← All playbooks·Cross-media measurement

What you need first

• Target audience definition and universe size, from the media plan brief
• Existing TV+digital net reach and frequency for the campaign period, from Total TV Measurement and the digital plan
• Podcast reach and frequency curve by network/show for the target demo, from the podcast measurement currency
• Podcast rate card CPM by network, from the podcast sales house
• TV-podcast audience overlap coefficient, from the Cross-Screen Measurement panel
• Planned podcast budget, from the media plan

The procedure

1. Pull the podcast reach/frequency curve for the target demo from the podcast measurement currency, producing a reach-vs-frequency table by network
2. Convert the planned podcast budget into delivered impressions using the rate card CPM, producing an impression volume
3. Divide impressions by the frequency point on the curve that matches that spend level, producing podcast net reach in individuals and as a percent of universe
4. Pull the TV-podcast overlap coefficient for this audience from the cross-screen panel, producing the duplicated-audience percentage
5. Apply incremental reach = podcast reach % x (1 - overlap %), producing the unique reach podcast adds to the existing plan
6. Add incremental reach to the pre-podcast TV+digital net reach, producing the new plan-level net reach total
7. Divide podcast budget by incremental reach points, producing a cost-per-incremental-point figure to set against the plan's other channels
8. Update the plan's reach/frequency table with the new total and the cost-per-point figure, producing the deliverable for sign-off

Worked through with numbers

Universe: adults 20-49, Netherlands, 6,000,000. Pre-podcast TV+digital net reach: 62% (3,720,000). Podcast budget: EUR150,000 at CPM EUR18, so impressions = 150,000 / 18 x 1,000 = 8,333,333. Reach curve gives average frequency 3.2 at that spend, so podcast reach = 8,333,333 / 3.2 = 2,604,167 individuals = 43.40% of universe. Cross-screen panel gives a TV-podcast overlap of 55% for this audience. Incremental reach = 43.40% x (1 - 0.55) = 19.53% = 1,171,800 individuals. New plan net reach = 62% + 19.53% = 81.53%, round to 81.5%. Cost per incremental point = 150,000 / 19.53 = EUR7,680. Read it as: podcast is worth adding at this budget only if EUR7,680 per point beats the next-best unused channel's marginal cost for the same reach band.

Where it goes wrong

• Podcast reach curves come from ad-server delivery estimates, not panel measurement, so treat the frequency figure as directional and re-pull it once campaign delivery data lands instead of locking the plan to the pre-flight curve.
• The overlap coefficient is audience-level by default, so recalculate it against the actual planned TV daypart mix and podcast genre mix rather than applying the platform's generic cross-media default.
• Impressions are not reach, so always divide through the frequency curve before adding anything to the net reach total, rather than adding the rate card's headline reach claim directly.
• Round only the final total, not each intermediate step, so that splitting podcast spend across several networks doesn't compound rounding error into the incremental reach figure.

How to know it is right

Terms used

• Podcast Measurement
• Cross-Screen Measurement
• Total TV Measurement

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