analytics that advertisers use to measure the impact of ads on a podcast beyond just the number of listeners and or subscribers. If they don’t, I don’t see how they can measure ROI for their advertising dollars.
That’s good information to know. I use the default podcast app mainly because I use it extensively both when running as well as in my car. I don’t want complications with CarPlay and I found some of the third-party apps to not always work with CarPlay especially if there has been an update.
Based on the information you provided I think I’ll just skip all of those ads.
Podcasting in its open standard form is actually one of the latest places where you can’t really get analytics. Which is what makes it great. By design, Relay does not know what your demographic is nor what ads interest you.
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I have to agree …. Not a fan of this and stopped my subscription as well.
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Apple Podcast does offer analytics for downloaded podcasts. Users can out opt (somehow…) The analytics are reported by the app as it’s used.
You can get an idea of what they collect here: Measure podcast performance - Apple Podcasts for Creators
One of the big measures of ad performance is how much the promo code is used. As you’ve noticed, the promo code doesn’t change from episode to episode, so it’s more about the effectiveness of the ads over several episodes. I daresay that Relay isn’t concerned about ad skipping so long as the promo code still performs.
And yes, count me as one who doesn’t care for the Relay cross-promotion in More Power Users, but I haven’t unsubscribed over it. @Bmosbacker is right that I should’ve just directly contacted the show about it already!
That is very helpful. I can skip ads without guilt. 
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I have to agree that including cross-promotion of other Relay shows when someone’s paid to subscribe to an ad-free feed is kind of dodgy.
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I may be naïve but I’m inclined to think it’s more of an oversight. I also understand why they would be cross advertising for shows on Relay. One could argue, I’m not necessarily arguing this, that a Relay ad is somewhat different than paid advertisers. That said, it is obviously still an ad. But, everything I’ve seen and heard from both David and Stephen incline me to believe that this is not a dodgy practice as much as perhaps a different perspective or an oversight.
I"m super happy with the new cross promotion. I’ve always been baffled that relay shows don’t cross promote other shows in any way. I think its a great sign of maturity in the network that they have finally started.
I’ll have to listen to see if the relay shows I subscribe to have the cross promotion or not. I would want it in, but I can understand those who would want it out. For me the subscription is about the extra content, not about removing ads.
I think all the cross promotion is the very last thing in the episode where ads haven’t traditionally gone in Relay shows.
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That’s why I switched most of the podcasts to download manually. It’s my only way of “voting” whether the content provided is worth my time or not. Downloading for convenience and then skipping/deleting the episode later on due to a lack of interest falsely inflates the only metric.
Same in connected pro as well, tad irksome but ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Not a subscriber to any of the ad free feeds but since this started this year I never got the impression that these were not paid ads and more informing people listening to the show that this is a network and he’s a show on it. Hence why it still shows on your feed.
The amount of shows I listen to on the network where hosts start digging through a settings menu I think a simple plug for another show on the network isn’t that big of a waste of your time.
Honestly a simple 30 second skip forward isn’t that hard if it really bothers you that much.
I’ve answered this elsewhere, but the cross-promo thing is still pretty new and we’re still figuring it out. We’ll talk about removing them in the member feeds (which I’ve been leaning toward for a while), but in the meantime, sorry to see you go over a 30 second read for other projects on my network.
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I wasn’t trying to be an a**hole about this. It’s just that if I pay for no ads that’s what I expect. MPU is the only Relay show I listen to and I will gladly resubscribe if the ads are removed.
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