There are few things more personal and bespoke than musical taste. When it comes to marketing your music, reaching out to the right people is what it is all about. It’s far more valuable to target 50 people who enjoy your style and genre than to blanket bomb 500 at random.
Fortunately, in the digital world, targeted marketing has been one of the most important themes of the past five years or so. You see it on social media feeds and in the in-content ads that appear in a news article, with everything from choosing vehicle insurance to playing online games, depending on your browsing history and search habits.
Spotify makes sense as an advertising and promotional platform for your music, as you already know that those browsing the site are open to discovering new music. So what sort of ads are available and how can you use them to your optimum advantage?
Leaderboard ads
These are the most common type of ads on Spotify. The leaderboard is a rectangular area at the top of the screen, so it is the first thing the user sees on the page. This type of ad has been shown over time to be a strong performer in terms of engagement rates. The positioning of the ad also tends to prevent the “irritation factor” that can make an ad counter-productive and is a risk with pop ups or expandable ads that obscure the page content.
Billboard ads
A billboard ad is as “in your face” as a physical billboard – but imagine it appearing in the middle of the road in front of you! It works a little like a screensaver. If a user is inactive on Spotify for five minutes, the billboard ad engulfs the screen for two seconds when he or she returns, and then shrinks down to a leaderboard-style ad. In many ways, it is the best of both worlds, as it delivers maximum impact, but without blocking the view of the page in a way that is disruptive.
Audio ads
Let’s be honest, attracting the attention of new listeners with words and images is one thing. But to really get them interested in your sound, they need to hear you. Spotify offers a cross-platform audio advertising format that appears during a 30-second ad break in between the songs being listened to. While your audio clip is playing, Spotify displays an image of your cover art and a clickable link.
Managing your campaign
There is no shortage of marketing agencies that will be happy to help run your Spotify campaign. But the best thing about the platform is you don’t really need them. Spotify provides you with real-time conversion metrics. In plain English, that means you can immediately see which aspects of your advertising campaign are most effective. You can then turn up the dial on what works well and reduce or make some changes to the less effective aspects.
Such adjustments need not only apply to the ad content itself. Spotify gives you the power to tweak your target audience on the basis of demographics, musical preferences, platform types and other factors. In addition, you can really zoom in on just those users who are fans of a specific artist, or even those who have engaged with your ads in the past.