As marketers scale advertising spend, they are always on the lookout for new ways to reach their audience. Audio advertising might be one of the more novel channels, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have huge potential for your business.
Based on Spotify's financial results from the first quarter of 2022, Spotify has 422m listeners including 182m subscribers across 182 markets. With that in mind, Spotify has invested heavily in its Audio Ads platform indicating audio ads are the next big paid channel to emerge.
But how can you take advantage of this new channel?
Spotify Audio Ads - everything you need to know:
- Learn what Spotify Audio Ads are
- How to create audio ads with Spotify's Ad Studio - watch the demo
- Using Spotify Audio Ads in your campaigns
- Hear how Hireclix used Spotify Audio Ads to get increased ROI for their clients
What are Audio Ads?
Audio ads are sound-based paid advertisements placed into audio-only formats like podcasts and music.
With the rise of podcast listening, platforms like Spotify have created platforms so you can advertise your product or service in short audio ads intended to grab the listener's attention and tell them about your business.
Audio Ads Best Practices
1. Don't sound like an old radio ad - no matter how much you feel compelled to sound like the most memorable radio ad of your childhood, resist. The new way of working with audio ads is to be casual and speak to the listener like the host speaks to the listener.
2. Don't do too much - when you're paying for ads, you might feel like trying to include all the benefits of your product or service in as little time as possible. But there's no need. Focus on one key message and make sure you hit it home.
3. Use sound effects and music - grab your audience's attention and keep them engaged with sound effects to animate your message.
4. Don't be boring - as with any type of paid ad, you need to be creative. Sometimes the wackiest ideas can have the most impact, so get your creative juices flowing and see what you can do with the audio ads format.
Ways to leverage Audio Ads
Channel Mix - When considering audio ads, the first thing is to think about how they fit into your channel mix. Audio ads aren't likely to generate tons of direct clicks, meaning they are more of an upper funnel channel similar to programmatic display.
Targeting - When adding a new channel like audio ads, start small so you can try to test the impact it is having on your goals. A good way to think about this is by beginning audio ads in a specific region or city, then seeing how other metrics are impacted. It is key here that you have strong data collection, preparation and visualization capabilities.
Spotify Audio Ads Case Study with HireClix
Our friends over at Hireclix figured out how to successfully use Spotify Audio Ads in their campaigns. Not only did they do that, they also figured out how to measure the impact of audio ads to their key KPIs.
It's great to test new channels, but you need to be able to measure in order to test. There are tons of ways to measure, but HireClix built Spotify Audio Ads measurement into a comprehensive marketing dashboard that they set up for each client. Watch the short 4-minute video below to hear how HireClix pulled it off, and to see their marketing dashboard in action.