What is Spotify Advertising?

Spotify is an online music streaming service that offers both free & premium access to a diverse library of music and podcasts for streaming. Spotify Premium users are granted additional benefits including the option to download music for offline play, ad-free listening, unlimited song skipping and higher-quality audio. Free users, who make up circa 60% of Spotify’s user-base, are served an occasional advertisement in return for access to the service, allowing Spotify to monetise their platform, and opening it up to advertisers like yourself.

At a time when people are increasingly more difficult to reach with effective brand messages, Spotify provides a way to tap into vast, engaged audiences at key touch points throughout the day via the emotionally connected medium of Audio.

Audio advertisements on Spotify can run for up to 30 seconds, they cannot be skipped, and they are played to Free-tier users every 15 minutes or so. A branded image accompanies the audio ad (showing where the cover art would appear when music is playing). These ads can be served anywhere people can access Spotify, across any device, when someone is streaming music.

Tell Me More

Our team will apply their knowledge of the market and effective targeting to utilise Spotify Ad Studio to plan and book your audio/display ad, but first we’ll need a few things. To get started we’ll need to know what it is that you’re promoting, who it is that you want to target, and what your budget is for the campaign. The following key-steps highlight the specifics that we’ll go through when planning a potential Spotify campaign for you:

1. Who are we targeting – Age, Gender, Location, and Platform(s).

Additional targeting options can also be layered on top of the above, however this is dependent on the deliverability of the campaign. These options can include things such as genre, interests, or real-time context targeting – think about those ads you hear in the lead up to lunch-time, or on a Friday afternoon, that influence your choice of potential takeaway.

2. What is the budget for your campaign, and when would you like it to run?

When would you like your message to be delivered (specific days of week, weekends only etc.), and how much do you want to allocate in terms of campaign budget? It’s worth noting here that minimum spend on Spotify is £250.

3. Upload or create your ad – Upload your image and audio (guidelines).

We will use any brand display assets that you have, or we can help to create these for the visual element of the campaign that will show as your ad is playing. This is clickable and will direct listeners to a URL that you define. If you have a pre-recorded audio ad, we can use this for the audio element of the ad, however if you don’t have an ad pre-recorded, never fear, Spotify will help with production of a brand new one using professional voice actors.

We’ll let them know what you want your ad to say and how it should sound, and they’ll produce an ad for you. You can even define specifics such as language, preferred voice profile (deep or high-pitched, etc.) and give any specific instructions you may have for the voice actor. This generally takes around 24-48 hours to be produced and ready for review. Once the ad is recorded, you can review it for any changes, reject it, or approve it and begin serving! Did we mention this service is free?!

Here’s an example of how an ad will look and sound on Spotify.

4. Confirm the campaign – Sit back & let your ad be served to your audience.

We’ll check in with the reporting (which begins to populate with statistics 24 hours after the campaign has started), monitor, and report back to you on the status of the campaign as it runs, as well as providing a post-campaign report.

Spotify Creative Best Practice

• Ads tend to work best when you match your ad’s messaging to your website’s tone of voice – creates a seamless feeling.

• Personalised ads tend to trigger a higher level of engagement – potentially use alternate ad copy for different locations, or get creative.

• Be sure to include a direct call-to-action in your ad, tell your audience what you’d like them to do (click-through, sign-up, share etc.).

• Think about the type of music you would like to include with your ad, as this can promote intent in your audience – what kind of music fits your audience and the message you are sharing with them?

• Don’t forget to clearly include who you are – say your brand’s name.

• There is such a thing as over-targeting – Feel free to hone in on an audience, but ensure that you’re not being too specific with your targeting as you could miss out on potentially valuable impressions.

Check out further best practice notes here!

Additional Notes

Full Targeting Options

• Habits

• Mindsets

• Tastes

• Demographic

• Genre

Interest Targeting

Reach people based on their regular activities and topics that they’re passionate about. This is informed by their recent streaming behaviours including podcast, playlist, and platform preferences. These topics are:

Real Time Context Targeting

Reach people who are listening to their favourite music or playlists tailored to specific moments, based on their real-time listening behaviour. Relevant contexts can include Chill, Dinner, Cooking, Focus, Holidays, Study, Workout etc.

Reporting

Stats begin to populate 24 hours after your campaign goes live. Some of the metrics included in the report will be:

• Ads Served

• Clicks

• Clickthrough rate

• Reach

• Frequency

As well as additional metrics specific to the audience(s) that your ads have been served to.

What are the full-range of options on Spotify?

• Display / Audio – This is what we can plan and book through Ad Studio

• Display Only (Leaderboard) – Desktop/Web Only

• Display Overlays – ‘Welcome Back’ style

• Branded playlists – custom playlists with your logo, custom text and an optional link to a landing page (min. 20 songs and only one track per artist)

• Sponsored Sessions – ad-free listening in exchange for viewing your video

• Video Takeover – Show during a commercial break when desktop app is in-view (on screen)

• Homepage Takeovers – Display ads that enable you to take over the Spotify homepage for 24 hours. Combine branded background skins and an interactive area (both clickable)

• Branded Moments – Similar to sponsored sessions, but allow you to serve sequential display ads

A Final Word…

To sum up, no matter the size of your business or fan base, Ad Studio lets you be heard in the moment. Maximise your reach with easy-to-make ads that sound great! Want to find out more about how Spotify Ads could help your business? Reach out to our team for more information!