Spotify have expanded their platform for brands and are placing adverts in their vast catalogue of podcasts available to stream.

Since expanding their platform from solely music to include podcasts for streaming, Spotify have seen podcasts take off. With their now expansive list of podcasts available to stream and millions of listeners tuning in to episodes every week they are opening them up to advertisers.

Spotify have announced ‘Spotify Podcast Ads’, allowing brands and companies to pay to advertise on podcasts. Using Spotify’s ‘Streaming Ad Insertion’ technology marketers will be able to target their ads to audiences they think are the most likely to respond to their products based on the podcast and user’s listening habits.

Spotify are also offering digital advertisers a suite of tools so that they can analyse the response to their ads and see the audiences and listening behaviour behind each advert listen. Spotify reckon they are in a unique position with podcasts to offer advertising that can be truly tracked, as podcasts are streamed through their platform rather than downloaded.

Spotify present 3 main areas of importance for advertising on podcasts with them:

  • Reach the audience you want to reach
    To date, podcast advertisers have had to rely on audience surveys or inferences about the podcast’s content to figure out where to allocate their podcast ad budgets. Spotify Podcasts Ads reach a logged-in user base of millions of listeners. We provide data-driven recommendations and insights to help you reach the right audience.
  • Deliver your ads with confidence
    In 2016, the IAB unified measurement of “ad delivery” across the industry,3 but due to the distributed, downloaded nature of podcasting, the new guidelines could not tell advertisers whether listeners actually heard their ads. Spotify Podcast Ads measure real impressions as they occur, reporting on the age, gender, device type, and listening behavior of the audience reached.
  • Understand the impact of your investment
    Without knowing who actually heard an ad, podcast advertisers have largely been unable to measure the impact of their podcast advertising through typical digital media practices like brand lift studies or conversion reporting. To date, podcast advertisers have found creative ways to directionally indicate whether their ads resonated through tactics like coupon codes and vanity URLs. With Spotify Podcast Ads, we will be able to tap into our suite of digital measurement capabilities to learn more about how people perceive your brand and take action after hearing your ad.

Spotify’s Senior Product Manager of Podcast Monetisation, Joel Withrow says: “In the past five years, podcasts have become a staple of pop culture. In that time, I’ve spoken to a lot of skeptical brands, and the conversation consistently begins and ends with measurement. I’m excited to continue evolving the medium at Spotify.

“With our trusted, logged in audience, we can finally prove out the effectiveness of podcasts with the data and insights that digital advertisers expect.”

Executive Vice President of Strategy at Havas Media, Gabrielle Rossetti added: “Podcasts have long been a highly compelling advertising environment, but we’ve been hesitant to dive in given the medium’s well-known limitations.

“Naturally, we were eager to test Spotify’s new podcast ad tech and have an influencer like Jemele endorse our new line of sneakers the Clyde Hardwoods. We’re excited to continue partnering with Spotify to push the boundaries of podcasts.”