Unlocking Spotify Premium Ads: What You Should Know

With Spotify recently reporting 640 million active users in 2024, that is a huge opportunity to connect with a broad audience that craves high-quality audio. Not only can it boost your visibility, but it is often an unexpected channel for local advertising. However, how do these adverts work, and what benefits can you gain that will boost your brand moving forward?

Read on to learn how to pinpoint the perfect Spotify Premium ad demographics and ensure your ROI is high enough to make Spotify advertising worth it. Leverage unique Spotify Premium features and expect much more success in the long term.

What Is a Spotify Premium Ad and How Does it Work?

Spotify Premium ads are promotional audio spots that both users who pay for Spotify or use the free version can hear. While Premium listeners rarely receive ads, there are a few times when it still occurs, including during podcasts with embedded ads or in specific regions. These can engage with audiences in unique ways and may include ad reads by the podcast creator, allowing focused Spotify ad targeting with specific podcasts or real-world locations.

They occur so rarely to prevent them from overwhelming users and to offer Premium users a key benefit. However, when they do, Spotify gathers information through them, including how much users engage with them, pause them, or take other actions. The data allows advertisers to craft better messaging, helping you improve your promotion over time.

Spotify Ad Benefits and Features

Spotify audio ads can appear on any device, allowing brands to push consistent messaging in all locations, including:

• Smartphones
• Desktops
• Smart speakers
• Smart TVs
• Spotify vehicle apps

They are also only around 15-30 seconds, meaning they must offer fast and engaging messages.Thus, they do not disrupt a user's experience significantly and can help you focus a listener's attention, boosting the likelihood that a listener will remember the details of the ad.

While an ad plays, you can also provide it with a display card that can show visuals related to you or a call to action button to allow users to engage with it immediately. However, this is not available on all platforms, such as when driving.

Spotify Premium ads, being largely podcast-focused, can also offer you a dedicated audience with a specific interest. Depending on the podcasts you advertise in, Spotify ads can position your brand as a trusted resource or align you with local groups that may listen to you through these sources of entertainment.

Differences Between Spotify Premium and Free Ads

The main difference between ads on these two tiers is that users tend to hear them much less on Premium accounts. This fact can make brand messages much more exclusive, as those hearing on Premium accounts then will likely get the same message with far less listener fatigue.

Another secondary benefit is that Spotify Premium users have actively chosen to invest in their music experience. It suggests they have more disposable income and are more likely to invest in other offerings than those who only listen to Spotify's free music.

Why Your Business Should Use Spotify Premium Ads

According to research by Edison, 76% of teens and adults in the US have listened to online audio in the last month. This number, approximately 220 million people, is engaged with audio in a way that allows them to customize their experience more than those listening to radio. In general, they are more focused than those who passively listen to radio stations, offering a chance at better retention and recall.

When it comes to podcasts, which is how you can target Spotify Premium users with Spotify's Streaming Ad Insertion system, you can assume that these listeners are actively attempting to invest in better audio. Those who listen to podcasts are thus more receptive and listen more actively.

In many cases, you can even contact the individuals running the podcast and ask for specific ad reads. These will enable you to promote yourself directly through the individual who people are listening to, giving you more authority and trustworthiness where otherwise you would be a distraction. Such ads are also much more seamless, meaning people will often listen to them as a part of a typical podcast experience rather than wanting to skip them.

In addition, according to The CFO, in 2024, the number of people listening to advertising with Spotify was up 15% year on year. Such growth means that new people are entering the listener group all the time or that they are listening to more content. Thus, your ads will either be heard by more people or by the target market more often in the same time frame.

Should You Stop Regular Ads?

While Spotify's adverts on Premium channels offer many benefits, we still encourage continuing traditional outreach methods, such as direct mail. Doing this creates a holistic campaign that offers consistent messaging over several channels, building additional brand awareness and trust through repeated exposure to the brand and its messaging.

You can even combine them, for example, by mentioning direct-mail-based offers on the Spotify ad or discussing a unique Spotify campaign via mail.Doing this can build a consistent narrative and interest people in experiencing both.

Also, people have diverse opinions and reactions when it comes to outreach. Some will respond better to one ad format and some to the other. As such, you should try to discover which demographics are more likely to react positively to each, leveraging the interest they have to push engagement with your brand further.

Ready to Amplify Your Reach with Spotify Ads?

Spotify ads can strengthen brand engagement, and targeting Premium users can do even more. Modern audiences appreciate unobtrusive, seamless advertising, and Spotify can provide these, allowing you to target people directly in your market.

Taradel understands what such a tool means for a business and how we can help you leverage it to increase brand awareness quickly. Contact us to harness our marketing expertise and use the power of a Spotify Premium ad campaign to grow your audience today.