Should You Advertise on Spotify?

Do you know the name Jockstrap? What about their newest album I Love You Jennifer B? If so, you might be wondering how an obscure, eclectic experimental pop act from London that’s barely more than five years old end up on the radar of half the globe.

If you have, you’re already well on your way to answering your own question about whether or not you should advertise on Spotify.

The short answer to whether Spotify advertising is right for you and your business is – yes, absolutely. We’re going to dig in deeper, though, so you can learn everything you need to know to learn how to make the most of Spotify ads!

1. Spotify Is Growing

Have you seen the most recent RIAA sales figures? The 2021 Mid-Year 2021 RIAA Music Revenue Report notes that streaming now accounts for a staggering 84% of all music revenue. That’s right, streaming services are now a $5.9 billion industry.

That category accounts for numerous different services, from subscription services to ad-based models. However you slice it, Spotify is by far leading the pack in terms of listeners and usage.

For business owners, you simply can’t overlook those kinds of numbers. Neglecting to consider Spotify as part of your audio campaigns. It would be like overlooking television advertising or newspaper ads when those industries were first emerging.

Early adoption of a new format helps you to build valuable connections with both a new audience and a new service provider alike.

2. A Captive Audience

Did you know that 66% of tv audiences skip commercials? That means that two out of every three viewers you’re trying to reach aren’t seeing that ad you paid thousands of dollars for.

When you’re thinking of advertising formats, it’s imperative that you think about engagement levels. It’s also vitally important to consider how many potential customers are reaching the end of your ads.

When you advertise on Spotify, your audience is guaranteed to hear your ads all the way to the end. Free subscribers aren’t able to skip ads, so they have to listen to the whole thing if they want to hear the rest of the album, playlist, audiobook, or podcast they’re listening to.

Other advertising formats give listeners the option to skip audio ads after five seconds. This means you get a lot more bang for your buck through Spotify ads than you do with similar digital advertising platforms.

3. Spotify Travels With Your Listeners

Can you imagine what Madison Avenue executives would have done for access to their customers wherever they might happen to be, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Because that’s exactly what Spotify gives you when you invest in audio ads.

Spotify listeners listen through their smartphones and mobile devices the great majority of the time. This means they’re listening on their morning commute, between classes, while they’re waiting in line at the supermarket, or any other moments of potential downtime during their day.

Listening when little else is going on has numerous benefits. Users will have far fewer distractions when listening on mobile, for one thing. When they’re at home, they can get up, use the restroom, grab a snack, or succumb to thousands of potential other distractions.

When they’re riding the subway, though? Not so much. There’s not much to do when you’re stuck on a train for up to an hour each way.

Traveling with your listeners also makes for much deeper associations with your business or brand. They won’t only have the impressions from around their home, for instance, where they’re already so familiar with their surroundings.

Instead, they’ll think of the morning sunlight or the cup of coffee they got on their way to work. This makes for much deeper connections that can work to your advantage.

4. Spotify Stays Open

Spotify doesn’t just travel with listeners on their morning commutes. It’s also a constant companion throughout their day as it doesn’t stop playing audio the way that other apps or websites do.

This gives Spotify a big boost over sites like YouTube, which is one of the world’s other biggest host for audio ads. There are app versions for every platform you can think of, as well, making Spotify ads even more likely to remain playing throughout a listener’s day.

This means that you could theoretically have an audience’s attention throughout their work day as well as during transit. That could mean having access to a listener for up to 10 hours a day at least. That’s not even counting if they’re listening at home when they’re cooking their dinner or doing their chores.

5. Spotify Is Cool

There’s a reason that advertisers pay so much for premium advertising space. The content that surrounds advertisement is just as important as the ad itself – maybe even more so. Where an ad is seen will leave an impression that can carry over to your brand – for better or worse.

Seeing a commercial during Dateline or 60 Minutes is going to leave a much different impression than an ad seen before Euphoria, for example. Some associations can potentially have disastrous consequences for a brand, as well.

A skateboard or snowboard company wouldn’t want to be associated with nursing homes or denture paste, for example.

There’s simply no overstating the power and profitability of cool when it comes to selling things. It’s the difference between Apple and a generic smartphone. There’s a reason that people will pay ten times as much for an Apple product as they will a Tracfone.

6. Targeted Ads

Of course, Spotify advertising has all of the same benefits as other forms of digital advertising but without many of the drawbacks. The ability to target your specific audience to such a granular level is by far one of the most compelling reasons to look into advertising on Spotify.

Spotify offers all sorts of different ways to reach your intended audience. First, they offer the option of reaching your audience based on device. You can specify whether you want to reach iOS, Android, or Desktop users. Even that simple audience segmentation can have powerful implications for your intended demographic.

That’s just the beginning, though.

Spotify advertising lets you specify what types of music your advertising will appear with. This gives you a lot of control over the potential connotations of your brand’s advertising. You can even set what kind of playlists you want your ad to accompany.

Imagine you’re advertising a new low-carb, macrobiotic fitness drink. You could specify that you want listeners tuned into running playlists to hear your ads. Not only does this granular targeting increase the odds of you reaching an appropriate audience, the odds are also good that they’ll be on a runner’s high when they come across your ad.

Final Thoughts On Spotify Advertising

Try as we might, there’s simply no turning back the clock. While we might sometimes yearn for simpler days, when TV, radio, and print were the only marketing we needed to worry that, those days are never coming back. We wouldn’t really want them back, either, if you really think about it.

Think about it, 20 years ago your main option for an ad campaign was to contact your local newspaper or a regional magazine, shell out thousands of dollars and hope for the best. As if that’s not bad enough, there’s little opportunity to see how your ad campaigns actually perform, let alone tell you how your customers actually feel about them.

Running marketing research on every single marketing campaign – both before and after – is prohibitively expensive. When you think back on how advertising and marketing used to function, it’s enough to convince you to try Spotify advertising alone.

Every time you run a Spotify ad, you get valuable data on what works and what doesn’t. This more or less completely removes the expense of having to do marketing research. You can put those funds directly towards a marketing campaign, instead.

Spotify’s ability to reach targeted audiences also limits the potential of reaching the wrong audience, as well. This is vitally important in today’s hyper-connected world, when negative word-of-mouth advertising has such a wide reach.

In short, Spotify offers many of the best benefits of radio and TV advertising but without the limitations. It also offers the advantages of digital marketing, without many of those potential shortcomings as well. Considering all of this, it’s safe to say you should really consider advertising on Spotify if you’re serious about growing your brand.

Are You Ready To Advertise On Spotify?

You’ve come to the right place. At Trigger Digital, we have everything you need to optimize your brand to thrive in digital business. Whether you’re looking to advertise on Spotify or optimize your website via a thorough SEO audit, you’ll find everything you need right here.

Get in touch with us today with any questions or to schedule a consultation.