By Josh Marinaro
When you think of a digital marketing strategy, you’d be forgiven if audio ads didn’t immediately spring to mind – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider them.
In fact, we’ve been experimenting with Spotify Ads more recently, and we have to say, we’re impressed. From the cool contextual options, to the ease of creating the ad itself, there’s a lot to love.
So if radio’s never felt achievable or measurable enough for your brand, Spotify’s literal millions of users might just be what you’re looking for.
And if that’s not convinced you, have a read of some of the biggest selling points below.
1. Your audience is there and listening
More than a third of the UK (38%) using Spotify on a weekly basis, so it’s highly likely that a good chunk of your audience is on the platform. And with people paying more attention to Spotify than other traditional audio and visual platforms, it’s a fantastic way to broaden your marketing mix without it costing an arm and a leg.
2. Unique, interest-based targeting options
On Spotify, you can target users based on their:
- Interests
- Demographic
- Geographic locations
- What they’re listening to
That last one is a particularly snazzy way to advertise, opening up some really cool contextual opportunities that aren’t as easily achieved on other platforms.
Are you a spa brand? Get your ad played while someone’s listening to chill-out tunes. Fitness brand? Target people listening to gym and workout playlists. It’s a sure-fire way to grab their attention while they’re most likely to be receptive to your messaging.
3. Start with as little as £250
Listen, just because TV and radio ads can get pricey, doesn’t mean the same applies here. You actually don’t need a huge budget to test if Spotify could work for you.
That being said, this does depend a lot on the audience size you’re looking to target and, naturally, Spotify recommends testing with a budget of £1.5k, ideally.
4. Spotify will make the ad for you
Yeah, this one shocked us a bit too. No need to pay for voice actors on top of your ad spend. Spotify actually provide this service for free.
You can even select the age bracket, gender an accent of your voice actor to ensure brand synergy and advise on what you’d like from a tone and pacing perspective too. The ad then comes back to you, usually within 48 hours (yes, really!), which you can then approve or write up amends.
It’s a really efficient service, and we’ve been impressed by the quality of the end product.
5. The results are pretty great
Whilst some other platforms may offer better value in terms of CPM, it’s important to factor in the quality of the impressions you’re getting. An impression on some platforms can be only a matter of seconds, if that.
To give you an example of impression quality, in their first month, one of our clients trialling Spotify achieved a 91% completion rate on their ads. That is, 91% of users listened to the full ad without closing the app. Which certainly beats an impression counting as an ad or post being mostly in view for fractions of a second.
Something to bear in mind…
As with most platforms, there is usually a ‘but’. In this case, it’s a pretty straightforward one. As is the case with radio and other more traditional forms of advertising, you should expect Spotify to sit primarily in the ‘brand awareness’ bracket of your strategy. Don’t go in looking for sky-high click-through rates – there are better platforms to use if that’s your primary goal.
That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, of course. Catching users at just the right time is much easier with those targeting options we mentioned earlier, but its not the platform’s main strength. To get a sense of how Spotify could bolster your marketing efforts, consider having your trial run alongside a key campaign. That could be something seasonal, a sale, or a time-based offer, to encourage a wider range of different interactions.
Want to get up and running with Spotify? Get in touch with us today to talk about diversifying your digital marketing and getting great results.
