In this unprecedented time, marketers are struggling to find the right advertising channel for communication. Since there is no crowd in public places, there are limitations for OOH advertising. However, adding Spotify to an advertising campaign can give few advertisers a solution to communicate significant messages that fit the present work-from-home era.
Spotify Ad studio firstly introduced their limited beta version in 2017 as an ad creation interface comparable to other social media ad managers. Its key USP was to launch a new digital ad format that had never really been seen before – Audio Ads. Last month, it changed the beta with a general release into 22 markets.
Spotify Advertising Formats
Audio: Audio Ads are the most popular advertising format of Spotify. This audio Ad will be put in between songs and podcasts. This will contain a visual cover art which helps in conversions.
Video: Video Ads are made up of two main formats – ‘Sponsored Session’ & ‘Video Takeover’. The ‘Sponsored Session’ allows you to offer a user 30 minutes of ad-free listening in exchange for watching your brand’s video. The other Video Ad format, ‘Video Takeover’, simply serves your video to users between songs during commercial ad breaks.
Display: In-display Advertisements, there are mainly 3 ad formats – ‘Overlay’, ‘Homepage Takeover’ and ‘Leaderboard’. The ‘Overlay’ Ad format, targets users when they first open the app, displaying your message in an engaging format with a customizable CTA. The ‘Homepage Takeover’, does exactly what the label says, which allows you to showcase your brand’s message on the Spotify homepage for 24 hours. In ‘Leaderboard’ format, your advert appears as a traditional display ad would, but as the only ad shown for the next 30 seconds.
Sponsorship: If the brand has a large budget, they can exclusively sponsor individual playlists to attract millions of subscribers. By this, Spotify’s in-house team will work alongside with your marketing team and help to choose the best playlist that aligns with your target audience.
What makes Spotify Ads different?
Spotify ads can include website URL, image and audio message that marketers can prerecord and upload or create using a free voiceover tool Spotify provides. They can choose the ad formats according to their target audience, brand awareness or objectives of campaign. But these all can be set with other platforms also. What makes Spotify Ads different?
In addition to the traditional age, gender and location demographics, marketers can also associate their ads with a music type and mood. Matching a message to a customer’s potential mood is what differentiates Spotify from other digital ad platforms. Spotify’s algorithm adopts ads to listener preferences, aiming to deliver relevant ads to a given user’s stream. The arrangement can place a message in a stronger context than ads generated from online search queries, which lack the specific context the Spotify stream offers.
