Host-read podcast ad marketplace Gumball drops a new measurement feature

Podcasting isn’t like other girls digital channels. It’s not inherently visual. It largely wasn’t considered mainstream until 2014 (when Serial was first released). And its advertising processes are still fairly manual.

Slowly but surely, that’s changing. The latest example of podcast advertising’s move into automation comes from host-read advertising marketplace Gumball, spun off from comedy podcast network Headgum, which just rolled out a new tool.

Called Gumshoe, the tool measures ad delivery in real time thanks to the addition of pixels and prefix URLs to the 200+ podcasts on the Gumball platform, allowing for more speed and transparency in sharing campaign results with advertisers, Gumball CEO Marty Michael told Marketing Brew.

Ye olde method: Prior to the introduction of Gumshoe, Gumball verified that host-read ads bought and sold through its platform reached the promised number of listeners the old-fashioned way.

After an ad was read and served up in an episode by a podcaster, the advertiser received an “aircheck” confirming that it ran as planned, according to Michael. But the buyer wasn’t able to verify they got the number of impressions they paid for until after the campaign ended, he said.

To prove that info, podcasters could upload screenshots of, or otherwise allow Gumball access to, their episode analytics provided by platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Michael said it could take “up to 30 days upon campaign completion” for advertisers to get this info.

How it works now: Gumshoe has come up with a new, faster way to get that info, Michael explained, showing advertisers impressions on their ads “in real time rather than checking in at the end” thanks to the pixels and prefix URLs that help automate the process, allowing for increased transparency into campaigns.

“This is something we felt like we needed as we grow, because this is a way for us to be able to check in on the health of our own ecosystem as it scales up,” Michael told us. “It’s possible to do it manually now with the number of shows that we have, but when you get to the thousands or 10,000 different creators on your platform, you need to have this automated so that you can verify and feel good about what you’re actually transacting.”