Incrementality is one of the most overlooked metrics in podcast advertising, not to mention all of performance media. What is incrementality you may ask? Simply put, incrementality is measuring if a conversion would have still happened if the user didn’t also see a particular ad. It answers the critical question, “Would this conversion have happened anyway?” Your brand search ad, for example, the ad people see when they type your brand’s name into Google, will have a very low incrementality score. The user who clicks on a brand search ad had a pretty good chance of finding your website and converting anyway. This ad has an incredible ROAS, but it’s incrementality score is close to 0%. A high incrementality score = a good thing.
Brands often grapple with understanding the net new impact of podcast ads on their top-line revenue and new customer acquisition. This challenge is compounded when these brands are also heavily investing in other advertising channels, making it difficult to isolate the effect of podcast advertising. Knowing the vital importance of incrementality testing and measurement, we set out to offer it for our clients. Very excited for our commitment to advanced attribution methods, we started looking for a solution. We looked, and we looked,…and we looked some more. Unable to find a reliable solution, we partnered with Podscribe (the best podcast analytics company in the game) to develop the most advanced podcast incrementality testing in the world. Exciting stuff.
How did we do this? Glad you asked. Podscribe has the unique capability to cookie users who listened to a particular podcast. We picked 5 of our top spending clients and did the following test. For each brand, we took one really large group of people and played one of their podcast ads. We then took another really large group of people and didn’t serve them an ad (the control group). We looked at how many people converted in the control group, subtracted that percentage from the group that saw an ad, and BOOM. Incrementality measured. Ok, it’s more complicated than that, but you get the gist. The results for all five clients surprised even us.
Not too shabby huh? By leveraging pixel-based attribution and incrementality testing, we were able to quantify the direct impact podcast ads had on driving new customers. Unlike traditional incrementality testing, which is often expensive and limited to one-off tests, Podscribe’s “always on” incrementality feature allows us to measure incrementality continuously and in real-time—whether at the channel level or for specific shows and campaigns. This always-on approach provides instant answers without the need for support tickets or costly tests, making it possible for Podscale to evaluate podcast performance whenever needed. Thanks to Podscribe, our clients now have a more complete picture of their podcast advertising’s efficiency. Our close partnership with Podscribe will continue to allow us to provide advanced attribution measurement to our clients. The results of this test not only further cemented our place as the industry leader in efficient, direct-response podcast advertising, it shows our continuous commitment providing advanced attribution measurement to our clients.
Podscale is a leading digital media agency specializing in global performance-driven podcast advertising solutions. They’ve made podcast advertising an efficient direct response channel for some of the most innovative brands in the world. Podscale isn’t looking to get you impressions, they are looking to get you sales! Their approach includes campaign planning, execution, and optimization, ensuring effective delivery and measurable results to their clients. Podscale develops custom attribution models for each client, and has partnered with Podscribe to offer innovative pixel-based attribution and incrementality testing for podcast ads.
Podscribe, a leader in podcast measurement, attribution, and analytics, helps brands unlock and measure the full potential of podcast advertising with digital-like precision. With advanced tools for tracking incremental growth, multi-touch attribution, and real-time reporting, Podscribe provides deep insights into how podcast ads influence consumer behavior throughout the entire conversion funnel. By combining pixel-based attribution and incrementality, Podscribe empowers advertisers, agencies, and publishers to optimize their campaigns, maximize return on ad spend, and drive measurable results.