Spotify Ads: How to place ads on Spotify

Hardly anyone thinks about records, CDs or cassettes these days – listening to music via streaming services is completely normal for us today. With 406 million monthly users in the fourth quarter of 2021, Spotify is the largest music streaming service in the world. But Spotify doesn’t just offer music – the streaming service also offers audio books or podcasts. Spotify is part of everyday life for many of us. No wonder Spotify is also becoming increasingly popular as an advertising platform. Would you also like to advertise on Spotify? We’ll show you what options you have and how Spotify Ads work.

Spotify Freemium vs. Premium in comparison

Spotify offers its users two different models: There is the option to listen to Spotify for free, but with ads – or you can opt for Spotify Premium and pay for your subscription.

This means that if you want to run Spotify Ads, you will reach the group of freemium users. But how many are they actually? Here are the figures from Q2 2021: In Q2 2021, Spotify had an average of 365 million monthly users. Of these, 165 million are premium users, while 210 million used Spotify for free. That’s more than half namely 56% of users.

Spotify usage in the second quarter of 2021

Advertising formats on Spotify

Spotify offers different ways to advertise. On the one hand, audio ads that are played to users between songs, on the other hand, video ads or podcast ads are also possible.

Place audio ads: Advertise between songs

Audio Ads are played between songs – in combination with a display banner & a CTA button. An audio ad lasts a maximum of 30 seconds.

Example: This is how Audio Ads can look like:

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Video Ads on Spotify

Video Takeover ads are played to Spotify users when they actively search for music or podcasts. These contain a companion banner and a CTA button.

Video Takeover Ads on Spotify – Demo:

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In addition to video takeover ads, you can also run sponsored sessions. These are video ads that are played when the user is actively moving in the Spotify app. Sponsored sessions last a maximum of 30 seconds. After a sponsored session, the user can stream for 30 minutes without any further advertising interruption.

Example: This is what Sponsored Sessions on Spotify can look like:

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Podcast Ads: Reaching Premium Users, Too

Podcast ads are usually recorded directly by the host (speaker of the podcast) himself. This gives the ad a special authenticity. But podcast ads have another advantage: while audio ads and video ads are only played out to freemium users, with podcast ads you also reach the group of Spotify premium users.

Read another blog post to learn about the types of podcast available and why they are becoming increasingly popular.

And since the beginning of 2022, there is a new feature to Spotify Podcast Ads: Clickable Podcast Ads with Call-to-Action Cards. These are visual CTA banners that serve as an interactive extension of the audible Podcast Ads.

New to Podcast Ads: CTA Cards:

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Spotify Ad Studio: Spotify’s self-service advertising platform

Running Spotify Ads isn’t complicated. With Spotify Ads Studio, the streaming service offers a platform where you can create and book ads yourself. Spotify Ad Studio offers a free Creative-Service+ that allows you to create your own audio ads yourself. However, there is also the option to upload your own files.

Post Spotify Ads with the Spotify Ads Studio – Here’s how:

1. Create Ad Studio account
2. Define target group
3. Create Ads
4. Evaluate & measure success

What targeting options does Spotify offer?

Audience Targeting: Spotify offers comprehensive options to define your target audience. You can compose your target group from the following options:

• Demographics: Targeting by age, location, gender & language.
• Devices and connectivity: Define audience by operating system, mobile carrier & device. Or do you want to reach users who listen to Spotify in their car or via connected home?
• Listening Behavior: Create target audience by genre, subgenre, playlist category or podcast category.
• Predicted interests: Lookalike targeting – what are users interested in?
• External Behavior: Custom audience match & third-party interest targeting.
• Past Interactions: Defining audience based on past interactions with Spotify Ads – Brand awareness, sequential messaging and real-time retargeting.

How much does advertising cost on Spotify?

The minimum budget for ads on Spotify is €250, when booked through the self-service Spotify Ad Studio platform. However, prices per ad on Spotify vary depending on whether you use Programmatic or Spotify Ad Studio. For advertisers with larger budgets, Spotify offers individual solutions.

Success measurement: Measuring advertising success on Spotify

Those who use the Spotify Ad Studio can access real-time reporting. Here you can see the most important campaign data: start and end dates, budget, and a summary of targeting. Furthermore, you can see metrics on ad delivery (ads, reach, frequency and completion rate) and insights on the target group (such as age, gender, genre and platform). You’ll also learn performance metrics (like clicks, CTR, and completion rates by quartile).

Spotify & Social Media

What does Spotify have to do with social media marketing? Does Spotify count as social media?
Yes – Spotify should be considered a social media network. Why? Spotify offers the ability to connect and socialize with friends. Spotify playlists can be shared.
Spotify also allows users to integrate their account with existing Facebook and Twitter accounts. After that, they can also access their friends’ favorite music and playlists.

We no longer have to ask our friends to listen to a certain song, we just add it to the playlist our friends are following. On Facebook, you can like your friends’ post; on Spotify, you can like a song a friend just listened to. Or you can listen to it together – as if you were sitting right next to each other. Spotify takes advantage of the fact that music is something that brings people together, and that our relationship with music is deeply personal and intimate. Music is a form of self-expression, it speaks for us and shapes our identity. Spotify’s integration with social media platforms allows us to highlight these forms of expression.

We’ll give you an overview of which audiences you can best reach with which social media platform in another blog post.

Spotify has changed the dynamic between personal and social engagement with music. In the past, when we listened to music, only we knew what song we were listening to. Through Spotify’s integration with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, these music selection choices or preferences can be understood as suggestions or recommendations to our friends – inadvertently inspiring our friends and subsequent music preferences.

As more and more users continue to listen to Spotify and share their music consumption with their friends, it can be assumed that the purpose of the app is changing from a pure streaming service provider to a platform where people listen to, rate and share music with their friends.