Podplay Studio

Audience Measurement Methodology

Podcast Audience Measurement

Bauer Media Audio Methodology v3 - Updated 2024-04-29 

Methodology

Bauer Media has a proprietary service for producing podcast audience metrics compliant with IAB podcast measurement technical guidelines, audited by the global data and analytics company Kantar. 

Bot Detection

  • Exclude User Agents, which are HTTP/curl bots based on the official IAB bot list. 
  • An additional frequency filter is used to minimise the likelihood of invalid traffic. It removes spikes in traffic where a unique identifier has anomalies in the number of episode requests. 

Metrics

Listens (IAB Downloads)

  • A stream (progressive download) or download delivering over 60 seconds of audio. 
  • Seconds of delivered audio calculated from bitrate and audio bytes delivered by the server. 
  • Only one listen per unique identifier (see Metric reach), episode and calendar day is included. 
  • Invalid traffic is excluded (see Bot detection). 
  • Logfiles from AdsWizz may include “listenerid” and “listeningSessionid” data. These parameters are used to track sessions across IP addresses and User Agents. Additional filtering is applied to include only one Listen per “listenerid“ and “listeningSessionid”. 

Reach (IAB Listeners)

  • Data that represents a single user consuming Listens. 
  • A unique identifier is used to estimate unique usage, represented by a combination of IP address and User Agent, or a User ID generated from the application (e.g. provided from the device, cookie, or user sign-in).
  • Reach must be specified within a stated time frame (day, week, month, etc.) and, due to technical limitations, generally has lower accuracy with an increased time frame. For example, the weekly reach is more accurate than the monthly reach. Accuracy means how well it represents actual users rather than technical identifiers such as a device.

Podcast Advertising Measurement

AdsWizz Methodology

Methodology

  • Bauer Media podcast ad delivery is reported according to IAB guidelines through our ad-tech partner, AdsWizz, the global leader in audio advertising technology.
  • In addition to AdsWizz reporting, advertisers can add their own third-party measurement, provided it supports 'server-side audio reporting', including reading the user's IP from the XFF header.
  • AdsWizz reports ad delivery data in real-time. After a campaign concludes, a report is generated with summary data on impressions and reach. 

Bot Detection

AdsWizz use IAB-certified invalid traffic filtering to eliminate potential bots and bogus Requests. 

Metrics

Impressions

  • Impressions are the number of times a podcast ad unit is delivered. An impression is reported when the ad is delivered in its entirety.
  • Impressions are not reported from sessions lasting less than 60 seconds. With the exception that the length of the podcast episode itself is less than 60 seconds.
  • Impressions are delivered in progressive downloads (streaming) and downloads for delayed consumption. it is possible to target streamed impression delivery. 

Reach

  • Data that represents a single user triggering an impression. A unique identifier is used to estimate unique usage.
  • A unique identifier may be represented by a User ID from a client or a combination of IP address and User Agent.
  • Reach must be specified within a stated time frame (day, week, month, etc.) and, due to technical limitations, generally has lower accuracy with an increased time frame. For example, the reach on a campaign with a 7-day duration is more accurate than the reach on a campaign with a 30-day duration. Accuracy means how well it represents actual users rather than technical identifiers such as a device.