For measurement and delivery reporting, publishers must tell Podscribe which listeners are exposed to the ads! The publisher attaches a Podscribe tracking pixel to the podcast or campaign, so Podscribe can receive, for each ad impression, the:
- listener IP address (eg
13.3.4.9)
- listener user agent (eg
Spotify 1.2.3orApple Podcasts 12.3)
- timestamp
- episode & podcast ID
With this data, Podscribe can report on:
- how many impressions were delivered by hour
- the geography of the listeners, eg by country/city/DMA/zip
- reach & frequency
- measurement — how many exposed listeners visited/purchased after being exposed
- audience overlap — how many listeners were uniquely exposed in this campaign, and how many overlapped with other campaigns or shows
The process is quite straightforward after you have created your campaigns:
- Determine which campaigns need tracking.
- Send out the necessary tracking pixels to publishers, or place the Podscribe RSS prefix / tracking pixels if you are a publisher.
Want to learn more about when to use pixels versus the Podscribe RSS Prefix?
Other questions?
No Ad Server is set, or it’s the wrong one. How do I change/select it?
Podscribe will do its best to auto-select the correct ad server. But it may be wrong, or blank occasionally. In this case, you can ask the publisher which ad server they need the DAI pixel for, and then select it:
Remember for future placements to save this selection for all future campaigns on this show or with this campaign name! 
Can I use the same pixel for multiple campaigns?
If you’re buying on the same show with multiple flights, the pixel will be the same in almost all cases. However, it’s safest to pull pixels assuming that they may be different. To double check, look at the clname parameter in the pixel. If they’re the same, then the pixel is the same.
How do I know if a pixel is working?
Unlike a prefix, you can only tell if a pixel is placed properly after a campaign starts. This is because with a DAI pixel, Podscribe only receives impressions for downloads your ad is in. If a campaign has been live for over 2 days, the first step is confirming the publisher has placed the correct pixel (sometimes they can get cut off or placed incorrectly). If the publisher has confirmed they have placed it, please email adops@podscribe.com for support!
If the pixel/prefix was not added in time, what can I do? Impression backfill?
Podscribe can accept CSV logs of impressions to backfill campaigns. This requires engineering time on the Podscribe side so expect 1-3 weeks for this. For each campaign to be backfilled, the publisher needs to provide the following in a CSV file, one row for each ad impression (bold=required):
- timestamp
- IP address (raw)
- user agent
- campaign name
- episode ID
- podcast / station name
- mobile ad ID (eg the IDFA/GAID), if applicable
After backfilling impressions, we can also display the attributed events and retroactive data for those impressions.
How do I check if a podcast added the prefix?
A checkmark should appear in the Impressions column:
You can also check a show page for a green checkmark too:
Alternatively, for the truest, most accurate check:
- Find the show’s page on Podscribe, eg here. Then click the RSS icon to go to the RSS Feed of the podcast:
- Search for “pscrb”. If it pops up on the page, our prefix is there!
Is Podscribe able to backfill impressions delivered using data from another pixel? e.g. if we didn't have the Podscribe pixel placed before the ad aired.
Yes! We are able to backfill impressions if you are able to pass us a log that for every impression contains the following:
- IP Address
- User Agent
- Timestamp
- Episode/show IDs
How can I see all shows/campaigns being tracked?
On your Campaigns > By Campaign tab in the Delivery header card you can see what fraction are Campaigns are not tracked under Tracking Not Set Up. So the number with tracking set up is the the inverse. Eg ~75% have tracking set up since ~25% in this screenshot have Tracking Not Set Up :
We suggest using a 7 day timeframe and excluding future campaigns because future DAI campaigns will always show tracking not set up, since Podscribe does not receive impressions for DAI campaigns until they start.
To view all specific shows/campaigns on the dash Podscribe is receiving audio impressions for:
- Pull the With Delivery and Performance report from the campaigns tab after setting the date range to be the past week (7D).
- Apply Filters to the csv.
- Remove all of the campaigns with the “Tracking Not Set Up” flag using the filter under the Status column.
- Remove duplicate podcast titles.
Does Tracking Not Set Up mean that the pixels aren't working?
The "Tracking Not Set Up" flag is a bit of a misnomer. It only goes away when:
a) we see our prefix on a podcast's rss feed (for baked-in ads)
b) for faked-in ads, we're getting impressions from the pixel and have found the ad in our transcripts
c) for DAI ads, we're getting impressions from the pixel.
Most DAI campaigns will have that flag on even after the publisher has added the pixels to the campaign. This is because Podscribe can only see if a pixel is firing properly only after the campaign starts. We recommend clicking the flag to ignore it once the publisher has confirmed that they've added the pixel to a particular campaign.
Is Podscribe supported by all major publishers?
Yes, for streaming & podcasting
Which DSPs does Podscribe work with?
TTD, adswizz, SPAN, audiohook — our pixel should be callable from all major DSPs.
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