IAB Tech Lab rolls out podcast measurement compliance certification program

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Technology Lab (IAB Tech Lab) officially rolled out its podcast measurement compliance certification program Tuesday, formalizing a program that attempts to apply standards to a medium that’s been hard to measure.

Advertisers and platforms can now get certification that says they are compliant with IAB Tech Lab’s guidelines, which establish a common set of podcast ad metrics pertaining to downloads, listeners and ad delivery. The IAB Tech Lab initially introduced measurement guidelines in 2016, and unveiled a revised version a year ago.

NPR and podcasting platform Rawvoice/Blubrry are the first companies to earn the IAB Tech Lab Seal of Compliance for Podcast Measurement.

Why you should care

Podcasting has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years — 2017 revenue topped $314 million. But without server-side standard metrics and measurements, marketers can’t adequately analyze and optimize the ads they are buying.

“Podcast advertising has been challenged by a lack of uniformity in measurement systems and metrics,” IAB Tech Lab said in a press release announcing the news. “Meaningful measurement has been thwarted by an inability to connect, track, and analyze user requests; measurement products that use dissimilar, proprietary algorithms; and a lack of an agreed-upon set of metrics and their meanings.”

Steve Mulder, senior director of audience insights at NPR, said the guidelines will give the industry a common language.

“We are committed to advancing podcast measurement on all fronts: providing critical download-based metrics according to the IAB guidelines as well as moving into listening-based metrics through our Remote Audio Data spec. This certification is a key step for us and for the industry,” Mulder said.

Todd Cochrane, CEO, Rawvoice/Blubrry, said that the certification “will now be the gold standard of audited, tested, and validated podcast statistics for our 50,000-plus customers.”

More about the news

• The guidelines specify that ad measurement begins after the graphics/metadata and one minute of audio has been delivered.
• This certification pertains only to server-side data; certification for measuring client-side data already exists.
• To gain certification, organizations must go through a four-step process in which the IAB Tech Lab audits data samples, validates data queries, evaluates business processes and performs annual validations.

About The Author

Robin Kurzer

Robin Kurzer started her career as a daily newspaper reporter in Milford, Connecticut. She then made her mark on the advertising and marketing world in Chicago at agencies such as Tribal DDB and Razorfish, creating award-winning work for many major brands. For the past seven years, she’s worked as a freelance writer and communications professional across a variety of business sectors.