Inside Spotify’s acquisition of Podsights
Today, we announced that Spotify is acquiring Podsights. Founded in 2018, Podsights is a leading podcast advertising measurement service that helps advertisers better measure and scale their podcast advertising.
Digital advertisers, ranging from enterprise brand advertisers to more direct response-focused SMBs, have consistently shared with us that measurement remains an industry-wide challenge across all of digital audio advertising. According to Advertiser Perceptions, less than half of US advertisers report being satisfied with their digital audio measurement.1 And the problem is even more pronounced among podcast advertisers, with a recent survey reporting that measurement and attribution remain the two biggest unsolved challenges for podcast advertisers.2
Spotify’s acquisition of Podsights accelerates our plans to help solve this measurement pain point for advertisers, both on Spotify and across the industry. With Spotify’s technology and intelligence, Podsights can bring more accurate measurement and actionable insights to podcast advertisers around the world.
Existing Podsights customers will continue to receive industry-leading podcast measurement for inventory both on and off Spotify. Over time, Podsights' service will continue to become more accurate and more insightful with Spotify’s technology, intelligence, and our joint commitment to audio advertising innovation. And for Spotify advertisers globally, we will be making Podsights measurement even more accessible, making it easier for advertisers worldwide to understand how podcast ads drive actions that matter to their businesses.
While Podsights is primarily a podcast measurement service today, we’re not stopping at podcasting. Our vision is to extend these measurement capabilities beyond podcasts to the full scope of the Spotify Advertising platform, including audio ads within music, video ads, and display ads.
We sat down with one of Podsights’ Founders and CEO, Sean Creeley, and Khurrum Malik, Spotify’s Head of Advertising Business Marketing, to discuss what this acquisition means for the future of podcast advertising.
Sean, welcome to the band! This is a big moment, both for Spotify and the Podsights team. What excites you most about joining Spotify?
SEAN: Thank you! Yes, we’re incredibly excited to be joining Spotify. This is a really unique opportunity to join forces and accelerate podcast advertising measurement globally. Ultimately, for us, it came down to Podsights and Spotify sharing the same core belief: All great media ecosystems need great measurement to thrive. And that’s why we’re here today.
Let's start with the basics. How does Podsights measurement work?
SEAN: It’s probably easiest to explain through an example. Imagine you work for a direct-to-consumer shoe brand, and you’re hoping to drive 25- to 34-year-old women to your website. You build out your media plan and decide to run campaigns across multiple publishers, including targeted podcast ads across the Spotify Audience Network. You've read the Podsights Benchmark Report and know that advertisers running across multiple publishers on average see a +33% better conversion rate.
KHURRUM: Great choice.
SEAN: Right? So before the campaign starts, you’ll place a small piece of code called a ‘Podsights pixel’ on your website. When the campaign begins, any of the sixteen major hosting providers that Podsights supports, including Megaphone, can place a ‘Podsights impression tag' on each ad served. If a listener that downloaded your podcast ad visits your website, Podsights is able to attribute that website visit to the podcast ad exposure. In short, with Podsights, you will be able to know that your podcast ad investment drove your desired outcome.
Khurrum, congratulations to you as well! Can you tell us more about why Spotify is acquiring Podsights?
KHURRUM: Thank you, it’s certainly an exciting day for Spotify! We are seeing a lot of advertisers looking to shift more media budgets to podcasting and they are telling us that in order to grow their investment in the category, they need more measurement and more insights. We are excited to welcome the Podsights team into Spotify to help accelerate and improve measurement for podcast advertisers around the world. We believe that better measurement will benefit the entire ecosystem and we can't wait to get started with Podsights.
What should advertisers expect? How is the Podsights measurement offering going to evolve?
KHURRUM: The Podsights team is making big moves, and we want them to keep doing their thing. So it'll be business as usual for now and advertisers and publishers will continue to access Podsights measurement as they always have. Over the coming weeks and months, we plan to begin utilizing Spotify’s technology and intelligence to bring more accurate measurement and actionable insights to podcast advertisers around the world.
How can advertisers learn more about what Podsights can do for their business?
KHURRUM: We’d love to connect with you on the future of podcast advertising measurement. Reach out to your Spotify sales rep or get in touch through ads.spotify.com.
Want to learn more? Check out our announcement on Spotify's newsroom For The Record.