Podtrac
IAB-certified podcast measurement, rankings, and audience demographics since 2005.
About
Podtrac is one of the oldest names in podcast metrics, and it is still the ad industry's default yardstick: IAB-certified download counting that sponsors accept, unique monthly audience measurement, per-episode and per-platform breakdowns, and monthly category rankings across 19 Apple Podcasts categories with US unique monthly audience figures. Its audience surveys go deeper than download counts, capturing age, gender, education, income, industry, and listening behavior for publishers that need demographic proof for ad sales.
Measurement works with a prefix in your feed, and a free basic plan covers core traffic measurement with 24-hour online access to reports. Category ranking reports are a paid product ($500/month or $3,600/year), and ad attribution dashboards sit on enterprise tiers. Because it only measures shows that install its prefix, it cannot tell you anything about podcasts you do not own, but for publishers selling ads, being Podtrac-measured is still table stakes.
What it can do
- IAB V2-certified download and audience measurement
- Unique monthly audience counts across platforms
- Per-episode, per-platform, and per-country download reports
- Monthly category rankings across 19 podcast categories
- Audience demographic surveys (15-40 questions)
- Ad attribution dashboards for publishers
Setup
- Sign up for a free measurement account at analytics.podtrac.com.
- Add the Podtrac prefix to your podcast feed.
- View rolling 30-day key metrics, show overviews, and per-episode reports.
- Upgrade for demographics surveys and category rankings.
Prerequisites
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (TIER metrics, metrics-v1). Evidence: measuring podcasts since 2005 with IAB certification, free basic measurement plan, and rankings still cited as an industry reference by advertisers and competitors. Strengths: longest track record in podcast measurement, advertiser-trusted numbers. Docked for: (1) only measures shows with its feed prefix installed, so coverage is opt-in; (2) ranking and attribution tiers are paid ($500/mo) with pricing behind a paywall; (3) proprietary methodology. License: proprietary (SaaS, free + paid tiers).
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 7.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 3.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 6.0/10
- · Measuring podcasts since 2005; IAB-certified; advertiser-trusted numbers.
- · Only measures shows with its feed prefix installed (opt-in coverage).
- · Category rankings $500/mo or $3,600/yr; free basic measurement plan available.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.