Introduction to Spotify Advertisements
Spotify is the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service with 551 million users, including 220 million subscribers, across more than 180 markets. Spotify’s large, captive audience, coupled with its frequency of use (44% of Spotify users listen daily) makes the platform a powerful place to give audiences exposure to your messaging. Simultaneously, with Spotify’s advanced targeting, you can ensure not just that lots of people are receiving your ads, but also that the right audiences are receiving the right messages from your brand.
Thanks to Spotify’s range of advertising options, advertisements play well with the full funnel and can balance and enhance a brand’s media mix.
Why Brands Are Advertising on Spotify
There are a number of reasons why brands find advertising on Spotify to be very appealing: reach & scale, ease of buying, and premium inventory.
Reach & Scale:
Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service. They are able to scale your ad investments across streaming music and podcasts and have made significant investments in ad innovation.
Ease of Buying:
Spotify has the sales and ad infrastructure in place to easily service brands of all sizes. They offer mostly programmatic inventory and can work with advertisers to target their desired target audiences across all of their platforms. Their ad offering is very similar in structure to those of programmatic digital and video - which makes it feel more familiar for brands already well-versed in other forms of programmatic.
Premium Inventory:
One of Spotify’s greatest appeals to marketers is its premium inventory that includes some of the largest shows out there like: The Joe Rogan Experience, Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, and Call Her Daddy.
Types of Spotify Ads
Spotify offers a unique combination of audio, video ad display ads that can be used in conjunction with one another for the same campaign.
Podcast ads
Podcast ads are served across mobile, desktop, tablet, web players, gaming consoles, smart TVs, connected speakers, in-car, and wearables.
The max length is 30 seconds for pre-roll ads and 60 seconds for mid-roll ads. If you're running both pre-rolls and mid-rolls, keep your message within 30 seconds to hold the listener’s attention and avoid skipping.
Learn More: https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ad-experiences/podcast-ads/
Video ads
Spotify’s video ads are a great compliment to audio advertising, allowing brands to tell stories not just aurally—but visually, too. According to Nielsen research, campaigns that include both audio and video ads perform better, producing a 1.9 times increase in recall and 2.2 times increase in brand awareness.
Video ad options on Spotify include:
- Video takeovers: These ads are delivered when a user is actively looking at their screen. During listening sessions when users are in “discover” mode, browsing music and podcast options, these videos are served. In addition to video, these include banners with customized CTAs.
- Sponsored sessions: Sponsored sessions are ad-free listening intervals served to non-premium users. When the screen is in-view and the sound is on, short videos are delivered announcing the sponsored session. Then a 30-minute ad-free listening session follows.
- Opt-in video: Using powerful machine learning algorithms to identify listeners who will be receptive to your message, opt-in videos are delivered in “Now Playing” view alongside information like song title and artist.
Learn More: https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ad-experiences/video-ads/
Custom Experiences
Spotify offers the opportunity to create custom experiences on their platform. Tailored to the unique needs of a campaign, brands can partner with Spotify’s creative teams to develop advertising that sets them apart from the crowd. These include sponsored playlists, display overlaps, and homepage takeovers
Sponsored Playlists
Sponsored playlists are designed to drive engagement and brand affinity by pairing brands with the platform’s most loved and listened to playlists. Sponsored playlists include native ad placement within popular podcasts, as well as exclusive visual homepage takeovers, 30-second custom audio scripts, native overlay, and more.
Overlay
Overlay ads are banner-like ads that run at the bottom of the screen. These don’t obstruct the user’s view of the screen, so they can be shown even when the user is interacting with Spotify normally. Typically delivered when listeners return to the app and are actively viewing the screen, these ads are designed for visibility and to drive traffic to your website or app.
Homepage takeover
Homepage takeovers include all ad properties on the Spotify desktop homepage. Typically, these have a shelf life of 24 hours. The immersive quality of a homepage takeover is designed for impact and supports both audio and visual creative, as well as interactive elements to fully engage users.
Leaderboards
Leaderboards are large banners that can feature a mix of text, images, and video. Only served when Spotify is in-view, these dynamic advertisements are shown for 30 second intervals and are clickable to drive users to your website or app.
Learn More: https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ad-experiences/sponsored-playlist-ad-specs/
How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on Spotify?
The cost to advertise on Spotify varies widely and is impacted by several variables but they will work with advertisers to develop a plan that meets most budgets and goals.
Variables that Impact Cost
- Show Type or Popularity
- Impression Volume
- Specific Talent
- Advertiser Demand
Are Spotify Ads Effective?
Spotify, just like all of our other network partners, provides us with top-performing shows on a client-by-client basis such as The Joe Rogan Experience, Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, Call Her Daddy, The Bill Simmons Podcast, and even more. They’ve helped our clients reach new audiences, drive impactful creative executions, and drive results. In terms of effectiveness, Ad Results Media will work with any show that is proven to drive sales and impact for brands and we enjoy partnering with Spotify.
How to Make Spotify Ads
Spotify’s flexible pricing options and quick ad activation make it a great addition to any media strategy. Launching a Spotify ad campaign is easy. To make it even easier, we’ve outlined the steps below.
- Create a Spotify account. The first step is making a free Spotify account. You can use your email, Google account, or Facebook to get started. From there, you will be able to navigate to Spotify Ad Studio.
- Choose your ad format. Determine what type of ads will serve your current goals and use that to guide the process going forward. Whether purely audio, purely visual, or a mix of the two, Spotify can support the campaign. Formats can be identified in Ad Studio’s campaign details section.
- Define your target audience. Here you must identify regions, languages, age groups, genders, interests, genres, and platforms to reach the most relevant audiences for your brand.
- Set budget and schedule. You can choose to run your ad indefinitely or for a distinct timeframe. There are minimum daily budgets on Spotify, as well as minimum lifetime budgets, though you also have the option to choose a custom amount. Based on your audience, Spotify’s algorithm can predict whether you’ll spend some or all of your budget.
- Choose a delivery objective. This is an opportunity to define where you’re hoping to generate ROI—is it impressions? Reach? Clicks?
- Create your ad. Here you will fill in details like your brand’s name, a tagline, and the CTA, as well as upload images, video, or audio. Don’t worry—you’ll be able to preview what you’ve created before it starts running.
- Add payment info and enjoy. Once you’re happy with the parameters above, you simply add your payment information, and submit the ad for approval from the Spotify team.
While many ads in Spotify are as simple as following the seven steps above, endorsement campaigns are a different animal. Endorsement campaigns involve working directly with show hosts to create impactful and authentic creative, delivered by the hosts themselves. If you wish to run an endorsement campaign, we suggest partnering with an agency like ARM that can facilitate the process from start to finish.
How to Measure the Success of a Spotify Ad Campaign
Measuring a brand’s success on Spotify should not be different or distinct than measuring success with other partners. We firmly believe that driving measurable business impact should be the expectation of all marketers and we use the performance data provided by Spotify to report on how each of our individual campaigns are performing in relation to achieving client objectives.
Learn More: https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/news-and-insights/how-to-measure-digital-audio-ads/
Turn to the Experts
For more information on how to include Spotify advertising in your overall media mix, please reach out to the team at Ad Results Media for a consultation.
