Spotify expands self-serve ads from US to Canada and UK
Spotify is rolling out its self-serve ad platform to marketers in the UK and Canada after a seemingly successful launch in the US last year.
Spotify launches self serve ads
While the feature has been live in the US for several months, the music streaming company will now allow “marketers of all sizes” in the UK and Canada to self-serve ads on the site, targeting audiences at specific times for maximum impact. This tool will empower marketers to upload the creative as they see fit through a specially-built suite.
Spotify Ad Studio product said various US companies trialed the feature, and now, among the test partners in the UK is Kovic Productions. Mark Kovic, a label director at the company, said: “Spotify Ad Studio lets us connect with listeners who are already engaged and plugged in.
“On other platforms, you spend a lot of time trying to find an audience of music fans — on Spotify, they’re already listening."
The company claims to understand the moods, mindset and context of how users are listening, and this helps it deliver ads at optimum times. Users are categories by age, location, listening habits, device and playlists.
Marketers can upload pre-made radio creative or deliver scripts to Spotify for it to develop the ads that run at 15 or 30 seconds between breaks in the songs. Spotify said it will bring its public beta to additional markets in the coming months.
Improved ad products like self-serve ads help the company monetise its free tier of users, making up for the income deficit and delivering what it claims is premium experiences to an engaged userbase.
Efforts like these will fare well as the company approaches its IPO in pursuit of a salient monetisation strategy.