Spotify has boomed as a platform due to COVID and today is the most popular music streaming service in Australia with around a quarter of the population listening to everything from their favourite artists to newly released music and informative podcasts.
Spotify advertising has been available until 2017 yet many businesses are still not yet using this powerful medium. Developing a Spotify Ads Strategy is therefore a really good idea!
Which clients (and target markets) does Spotify Advertising best suit?
Clients who have done traditional radio advertising & who got results, are an ideal candidate for Spotify Advertising as they likely already understand the audio medium when it comes to ad creative, or have enjoyed results on radio and are looking to diversify from their local area, or set radio networks to being able to target people in a much more specific way through interests, music genres, age, gender and more.
Spotify Advertising should be considered a ‘top of funnel’ strategy, and is ideal for clients looking for brand awareness or reach. Over 61% of Spotify users have said that the platform helped introduce them to a new brand or product.
Spotify is popular across virtually every age demographic. Though 25-34 year olds make up 29% of the listening audience, 19% of listeners are 55+ years old.
Choosing a Spotify Advertising strategy
Just like Facebook Advertising (or any other social media channel) choosing what type of ads or ‘creative’ you will use is an important early step in the development of your spotify advertising strategy.
Naturally there is audio, but there is also video (horizontal) and video (vertical)
- Audio: mp3 or wav files that are a maximum of 30 seconds and include a companion image, but no motion graphics.
- Video (horizontal): 16:9 (landscape) ads that are mov or mp4 file types and play for a maximum of 30 seconds.
- Video (vertical): 9:16 (portrait) ads that are mov or mp4 file types and play for a maximum of 30 seconds.
The vast majority of advertisers will choose audio as an option, as this is what Spotify is known for and what it’s audiences have come to expect. And before you ask, “but won’t my ads be blocked out if someone is on a Premium subscription?” Since Jan 2021, Spotify users who have paid for the ad-free Premium subscription will still have to listen to adverts if they use the platform for podcasts. So in short, yes they will still hear your ads.
One really cool feature of Spotify Advertising which is unlike other platforms is that you also have the ability to have Spotify produce an ad on your behalf, with professional voice actors and all! In this case, you’ll have to:
- Choose the gender & general age of your Spotify Voice Actor
- Provide a script (70 word max) for them to use
- Select a mood for the background music to match
- Still include a companion image, CTA, and advertiser name/tagline to include
… and that’s it! You’ll now have professional sounding ads on Spotify!
We recommend you shoot for a 15 second or a 30 second ad, and you’ll also have to submit a 640 x 640 px ‘companion image’ and a CTA or ‘call to action’ which will display alongside your ad. This is a good opportunity to squeeze in a little more branding or marketing messaging. There are many other factors to consider when it comes to developing your Spotify ads creative and we encourage you to contact us to discuss your requirements so we can best guide you on the Spotify Ads journey.
What does Spotify advertising cost?
You can launch a Spotify Advertising campaign for a minimum of $250.
The average cost per thousand impressions ranges between $15 and $25, meaning that with a $250 campaign budget, you’d be expected to receive between 10,000 and 16,667 impressions.
In this example, we said $1000 over a 1 month period, all audiences in Australia (no narrowed targeting) and it suggests we can reach 22k-26k reach at $0.043 per view (pretty cheap!)
Ad policies for Spotify and other rules
Like any platform, yes there are rules to abide by. These include a Spotify Ads policy (hyper link to https://ads.spotify.com/en-AU/help-center/advertising-policies), platform rules (hyper link to https://www.spotify.com/us/platform-rules), user guidelines (hyper link to https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/user-guidelines/) and prohibited content (hyperlink to https://artists.spotify.com/help/article/prohibited-content). Most of these things are common sense and we think you’ll find them less restrictive than some of the other ad platforms whose rules are much longer in nature.
Is Spotify advertising worth it?
We would say that given the popularity of Spotify these days in Australia (and globally), the easy cost of entrance (minimum ad spend of just $250) and ease to make creative, Spotify advertising is absolutely worth a shot. Like any advertising
Our Spotify Ads Package
Interested in advertising on Spotify now? We hope so! Very soon we will be introducing Spotify Ads packages! We’re also running a webinar on Getting Started with Spotify Advertising. Read more about that here. And in the meantime should you have any questions please contact us!