Guideline Expands SQADCosts Local Into Digital Audio And Podcast CPMs.

Guideline, the ad intelligence and media planning technology provider, is expanding its platform to provide CPM benchmarks for locally geo-targeted digital audio and podcast buys across more than 60 of the top U.S. publishers.

For decades, Guideline SQADCosts Local has been often-cited reference point for local linear pricing on the buy and sell sides. The new Digital Extension—which is also adding CTV capabilities alongside digital audio—will have a familiar approach to what users have come to expect. Guideline says it uses the same Average/Low/High benchmarking framework for audio streaming and podcasting.

"Guideline SQADCosts Local has long been the standard for local pricing transparency in linear, and our customers have asked us to bring that same level of clarity to digital media," CEO Vincent Mifsud says in the announcement. "The Digital Extension gives local-first buyers and sellers a like-for-like view of geo-targeted CPMs across CTV, digital video, audio streaming, and podcasting, reported in the same Average, Low, and High framework they already rely on every day."

Direct comparability across publishers has historically been one of the hardest problems in digital benchmarking, given differences in audience targeting, ad length, content type, and inventory packaging. SQADCosts Local Digital Extension closes that gap, reporting exclusively on locally geo-targeted media while normalizing every data point into a comparable baseline across publishers, content, and targeting. It creates baselines for not only Locally geo-targeted placements, but also broad-audience targeting, ad length breakouts, and content types.

The product is available now as an extension to the SQADCosts Local solution.