What is Spotify advertising?
Spotify is a music and streaming service from Sweden. As of 2022, it is the largest streaming service with 430 million monthly users, of which more than 180 million users pay for the premium version of the service.
Advertising on Spotify is an opportunity to spread messages among users of the platform. Here you can target your audience based on demographics, interests, behavior and the context in which your ad is placed. On Spotify, ads run between tracks, during podcasts, and when a user browses a playlist.
Spotify ad formats
Advertising in Spotify is positioned as media. The service offers a choice of two promotion goals: Build awareness with an emphasis on outreach or Drive consideration with the help of impressions. In general, advertising formats are divided depending on the location of the advertisement and visual media.
Audio ads
An audio ad on Spotify is a 15-30 second audio sequence combined with a relevant banner and a CTA button, which will lead listeners to the advertiser’s website. The system recommends using up to 70 words, but we are probably talking about the English language, so for the Ukrainian audience, you should still experiment to determine the optimal length.
Such ads are played in applications for smartphones, personal computers, in a web player, as well as on game consoles, Smart TVs, and built-in players in cars – in general, on all devices from which users listen to Spotify.
There are also longer advertisements on the network, lasting 30-60 seconds. Apart from the duration, it is similar to the previous type of ad, but at the time of writing this format is not available in Spotify Ad Studio.
Spotify’s learning resources have a detailed guide to creating audio ads: from getting to know the format to work with surround sound in creating ads.
Video ads
Despite the fact that the service specializes in audio content, it has the ability to place video ads. The platform claims to show such ads only when the user interacts with the app and sees the screen. There are two accommodation options here.
- Video Takeover appears on the screen when a person scrolls through the menu, looking at lists of music or podcasts. The maximum length of such an insert is 30 seconds. Videos are shown on smartphones, tablets and PCs, and advertisers have the option to download vertical videos for smartphones and horizontal videos for desktops separately.
- Sponsored Session is a special type of announcement, after which the listener will not hear another advertisement for 30 minutes. This ad plays on smartphones and tablets and looks like this:
Podcast ads
Spotify allows ads to be embedded in relevant places in its users’ podcasts. The ad can be a 15-second insert before or at the end of an episode, or take up to 60 seconds in the middle of the podcast itself.
There are two options for implementing such advertising.
- The announcement is read by the podcast host. The advertising block is as native as possible, the listener continues to hear the usual creator.
- Pre-recorded announcement. You record a voiceover that will sound the same in every podcast you embed.
More examples of advertising on Spotify can be found on the platform’s blog. It is interesting that among the advertisers there are both small businesses and large companies from various niches.
Types of targeting in Spotify
Spotify, like other advertising networks, allows you to target advertising to target audiences based on a number of parameters.
- Demography. Here everything is quite standard: you can choose the age limits, gender, language and location of listeners/viewers of your ad.
- Behavioral factors. Find CA by interests or as a fanbase of individual creators.
- Context. Spotify allows you to choose in the ad settings the context in which it will or will not be located. You can choose the genre of music or the topic of the podcast in which ads will appear.
How much does Spotify advertising cost?
Audio and video ads on Spotify are sold using an auction model, with advertisers setting a limit and the platform choosing whose ads to show. The guide recommends starting a campaign with a budget of $250. If we talk about advertising in podcasts or programmatic solutions, then the price can differ significantly and you should check the conditions with Spotify representatives.
Advantages and disadvantages of advertising on Spotify
Advertising on a music app like Spotify can be a great way to increase views and ad exposure. This is especially useful for advertisers running large-scale campaigns and building brand awareness.
In addition, it will help to “reach” those who avoid advertising in other services. People know how to block ads on websites, but you can block ads in the Spotify application only by subscribing to the Premium tariff.
However, there is still no information about the Spotify advertising audience in Ukraine. Therefore, this platform must be tested to understand how suitable it is
Conclusions
To get the most out of an advertising tool, you should test it before your competitors do. Spotify can become a good point of growth for B2C companies because it allows you to “reach” the audience that avoids advertising in other placements.
