Captivate, a leading podcast hosting platform owned by Global, the Media & Entertainment Group, has received IAB Tech Lab Podcast Measurement certification for version 2.2 of the guidelines — the first podcast hosting platform in the world to be aware of this milestone accreditation.

The IAB Tech Lab’s Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines v2.2 enhance the transparency and reliability of podcast advertising metrics, focussing on the unique challenges of measuring podcast downloads using server-side data. 

Key updates include requiring companies to document their anomaly resolution methodologies, stricter criteria for validating “ad delivered” metrics, and guidance on filtering out duplicated downloads, such as those from Apple Watches. These measures continue to foster deeper trust and consistency in podcast advertising, aiding advertisers in evaluating campaign performance.

This certification not only meets but surpasses previous IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.1, reaffirming Captivate’s commitment to providing the highest quality service to its users.

In order to meet certification criteria, Captivate has introduced a number of features to enhance its platform for podcast creators and advertisers, including a brand-new, self-auditing spike detection system. This advanced system automatically identifies spikes in podcast metrics, such as unique listeners and downloads, and pinpoints the underlying reasons, ensuring accurate and reliable data for podcast creators and advertisers.

In addition to the spike detection system, Captivate now supports IPv6 using the first 64 bits of the IPV6 address. This upgrade ensures enhanced connectivity and reliability to future-proof the platform as the internet and streaming landscape continues to evolve.

Kieran McKeefery, Director of Technology at Capitvate, commented on the certification, saying: “Achieving the IAB Tech Lab certification for version 2.2 of the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines is a testament to our dedication to innovation and excellence. Our new spike detection system and IPv6 support are just the beginning of what we have planned to ensure our platform remains at the forefront of podcast technology.”

Mark Asquith, Managing Director of Captivate, added: “This certification underscores our commitment to our users and the podcasting community. We are thrilled to offer tools and resources that not only meet but exceed industry standards, providing our podcasters and advertisers with the best possible experience.”

Captivate’s achievement of the IAB Tech Lab Podcast Measurement certification for version 2.2 marks a significant advancement in the podcasting industry, setting a new benchmark for quality and transparency. As part of Global, Captivate continues to lead the way in podcast hosting innovation, delivering unparalleled service and support to its users.

Captivate’s IAB Tech Lab Podcast Measurement certification comes just days after the platform released is dashboard 2.5 update and industry-leading podcast network capabilities for publishers and independent creators.

For partners interested in optimizing their podcast players, Captivate has created an insightful article detailing best practices for podcast players. Furthermore, to maintain transparency in its IAB Tech Lab’s certification process, Captivate has detailed its processing workflow.

About Captivate

Captivate is owned by Global, the Media & Entertainment Group. It is the world’s leading podcast host for serious, growth-focused creators. Known for its user-friendly interface and robust analytics, Captivate provides podcasters with the tools they need to grow and monetize their shows effectively.

Captivate.fm, Global Media & Entertainment’s IAB Tech Lab certified podcast hosting, analytics and monetization platform, has just released a major update to its dynamic content & ad Audio Monetization & Integration Engine, “AMIE”.

The toolkit allows podcast creators to powerfully yet simply manage advanced dynamic content & ad insertion across their podcasts while also letting audio “baked-in” audio content in bulk. Version 2.0 of the AMIE toolkit brings a range of major features to the system including dynamic content slot management, multiple content & ad insertion per slot, simple drag & drop interface upgrades, insertion of dynamic content using timestamps and a major addition of “tagging,” which allows podcasters to manage dynamic content quickly and at scale.

Regarding the AMIE 2.0 upgrade, Captivate Managing Director Mark Asquith said, “Serious independent audio creators continually find themselves denied access to the level of tools that they often need because their download numbers or audience reach don’t ‘allow’ them to benefit from the tools that the ‘big’ shows can leverage.”

As the podcasting industry continues to grow up, it’s important that every creator has the very best options available to them so that they can grow a meaningful, engaged audience that can be nurtured and developed. Captivate’s continued mission is to allow every creator to benefit from opportunities that help them to create diversity in their growth & monetization options. AMIE v2.0 is the latest stage of that focus but also acts as a precursor to many more creator monetization options as we move forward.”

Director of Technology, Kieran McKeefery added, “This is an exciting evolution of dynamic content & ad management for the podcasters that we work with but also adds the initial stages of integration with Global’s DAX platform to provide deeper podcast monetization opportunities and innovations within the podcast advertising space.”

AIME v2.0 integrates directly with Captivate’s Dynamic Show Notes Builder to save busy independent podcasters even more time on their production workflow.

Captivate.fm, an independent IAB Tech Lab certified podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization platform, has released a fully integrated guest booking and interview management system for independent podcasters.

The system allows independent audio creators to book and manage their guest interviews from one central location that is connected to their podcast hosting. In addition to allowing guests to proactively book shows, hosts can automatically capture all of the relevant guest data for use across their podcast’s workflow, including in the measurement of download uplift based on specific guests and in the automation of episode show notes.

Regarding the update, Captivate CEO Mark Asquith said, “Since I started podcasting in 2011, I’ve been using calendar-booking links for my guests that were provided by third-parties. That works, but it’s not as effective as it should be for the serious modern podcaster; there is no simple link to the other pieces of my workflow which means that I can’t, for example, pass my guest’s bio and social links automatically to my episode show notes, nor could I easily overlay the results of any given guest’s audience onto my own download numbers.”

Captivate has made that easy for the busy creator and in addition to saving podcasters huge amounts of time, it also reduces the cost of podcasting by removing one extra paid service from the podcasting stack.”

Alongside the release of these new features, Asquith also confirmed that the booking platform integrates from day one with the world-class remote recording platform, SquadCast, by automatically creating SquadCast recording sessions when a guest books an interview slot.

SquadCast CEO, Zachariah Moreno said “We’re really keen at SquadCast on making sure that podcasters have the most effective & efficient technology available to them so when Mark, Kieran and the Captivate team spoke to us about being the launch partner for the guest booking and interview management platform, it was something that we got excited about and said ‘yes’ to really quickly.”

The Captivate team is due to integrate this new guest booking and interview management service with the Podcasting 2.0 initiative and Podchaser in its next minor follow-up release.

Launched to celebrate International Podcast Day on September 30th, this upgrade follows Captivate’s recent release cross-promotional feed drops and network features, with the new guest booking & interview management features being available to all podcast creators for free, unlimited use on any Captivate plan.

Captivate.fm introduced audio processing, dynamic content and ad insertion to its suite of podcast hosting, analytics & distribution tools with the release of its Audio Mastering & Integration Engine, aka “AMIE”.

Captivate’s Audio Mastering & Integration Engine (AMIE) is built for both smaller independent podcasters whilst providing larger, advertising-centric podcasters & brands the enterprise-level tools that they need to run successful ad campaigns.

Featuring dynamic content insertion at its core, AMIE allows for much more than dynamic ads and has been designed with Captivate’s mission – to help podcasters to grow their listenership, audio influence and brand – in mind.

“Dynamic ad insertion sounds so complex,” says Mark Asquith, CEO of Captivate, “but there’s really no need for it to be reserved for podcast power-users, advertisers and brands.”

“When conceptualizing AMIE, we realized the whilst smaller, independent podcasters make up the vast majority of the podcasting space, they’re often the ones feeling left out of the ‘advanced’ technology that is available to larger shows, networks and brands.

“That’s why we designed AMIE to not only provide the ad insertion technology that can be expected from a world-class podcast hosting platform but to allow smaller shows to benefit from growth opportunities via trailer-swap capabilities, repeatable snippet insertion, automatic episode cross-promotion, split testing options and more. AMIE truly is dynamic content insertion technology for every podcaster.”

As well as providing dynamic content opportunities, AMIE also features a proprietary audio processing and mastering engine, allowing podcasters the chance to optimize their audio easily and quickly.

AMIE is in private beta and will be released publicly over the next few months.

Captivate has announced that the platform has achieved IAB Tech Lab Certified status as a podcast analytics provider.

Our CTO, Kieran, and the Captivate engineering team have been working closely with the IAB to audit, fully document and certify the Captivate podcast analytics measurement and reporting modules to the IAB Tech v2 standards and achieve formal certification from the IAB Tech Lab.

Advanced IAB Tech Lab certified podcast analytics are now available worldwide, to all Captivate podcasters at no extra cost as Captivate becomes the first UK-based podcast host to complete the certification.

Captivate says that its podcast analytics platform was already built to adhere to IAB standards. As such, they are delighted to be able to achieve the IAB certification without any disruption to podcasters and without seeing any significant changes to podcasters’ reported download numbers.

Captivate’s decision to work with the IAB Tech Lab became an easy one to make as podcasters continually look to hone in on the accuracy of their analytics and understand their listenership more and more as the industry progresses.

This means Captivate is now among the other IAB Certified podcast companies including Blubrry, Art19, Voxnest Audience Network, Triton Digital, Libsyn, and more!

Captivate announced that they have introduced Unique Listener Tracking to Captivate analytics as a free upgrade to all Captivate podcasters. Captivate says that, as podcasters, we’re a little addicted to measuring downloads when really, we’d love to be able to measure people who listen to our show. The new feature can do that.

The data as aggregated as:

A unique listener is defined as a listener from the same IP address and the same device within the presented timeframe. This is a way of estimating the number of people downloading your show. This is based on the IAB v2 guidelines.

Captivate podcasters will see a new section called Audience Overview. Within that section you’ll now be able to see the following unique listener data points:

• Unique listeners today
• Unique listeners yesterday
• Unique listeners over the last 7 days
• Unique listeners over the last 28 days
• Unique listeners over the last 90 days
• All-time unique listeners

This is part one of an analytics upgrade aiming to make it easier for Captivate podcasters to estimate their true audience size. Captivate also added “Last updated” information to the top right of your analytics screen and your main Captivate dashboard so that you can see the last time they updated your data for you.