Podcast Attribution Hits Turning Point, With New Tools, Rising Advertiser Demand.

A year after podcasters scrambled to replace Chartable, a new industry webinar suggests the measurement gap has largely closed — and in some ways, the market is stronger than before.

“When Spotify shut down Chartable in 2024 it left a void in the podcast-attribution technology that the industry scrambled to fill,” Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro said. “One year later, the dust is settled, and the new landscape looks dramatically different for podcasting marketers and advertisers.”

In a webinar that examined where things stand today, Umbro said the podcast attribution ecosystem has responded with several options for marketers to consider.

When Chartable exited the market, many in podcasting feared the worst: a vacuum in attribution, slipping budgets, and a regression in measurement maturity. That anxiety was grounded in the reality that advertisers increasingly demand the kind of accountability that other digital channels have long offered. But the industry pivoted quickly and is now moving toward a more robust, diversified measurement environment.

“A few short years ago we were out there, like knocking on doors, trying to convince people that attribution mattered,” Magellan AI CEO Cameron Hendrix said. “In the market that we’re in today, advertisers are showing up and saying they need attribution and measurement.” 

This shift signals a cultural change: podcasting is no longer the wild west of audio advertising but is increasingly being treated as a channel that must deliver outcome-based proof.

“It’s really been an exciting turning point in the ecosystem to see that there’s this expectation that reporting exists in podcasting the same way that it exists alongside other digital channels,” Hendrix said.

Executives say one of the reasons adoption has happened so fast is that a variety of new tools and measurement approaches have emerged. The consensus is marketers now have choices, and the expectation for rigorous attribution is baked in.

“The fact that you can measure on par with the measurement expectations that advertisers have in all the digital channels matters,” said Matt Shapo of the IAB Media Center.

In practical terms, the tools now encompass pixel-based tracking, device graphs, varied attribution windows, and richer analytics dashboards. It is less about a single vendor and more about how adoption and process maturity are spreading across the ecosystem.

Programmatic In the Spotlight

One of the more pronounced shifts is how programmatic advertising is increasingly treated as a viable, sometimes even preferred, route for podcast campaigns — especially in an attribution-enabled world.

“The general feedback is that programmatic advertising can perform poorly, but it can also perform really well,” Hendrix said.

Triton Digital VP Rebecca Dalby says that is making an impact regardless of whether a buy is programmatic. “One of the things that’s potentially impacting the CPMs of sponsorship or host-post ads is actually the positive performance of programmatic,” she added.

Executives say what changed is that attribution allows measurement of programmatic efforts in ways that were previously more difficult in audio. Once marketers see that efficiency and outcome metrics hold up, programmatic budgets become easier to justify. This shift matters for growth: host-read ads may hold prestige, but programmatic unlocks scale and long-tail reach.

“If you really want to experience growth, you need to be able to be bought in really efficient, easy ways,” Shapo said. “The importance of programmatic in podcasting is critical.” 

Measurement isn’t solely a tool for advertisers — it’s increasingly shaping podcast-marketing playbooks and publisher strategies.

“If I’m looking to grow a show or launch a new show, where is that look-alike audience? Run some tests there, and the pixels allow us to know exactly how many new downloads and new listeners we were able to get,” said Ilana Susnow, Bloomberg’s Head of Podcast Marketing and Audience Growth.

For internal teams at large publishers, the data matters for prioritization to determine which newsletters, social channels or promo partnerships move the needle. “With the SmartLinks they’re able to double down and literally plant something with every piece of content they’re putting out there to see if that then links back to their podcast,” Susnow said.

That gives teams clarity and ROI visibility, the executives agreed, especially at a moment when attention is fractured and podcast promotion lives across email, Substack, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter. Attribution gives teams clarity and ROI visibility.

The Road Ahead

Despite progress, the panel acknowledged that new frontiers remain. They see “moving targets” like video attribution, cross-platform measurement, and AI-driven ad formats.

“We are rolling out video in a big way on YouTube. But in terms of tracking, I think we’re still getting our rhythm and the publishing side of it,” Susnow said.

Shapo agreed, saying no one is quite sure how AI-generated voices will change the math. But he said what makes this moment significant is not just the availability of tools — it’s the shift in mindset. The ecosystem has moved from whether it needs attribution, to which vendor and workflow will deliver the best outcome. And that matters at a time when other channels are behind walled gardens and markets face cookie-less disruption.

“These tools are vital to building the trust and the confidence that advertisers require in order to increase their podcast investments,” Shapo said.