Acast will no longer be accepting new campaigns using Spotify’s Ad Analytics starting from 1 September, the company has announced, stating it wants to remain focused on fostering an open and transparent environment and working with partners who share the same vision.
The move comes alongside a newly-announced partnership with automated ad verification platform Podscribe, which has now been named as Acast’s official attribution partner.
Spotify Ad Analytics is a rebrand of marketing attribution platform Podsights, which was acquired by the audio giant in February 2022. Spotify announced the rebrand in June this year as part of its efforts to bring more advertisers into its ecosystem by providing more comprehensive campaign performance data to better understand their digital audio investments across both music and podcast streaming. The solution is free for advertisers and includes impressions, household reach and frequency, conversion rate, spend to date, visitors, and CPM across the timeline of the campaign.
Spotify believes that Acast's move is limiting the amount of campaign insight that its partners and publishers are able to get and negatively impacting overall transparency within the industry, according to a source close to the matter, who said that Acast’s decision indicates that the company believes it is under threat from Spotify. The source also stated that Spotify Ad Analytics measures more third-party ad impressions than it does first-party impressions.
“The ongoing results of Spotify’s commitment to growing audiences and monetisation for creators speak for themselves,” a spokesperson for the company said, “with tens of millions of new podcast listeners and industry-wide podcast ad revenue growth of over 250% since 2019.”
“By working closely with partners across the industry and innovating to meet their needs, we’ve become the number one platform in many markets worldwide. Acast’s decision to limit campaign insights, reach and performance will negatively impact advertisers, publishers, and creators, hurting the openness of the ecosystem and creating a downstream impact on their bottom line. We remain committed to investing in the industry’s long-term success.”
Through its partnership with Podscribe, Acast will be able to provide its podcast advertising clients with advanced measurement solutions from the platform at no additional cost. Podscribe, which is certified by the IAB and has worked with brands such as BetterHelp and Athletic Greens, provides insights into campaign performance with measurement on the effects of show promotion and listener behaviour.
“Working with the biggest marketplace in the open podcasting ecosystem is a natural fit for us,” said Podscribe CEO and founder Pete Birsinger. “Our team’s dedication to providing top-notch services that help advertisers make data-driven decisions and maximise their podcast ad investments matches Acast’s scale and dominance perfectly.”
Acast is also creating a list of ‘certified attribution partners’ across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions to offer more flexibility for ad buyers, so that they have the freedom to select the attribution partner that best aligns with their needs.
“Podscribe's track record in delivering accurate and insightful attribution solutions - which are certified at the highest level - is exceptional,” said Acast CEO Ross Adams. “We also know their approach to customer satisfaction is unmatched in this space. This collaboration reinforces Acast's commitment to offering advertisers the very best impartial tools to succeed in the podcasting space.”
“We’re also really looking forward to seeing how the relationship will evolve. Podscribe’s innovative work in areas like YouTube modeling, ChatGPT-powered brand safety and airchecks signal progressive moves for us, our advertisers and the industry.”
