Podscribe's pixel-based attribution matches the IPs of site visitors with those of ad listeners.
Here’s our methodology to explain in detail how we do attribution. Below is our guide to letting you add a tag to any page or event.
Setup Steps
Step 1. Get Your Custom Web Tag Guide from Your Agency/Publisher:
Skip this step if your agency or publisher has already sent you JavaScript tags! They’ll look like this. The tags they send will link your accounts together. If not, proceed:
To pull JavaScript tags from your dashboard:
- Hover over to Tag Setup on the left-hand side of the page and click on Generate New Tag:
- Type in the name of the advertiser you need tags for. If there are multiple results, pick the one that seems most legitimate. Usually, the right advertiser has a logo and the simplest name:
Feel free to email adops@podscribe.com if there are multiple advertisers that should be merged or of an advertiser needs a logo.
- Copy the Guide Link generated and paste it in an email to the advertiser’s developers:
Here’s an example web tag guide.
Step 2. Pick Events to Track:
Choose which events you want Podscribe to track attribution from your podcast ads for.
Visits and purchases are auto-selected in the guide because they’re the ones most commonly used:
We recommend adding the visits tag to every page on your site so that we track all podcast listeners who end up on your site, no matter what page they land on. The purchase tag goes on the post-purchase page.
You can use the sign-ups or leads tag to track other things like email signups. You can also add it to one page alone to act as a page-specific visit tag. They’re great for testing a new landing page, or seeing how many podcast listeners sign up for a new newsletter.
Some brands use the tags to track things other than the tag’s namesake. For example, you could use the purchase tag to track … email signups, if that is your primary metric of success. This is all good, as long as you remember which tags map to which events. “Conversions” on Podscribe always refer to purchases.
Step 3. Copy Code and Replace Variables:
Some events, specifically the purchase action has macros. You must replace these macros (highlighted below) with your site’s variables for them to work!
Each purchase macro is optional, but if included, can help improve accuracy and reporting.
Macro Name | Purpose |
hashed_email | Hashed emails are privacy-safe, anonymized emails. If shared, we can match additional purchases to our device graph, typically improving campaign performance 10-20%. |
discount_code | If Podscribe receives discount codes, we can report on their usage by show to put all conversion data for the buyer on one dashboard. We can also indicate if a code is leaked if we see most code uses don't come from households exposed to the ad. |
order_number | Passing order ID helps us ensure we're not receiving duplicated conversions. We can also report all order IDs that were exposed to the audio ad, along with when and on what show. |
value | Sending purchase amount lets us auto-compute ROAS. |
You can also track things like num_items_purchased, is_new_customer, is_subscription, and currency - just click the ‘Show More’ button on the page:
Step 4. Ensure The Tags Are Firing Correctly.
Ensuring that your setup is correct from the start is pivotal for reliable attribution. Attribution can only be reliable if the events being sent to Podscribe are correct. This is critical to check before campaigns start!
Here’s how to confirm all is correct with the integration. Questions? Check out our FAQs below for answers!
What pages can I use certain event tags on?
You can use the “signup”, “lead”, or “purchase” events on any page you’d like. For example, if you wanted to measure how many exposed listeners visited a Sign-up page, you could fire the “signup” event on page view. Then, once they completed the form, you could fire the Lead event, passing us the hashed email. We recommend placing the “visit” tag on all pages.
Can I use custom event names? I want to create and track other events besides installs, views, signups, leads, and purchases.
Yes! If the primary 5 events are not adequate, we can track custom, additional events. We can also support re-naming the standard event names on our dashboard to names you’re more familiar with, such as “Account Creation”. To do so, you would simply change the name of the action in your javascript tag from “purchase” or “view” to the custom event name you’d like:
Instead of loading the script bundle, can we call a 1x1 image pixel, or pass events server-side, or in batch?
Yes - please see this guide for more.
How do I know which advertiser to pick? There are many that pop up with the name of the advertiser.
Podscribe regularly removes duplicate advertisers, but here are some steps that you can take to ensure you're selecting the right advertiser.
- Look up the different advertisers with the same name on Podscribe.
- Check all of the advertisers one by one. If the logo and website are correct, then that advertiser is likely the correct one.
Select the name displayed on the advertiser page as the advertiser’s name when creating your campaign:
Feel free to reach out to adops@podscribe.com if you can't find the advertiser you're looking for or if the logo and website are blank while the name is correct.
What is the Content Security Policy (CSP) for the Podscribe web tag?
Content-Security-Policy:
default-src
self
script-src
d34r8q7sht0t9k.cloudfront.net
connect-src
verifi.podscribe.com
pixel.tapad.com
ipv4.podscribe.comI have a new client! What's the fastest way to get javascript pixels to send them?
It is to generate them from the Tag Setup tab:
How important is it to include a hashed email in the pixel? If we do not, what would we lose out on?
Sending us hashed emails lets us find 10-20% more attributed conversions, so it is certainly helpful to have! Here’s further detail on the part that hashed emails play in attribution. If you send us raw emails, we hash them as they come in and only store the hashed ones.
The tag is not showing up under the Conversions column. Where can I find it?
This can happen when we're already getting some events from the tag. You can find it in the Tag Setup tab, beside the advertiser name:
From where can I get the javascript pixels to send a brand?
From the Tag Setup tab - here’s how to generate them.
How does attribution work when the devices and locations for listening and purchasing are different?
If a listener downloads an episode/ad on their home WiFi and purchases on their home WiFi, it is easy to IP-match directly.
If they purchase in a different location, Podscribe will look up their laptop/phone cookie ID, or their hashed email in our Tapad device graph. ~40% of the time Tapad can tell us their home IP address which we can then match to the IP address they downloaded the podcast with the ad on.
If they download the podcast off of home WiFi, then their results are typically modeled from in-home download performance. This guide has a few examples that may be useful.
Why are my conversions fractional?
Conversions and visits have decimals because of modeling. When modeling, we multiply the number of actual conversions we have on file by an ISP weight, which is the reciprocal of the percentage of impressions that we have from residential IPs. Sometimes the reciprocal can be a fraction, so the final conversion will be a fraction too.
For example: A brand gets 20 attributed purchases. The number of impressions from residential IPs is 47%. We will then multiply 20 by 1/0.47, which equals 2.13, to get a total conversion count of 42.6.
How does Podscribe evaluate the accuracy of its attribution methodology?
Podscribe compares pixel-based results with promo code, vanity URLs, and post-purchase survey data to triangulate our results.
How is Podscribe preparing for Chrome’s deprecation of 3rd party cookies?
Podscribe has long since transitioned away from 3rd party cookies. Our web tag sets a 1st party cookie, which will be unaffected by the change.
Additionally, we request when possible that clients include with conversion events 1st party data, specifically:
- hashed emails, which we have long seen a better match rate to household IPs
- mobile ad IDs (IDFA, GAID) for in-app events
These 1st party data points not only future-proof our methodology but also improve the accuracy of our methodology. We use hashed emails and mobile ad IDs to look up the converting user’s household IP in the Tapad device graph. This lets us match cross-IP conversions.
What mobile device partners (MMPs) does Podscribe work with?
Podscribe works with all major MMPs including: Adjust, Appsflyer, Kochava, Singular, and Segment.
Does Podscribe use a device graph?
Yes, Podscribe uses device graph partner, Tapad. Tapad is used when a conversion occurs on a different IP than the listener IP. When this happens, Podscribe passes Tapad the hashed email of the purchaser and Tapad will match the user's device to their home IP address where the listen occurred.
What is the Device Graph Match Rate to HH?
~40% depending on whether hashed emails are collected.
Does Podscribe support attribution on other channels besides podcasting?
Yes, Podscribe supports streaming and CTV attribution. Podscribe automatically merges exposures across channels into one holistic dashboard. Podscribe also supports simulcast reporting (next question).
Is Podscribe’s attribution supported internationally?
Yes, in most foreign countries.
What pages can I use certain event tags on?
We recommend placing the “visit” tag on all pages. You can use the “signup” , “lead” or “purchase” events on any page you’d like. For example, if you wanted to measure how many exposed listeners visited a Sign-up page, you could fire the “signup” event on page view.Then, once they completed the form, you could fire the Lead event, passing us the hashed email.
The attributed counts of each event (installs, visits, signups, leads, purchases) will all appear separately on your dashboard
What attribution models does Podscribe offer? First, Last, Multi-touch?
First, last, multi-touch linear to divide credit evenly, and multi-touch time-decay to favor more recent exposures. You can also assign your own weights from on all attributed conversions by using our Individual Conversions CSV export.
What conversion windows does Podscribe support?
Configurable from 0-60 days.
Does Podscribe offer podcast promotion tracking (SmartPromos)?
Yes.
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