When it comes to marketing, you probably do not think about Spotify — a music streaming platform that is used by over 100 million people. We think Spotify Advertising Campaigns are underrated considering the high potential they have.

Whether you’re considering it for your radio broadcast or an advertising campaign, Spotify will undoubtedly have a very positive effect on your marketing campaign efforts.

In addition to audio ads, Spotify also offers display ads and video ads. If you’re considering a more budget-conscious marketing strategy, advertising on Spotify could be the perfect fit.  With so many people using Spotify globally, it’s a great time to switch up your advertising budget.

We’ll look at how it works, and why you should consider effectively promoting your brand on Spotify by using voice applications.

Why choose Spotify Advertising Campaigns?

Considering that Spotify in the first quarter of 2021 registered nearly 200 million free users, it is enough reason to consider it for advertisement. We mentioned free users since they are the ones targeted from Spotify Advertising Campaigns.

As for total users by region, Spotify has provided this data about the Q1 2021:

These details instead are the data about the Q4 2020:

• Europe, 121 million
• North America, 83 million
• Latin America, 76 million
• rest of world, 66 million

Spotify + Voice Apps = Voice Marketing

As promised at the beginning of this article, the tool that is going to help you create the ultimate Spotify advertisement campaign is voice applications. And this is why!

Just using Spotify for a marketing campaign can generate a lot of brand awareness and a high number of leads.

However, not everything goes as we plan it. This is where voice applications can successfully close the interaction in your favor.

Using platforms like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, you can create customized voice applications that can further engage the user into the conversation. This conversation will later create a more personal connection with the user. Therefore increasing the chances of them turning into leads, and later on into customers.

Here we enter into the Voice Marketing space. It is a method proven to generate more conversions and a more positive user experience.

How to create better performing Spotify Advertising Campaigns with Voice Applications?

Before going into the actual steps you will need to take, it is important to specify something. The way voice applications can enhance Spotify advertisement campaigns is by taking the audience from a listening position to a conversational activity. It makes the experience unique and pleasing for the user.

The first step is to create an Alexa Skill and/or a Google Action.

By doing so, the user who listens to your audio ad on Spotify won’t need to go to a website or a landing page. Even if this is a possible route, doing so will only decrease the chances of taking the user to the final step.

However, you should consider these factors when creating them:

• Alexa Skills are accessible through all Amazon Echo devices and through the smartphone app for Alexa. The user has an entirely voice-driven experience that simplifies every step without having them stop what they are already doing. Echo devices can be used in homes, cars, and offices. This makes it possible to engage your audience wherever they are.
• Google Actions on the other side can probably generate more leads depending on the product/service you are offering. With Google Assistant being by default the voice assistant for every android smartphone it will be even easier for users to engage with your Google Action. They can access it everywhere, through their smartphone, even when far from a Google Home or Google Nest device.

When creating the voice application there are certain key features to evaluate:

Next step: creating the Spotify advertisement campaign

Spotify’s self-serve advertising platform, Ad Studio, makes it easy for businesses to get discovered and reach millions of listeners with their message. With cost-effective advertising available for every budget, it gets even easier to launch your own advertising campaign. You can run a campaign for as little as $250 and start reaching your desired audience.

• The first thing you will need to do is to sign up for an Ad Studio account. If you don’t have an account, you can create it here. Once you are registered, go to Create New Campaign to start customizing the advertisement and other features & details.
  
• Now you can start by specifying your target audience by demographic, location, interests, and activity targeting. These specs can be modified in mid-campaign if needed.
  
• Next, you will need to start creating the advertisement. You can use Spotify’s free creative services, which makes it easy to produce professional audio ads. Or, you can upload your own content. In this stage, it’s important that, besides the offer made to the listener, you include the wake word for your voice app. Here you can invite them to activate it for a better deal, a special offer, or maybe a further discount on the product/service.
  
• Once the ad is launched, you will be able to follow its progress in real-time, check its delivery, performance, and audience reach. Also, you will be able to further optimize the campaign to reach your goals.

With Ad Studio, you can start small with as little as $250. Spotify also offers tips about how to write effective ads and free tools to create great ads from scratch.

For larger budgets, they offer ad campaigns developed specifically for you. Pricing is determined based on several factors, including your country, your audience, the creative and other features of the campaign.

Our own experience

Before advising this method to others, we decided to try it ourselves first. The objective of the campaign was to verify the difference in the performance when integrating it with a voice application. We run the campaign on Spotify but with the possibility of a “web link” available for comparison. The objective of the campaign was to invite the listeners to enable a voice application called “Caccia i Ladri“. It was meant for the Italian market, specifically for the Milan area.

For a deeper insight, we run two different audio ads of 20 seconds each. One invited the listeners to enable the above-mentioned Alexa Skill on their Echo devices. The other invited them to enable the above-mentioned Google Action on their smartphones using Google Assistant.

Both campaigns remained active for 3 days during the weekend and the budget used was € 250.

Here are the results:

Of the 41,000 passive listeners on the Alexa campaign, 214 vocally activated the Voice App asking “Alexa, open Caccia i Ladri” for a VTR (Voice Through Rate) of 0,52%. But only those who had in their immediate vicinity an Amazon Echo Smart Speaker with Alexa. Also, 339 passive listeners followed the Web-link reaching a CTR of 0,81%.

Of the 38,000 passive listeners on the Google campaign, 112 vocally activated the Voice App by asking “Ok Google, ask Caccia i Ladri”. It brought a VTR (Voice Through Rate) of 0.30%. In this case, 458 passive listeners followed the Web-link reaching a CTR of 1,20%.

Key takeaways

Using voice applications like Alexa Skills or Google Actions is not just a way to create conversations with new customers. It can help increase the performance of your marketing campaign, even on Spotify. Therefore, generating more leads and a higher ROI.

Voice Apps offer something more apart from Spotify Advertisements’ potential to increase your brand recognition and awareness. Through the personalized and unique experience the user will undergo, it will create new customers faster while increasing your brand reputation.

What makes the difference?

Spotify will allow you to add a link to redirect the interested users, but most of those who will listen to the ad might not take such action. It comes not only because of the extra effort the user will need to dedicate and the time needed. They will have to interrupt what they are doing to do so. Also, 15-30 seconds of audio do not give all the time needed to properly convince the audience.

With voice applications, on the other hand, they will have a much easier route to take to learn more about what you are offering. They can keep doing the same thing they were doing before and simply ask their voice assistant to activate the voice application. Once they enable the voice app, here you can better engage them, learn more about them, and generate more data.

Using a voice application can also help you generate more data about user’s behavior, their interests, and their doubts. All of this generated through the conversation developed through the user and your brand.
In case you are already interested in using this method or don’t know how to integrate the voice application with Spotify advertising campaigns, Ipervox can help you.