A Shared Standard for YouTube Buying in 2027
Earlier this month, at Sounds Profitable's Podcast Business Summit in New York City, something rare happened: three competitors in the podcast media buying space took the stage to address an urgent issue – YouTube measurement heading into 2027.
"On August 24th, YouTube redefined what counts as a public-facing view," ADOPTER Media Founder and CEO Glenn Rubenstein told the audience. "It could be as little as a single frame of a video viewed, a mouse hovering over a thumbnail, or an autoplay that you scroll by."
"These public-facing views are inflating that number by two to two and a half times," he said. "So as we come upon 2027 upfronts, this presents a challenge in terms of how we're pricing these buys."
Rubenstein reached out to two of ADOPTER's competitors, Right Side Up and Oxford Road, and asked them to share a stage. Oxford Road CEO and Founder Dan Granger gave him credit.
"I want to say thank you to Glenn, because he's the one who decided to invite the two of us to stand up."
He called Rubenstein a great partner through the AMP Accords work, and said the same about Krystina Rubino and her team at Right Side Up. Rubino had her own take. "I was glad when you reached out to us," she told Rubenstein.
Three competitors on one stage doesn't happen often. Granger said so himself.
"It's not often, maybe ever, that we've deliberately shared a stage across competitors in our industry," he said.
"This can be a very competitive business," Granger added. But the YouTube change mattered enough to set that aside.
"We wanted to lead by example."
Coming Together Around Engaged Views
Before the change, YouTube's public-facing number was based on what’s now called Engaged Views. Rubenstein explained why that metric matters to buyers.
"That's what we've all transacted billions of dollars on over the years when buying YouTube impressions," he said. "Engaged Views use an undisclosed portion of the video that's viewed to signal viewer intent."
And they haven't disappeared. "The good news is Engaged Views still exist. They're just private, in the creator dashboard."
ADOPTER is sticking with them.
"We're using Engaged Views. That's our definition of a YouTube impression next year," Rubenstein said.
Right Side Up is taking the same approach. "We're doing the exact same thing... We're going to buy on Engaged Views," Rubino said.
Keeping 2027 Buying Consistent
Rubenstein also addressed what could happen if the new public view count is used with the same CPMs advertisers were paying against the previous view metric.
"If you were to take this public-facing view count and say, well, now we're pricing on the same CPM for next year using this new view count, you're going to see mass cancellations in February and March," he said.
As Oxford Road had pointed out, the audience didn't change. Only the bar for counting a view did.
ADOPTER plans to use Engaged Views for YouTube-only sponsorships as well as podcast simulcast impressions. Rubenstein pointed to the trickle effect into audio: if $25 CPMs become $10 CPMs, simulcast pricing gets chaotic fast.
Reporting on Engaged Views is getting easier, too. Podscribe has rolled out automated reporting for the metric, and other companies are working on ways to support it.
As Rubenstein put it on stage, "There are ways to automate this. And it's not new."
(Disclosure: Rubenstein serves as an advisor to Podscribe.)
Part of a Bigger Measurement Conversation
The three companies have already worked together on another industry measurement effort: the AMP Accords.
Granger, who's done a lot of the work behind it, described it as "a big, year-long industry initiative to figure out how we define a podcast in a way that works for all stakeholders, how we standardize what an impression is, and how we do attribution across channels in a way that works."
He sees the YouTube change as part of the same fight. "This is a tough battle we're trying to fight, to create some uniformity in measurement," he said.
And he said buyers need to do what they're asking everyone else to do. "It's what we're asking all of you to do, and it's what we're asking the platforms to do."
"The players we depend on to make real changes are going to have to sit at a table and find ways to agree with people they compete with on a daily basis," Granger said.
That's why they shared the stage.
Rubino, who came from the display buying world, compared the moment to display advertising's viewability reckoning from roughly 2011 to 2015.
"Podcasting is having its viewability moment," she said.
"Buyers need more transparency into whether the consumer even has a chance to consume the ad impression."
Buyers Aren't the Only Ones Making the Move
Rubenstein made sure to give credit where it's due. YMH Studios was the first network to announce it was reporting Engaged Views, he said, adding that "a lot of you have privately told me you're doing this too."
On this issue and on the AMP Accords, he urged networks, publishers and creators to speak up.
"If you agree with these things and you're a network, publisher, or creator, you need to make your voice heard," he told the audience.
"We need to defend against going backwards if we ever hope for the AMP Accords or any forward movement to happen," he added.
Before the panel ended, Granger returned to the collaboration that had brought the three buyers onto the stage.
"I'd just say thanks again to Glenn and Krystina for really putting their backs into this and leading the way on setting an example for how we can adapt to these changes."
Competitors don't often agree on anything in public. This time, three of them did, because Rubenstein asked.
Watch: Defining a YouTube View in 2027
Sherry Del Rizzo
Sherry leads editorial at ADOPTER Media, translating the agency's campaign experience and podcast advertising expertise into education for the industry. Her job, in short: take what ADOPTER learns from running real campaigns and turn it into something worth reading.
