Tag: Podcast Ads

Spotify Introduces Call-to-Action Cards for Podcast Ads

January 6, 2022

What’s the next great frontier in audio? We believe it’s interactivity. Over the last year, Spotify has introduced new tools for creators to interact more directly with their audiences through video podcasts, Q&As, and Polls. We’ve also enabled experiences like Blend, which allows listeners to merge their musical tastes with their friends’ in one shared playlist. Finally, we introduced our voice-controlled in-app experience, “Hey Spotify.”

Now we’re bringing interactivity to the audio ad experience. 

Whether you’re blasting your personalized On Repeat playlist during your morning run, catching up on the week’s pop culture news with Higher Learning while you make dinner, or listening to Monica and Dax unpack the struggles of being human while stuck in traffic on Armchair Expert—music and talk are your constant companions.  

But what happens when you hear an ad letting you know about Ulta’s “Hello Holidays” sale or an offer from Athletic Greens giving you 25% off when you sign up for a monthly subscription? You’re often forced to remember a promo code or URL, or make a mental note to look up the offer when you return to your phone or laptop. This process is far from seamless. That’s why we’re excited to announce a new ad experience launching across podcasts called call-to-action (CTA) cards.

 

 

CTA cards will appear in the app as soon as a podcast ad begins playing, and will resurface later on while you’re exploring the Spotify app—making it easier to check out the brand, product, or service you heard about while listening. CTA cards will make it easier for you to directly discover the products and services you’re interested in without having a hard-to-remember promo code or vanity URL.

With the launch of this new ad experience, we’re making podcast ads interactive for the first time, transforming the format from something that can only be heard, into an experience that you can also see — and, most importantly, click.

With digital audio being such a multitasking-friendly and engaging medium, more people are listening than ever before. In fact, in the U.S., mobile time spent listening to audio content is now outpacing time spent on social media, video, and gaming, according to eMarketer. CTA cards are the latest step in Spotify’s vision for the future of audio as an interactive, multi-way experience. 

CTA cards will be available across select Spotify Original & Exclusive podcasts in the U.S. beginning today. Advertisers can be especially excited—our tests have shown twice as many site visits with these new clickable ads compared to non-clickable podcast ads. Learn more at Ads.Spotify.com.

Spotify Ushers In New Era of Podcast Monetization With New Tools for All Creators

April 27, 2021

More and more creators are bringing their podcasts and shows to Spotify. With 345 million monthly listeners on Spotify, there’s a massive opportunity for all of these creators to monetize their work—and we believe there needs to be a variety of options for them to choose from to do so. 

At Stream On, we shared that we’d be launching more choices for podcast monetization: a native solution on Spotify to power paid podcast subscriptions, and the activation of independent creators as part of the Spotify Audience Network. Today begins the rollout of our monetization options for all creators: with Paid Subscriptions, Spotify’s Open Access Platform, and bringing independent creators into our Spotify Audience Network.

Paid subscription platform 

Today, we’re rolling out a paid subscription platform for podcasters that gives them maximized revenue, wide reach, and discoverability. The program begins rolling out in the U.S. today and will expand internationally in the coming months.

This feature will be available to creators through Anchor, allowing podcasters to mark episodes as subscriber-only and publish them to Spotify and other podcast-listening platforms. For the next two years, this program will come at no cost to the creator, meaning that participating creators receive 100% of their subscriber revenues (excluding payment transaction fees). Starting in 2023, we plan to introduce a competitive 5% fee for access to this tool.

By enabling wide distribution of subscriber-only content, our aim is to help podcasters maximize their subscription audiences and grow them from their existing listener bases. Within Spotify, this content will be searchable and discoverable like any other podcast episode. 

The first group of participating creators includes 12 independent podcasters who are each uniquely well positioned to succeed in gaining meaningful revenue from their audiences. These creators will publish subscriber-only bonus content in their existing podcast feeds. Starting now, we’re also going to begin accepting submissions from our waitlist, effectively expanding the program to more creators and the rest of the world over the coming months. 

We’re also unveiling a collaboration with NPR in which they will publish a selection of their shows sponsor-free for paid subscribers. Five shows will be available starting May 4—How I Built This with Guy Raz, Short Wave, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Code Switch, and Planet Money—with more to come in the following weeks. Look for NPR shows marked as “Plus” (for example, Planet Money Plus) to subscribe to sponsor-free content from NPR and support the shows you love.

Listeners can look forward to a seamless Spotify listening experience. This subscriber-only content will be fully searchable and discoverable within the Spotify app, and even show up within a show’s main feed—shows will be marked with a lock icon on the play button. Listeners will be able to tune in knowing that their subscriptions are going directly to the podcasters they love, giving independent creators a revenue stream on their own terms.

Spotify Open Access Platform (OAP)

Are you a creator or publisher who has subscribers elsewhere? We’re also working on technology that will let your listeners hear your content on Spotify using your existing login system. This gives creators with existing subscriber bases the option to deliver paid content to their existing paid audiences using Spotify, retaining direct control over the relationship. 

Stay tuned: We’re currently testing the technology and will have more to share in the coming months about partners and features.

Spotify Audience Network

At Stream On, we announced the Spotify Audience Network—a first-of-its-kind audio advertising marketplace in which advertisers of all sizes will be able to connect with listeners consuming a broad range of content. We’ve already unlocked Megaphone publisher inventory via the network, and starting May 1, we will begin to open Spotify Audience Network to select independent creators using Anchor, so more people can have access to this unique tool.

We believe this technology will enable more creators to make meaningful revenue from their podcasts by providing much better value to advertisers than existing podcast advertising solutions that use RSS. This will ultimately bring more dollars (and more-efficient spending) into the space, benefitting creators who choose to monetize through advertising.

Curious to know more? Check out Anchor’s blog for more on how the Paid Subscription program works for creators.

Spotify’s Head of Global Ads Business and Platform Jay Richman Talks New Spotify Podcast Ads

January 8, 2020

Jay Richman, Spotify VP, Head of Global Ads Business and Platform, has spent his career at the intersection of digital media and ad tech. His positions at NBCUniversal, Scholastic, and Bertelsmann taught him how to build consumer ad experiences that deliver for companies, brands, and creators. In his role at Spotify, he especially takes pride in delivering standout promotional experiences for consumers, artist teams, and brands—helping to bring free music and podcasts to the world.

This week, Jay is representing Spotify at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a major annual convention that looks ahead to the future of consumer technology (last year’s event had over 180,000 attendees). He’s excited to explore topics like IoT (internet of things; a.k.a. the devices that orbit smartphones), and how AI is being integrated into smart earbuds. 

But he’s also part of a major announcement for Spotify: the unveiling of Spotify Podcast Ads, powered by Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI). At first glance it seems like a lot to unpack, so we caught Jay at the start of the conference to learn what this means for podcasts lovers and creators, and the brands that back them. 

Today Spotify announced Spotify Podcast Ads powered by Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) which leverages the power of streaming to deliver Spotify’s full digital suite of planning, reporting, and measurement capabilities to podcast advertisers.

So, break it down for us. How does this change things for podcasters, advertisers, and listeners?

First of all, I’m super excited to be launching Streaming Ad Insertion for Spotify Podcast Ads this week. We’re essentially taking all that’s great with podcast ads today and adding real-time targeting, measurement, and interactivity to them, none of which exists in the industry as it stands today.

SAI will make podcast ads targetable—they’ll be relevant to the people who get them; measurable—we’ll more easily prove that they’re effective; and interactive—more to come here—for the first time. This will make the podcast ad experience more personalized for podcast fans, introduce performance metrics for advertisers, and allow creators to better monetize their content and make money off their hard work.

Why is this different from podcast advertising as it exists today?

Think of it this way: Podcast ads—until now—were actually more like magazine ads, versus the ones that we’ve all become accustomed to on the internet, which are personalized based on the content we’re reading or the video we’re watching. That’s because the podcast ads themselves came downloaded with content regardless of who is listening.

Now, with the shift to streaming, we can serve ads in real time based on who you are and what you’re interested in, and we can understand whether or not the ad was actually listened to. Soon we’ll be adding interactivity so users can directly engage with podcast ads without needing to remember, say, the coupon codes. We’re really excited about what this means not just for Spotify, but the industry overall.

You mentioned that this is an industry first. How does this set the stage for the future of podcast advertising across the industry?

It’s no surprise that Spotify is making big investments in podcasts—from content to the user experience with playlists like Your Daily Drive and now advertising, starting with SAI. What we’re doing is providing the industry with an example for what podcasts can do moving forward, adding another way to showcase just how remarkable the medium is.

Our research shows that a staggering 81% of listeners have taken action after hearing audio ads during a podcast. This means that podcast ads are already effective in allowing creators to earn more off their hard work. So with SAI, we’re taking formats that traditionally have been more of a static experience and making it a more personalized and attractive one. It’s not just about reach and numbers, but about impacting the ideal audience and knowing it. It’s a great opportunity for brands to have measurable impact.

Today, SAI is only available for Spotify originals and exclusives. When is this offering going to be available for a larger set of creators?

We’re starting with Spotify originals and exclusives as a part of the testing phase. This represents a first step into a super exciting space that will benefit consumers, creators, and Spotify alike. At Spotify, we are constantly innovating. Sometime down the line we might expand this to more audiences. This is just the beginning of a long-term journey.

On a more personal note, are there any podcasts that you’ve been especially into recently?

Well, I just finished a series called S-Town by the producers of Serial and This American Life. It documents a brilliant yet deeply disturbed man who despises his Alabama town. I found the series to be pretty suspenseful and gripping, like a murder mystery. I don’t want to spoil it, but definitely one worth checking out.

Want to learn more about Spotify Podcast Ads and Streaming Ad Insertion? Head to Spotify for Brands.