The IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines 2.1 released in March 2021 are the result of IAB Tech Lab’s Podcast Technical Working Group’s efforts to provide clarity in the marketplace by developing a common language around measurement. The focus of this document is on server side measurement (but will be extended to client side measurement once the client side opens up). In addition to defining standard metrics for both podcast content and podcast ads, this document also provides guidance on some of the technical details such as request filtering, in order to reduce the discrepancies currently seen across podcast publishers and tech vendors.
Several new items have been incorporated into the guidelines, including:
- A new detailed recommendation for calculating IPv6 metrics, which recommends truncating IPv6 addresses to the first 64 bits prior to calculating unique Listener and Download metrics using a combination User Agent and IP address.
- A new section with guidance on user agent structure
- Filtering guidance for Apple watchOS user agents
- Language edits such as typo corrections and replacement of whitelist/blacklist terminology
- Updated data for the Podcast Player Market Share section
- And a number of additional podcast player recommendation