Earlier this year, Spotify Ad Analytics launched with the intention of helping advertisers and agencies measure the impact of their ads at every stage of the marketing funnel.
The launch built on the acquisition of Podsights in 2022, giving brands the ability to measure results across all ad formats on Spotify.
Mediaweek spoke with Spotify head of sales AUNZ, Adrian Bingham and senior product marketing manager, Kelsey Woo, about how the product came about, and what it means for advertisers.
How did Spotify Ad Analytics come to be?
Bingham: “Spotify Ad Analytics is a new version of Podsights, which we acquired about 18 months ago – it became part of the Spotify family.
“It has been rebranded as Spotify Ad Analytics, and the reason for that shift is that previously, it was a best-in-class measurement and attribution solution for podcasts specifically – we’ve now opened that up across both music and podcasts, and across all ad formats. So that name no longer fit the bill.
“It brings a really great opportunity for brands to be able to measure the audio campaigns on Spotify, and also off Spotify as well. It brings that full funnel suite of products available to brands, so they can actually understand what the audio campaigns are doing, across the kind of key metrics that they’re trying to understand more closely.”
What was the development process behind Spotify Ad Analytics like, and what needs does it address for advertisers?
Woo: “Measurement remains an industry-wide challenge across all of digital audio advertising, and it’s important to set some context.
“The global shift in media consumption from downloads to streaming has opened the door for advances in more data-driven podcast advertising. When Spotify launched Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) in 2020, we introduced impression-level insight to podcast advertising for the very first time. Rather than relying on download data that doesn’t capture the full picture, advertisers now have access to standard digital reporting like impressions, unique reach, and frequency, along with unique audience insights and creative performance metrics powered by Spotify’s first-party data.
“We have continued to invest here – which brings us to Spotify Ad Analytics. With our focus on expanding our first-party attribution capabilities beyond podcast ads, we knew that the Podsights name alone was no longer able to encompass the full breadth and depth of our vision.”
How does the Spotify Ad Analytics product differentiate Spotify from other audio platforms out there?
Bingham: “About six months ago, the IAB did what they call the State of the Nation survey report. In that, often we can see key areas that brands and advertisers are focused on, and a few that came off the back of it were around measurement, fragmentation, and a common digital currency specifica to podcasts.
“Bringing Spotify Ad Analytics to the market, it really answers those key challenges for brands. Advertisers can access this for free, it’s a centralised dash where they can see their campaigns live, they can track and see the attribution across all of their campaigns – not just on Spotify, as well.
“The most important thing is with campaigns, they can see that their consumers have actually heard their ad, and then more importantly, whether they have taken action off the back of that. That was the missing piece.”
What has the reaction to Spotify Ad Analytics been like so far?
Bingham: “There’s been a really strong response from the market. There’s a lot of education needed, a lot of advertisers and brands often still have podcasts in that nice-to-have basket, and that missing piece is really around the attribution and ROI.
“People were excited to see that there’s now digital metrics and transparency that’s coming to the audio buyers, whether it’s on the music or podcast side. We’ve got a number of brands that are wanting to come on board and test and trial with us, and also see how that looks across the broader ecosystem as well.”
More broadly, how does the Global Spotify team support and work alongside the Australian team?
Woo: “We’re constantly searching for ways to improve our platform – for listeners, creators, and advertisers alike. Local insight and feedback is critical to development and execution across our sales, marketing, product and operations.”
Bingham: “Australia and the broader JPAC market are a key priority. We see a lot of opportunity in this market generally speaking, a lot of brands are always interested in testing and trialling new products and features here. Often, when we have new products that are coming, Australia will be a top three market that is included within those.
“The global teams are always leaning quite heavily into us to understand our market needs, and also understand what brands and advertisers are also wanting from a local perspective. So we work quite closely with those teams.”
How important is audio advertising for marketers, and where does Spotify come into the equation?
Woo: “Simply put, Spotify offers a uniquely immersive experience for users and is more engaging than radio, TV, video and even digital audio. And advertisers benefit from that engagement.
“We conducted research, Sonic Science, with Neuro-Insight and found that as listeners move from their favourite music and podcasts to an ad break, 93% of the brain’s engagement is transferred to the ads.
“Spotify is a constant companion in our users’ lives, accompanying them wherever they go – and we’re excited to continue developing solutions that allow advertisers to reach and measure relevant audiences for their campaign objective, regardless of when or how their audience is listening.”
Bingham: “Audio consumption in Australia is at an all-time high. Over the past five years podcast listening has doubled and local investment hasn’t yet caught up with time spent and engagement. On average our users spend over two and a half hours per day listening across Spotify, which provides a huge opportunity for brands to tell their story.
“Spotify provides an escape from visual screen fatigue or doom scrolling on social media. You often hear people say they need to watch less TV or consume less social media but you don’t hear people say ‘I wish I could listen to less audio’.”
Where will the Spotify team be focussing their attention over the next 12 months or so?
Woo: “The future of measurement is bright at Spotify. We’ll continue to invest in both first-party and third-party solutions, providing advertisers with the choice and control to measure their campaigns how they want.
“We’ll continue to focus on strengthening our existing solutions while bringing even more first-party reporting to the platform.”
Bingham: “In my role, the key priorities will definitely be around innovation and technology, and then we’ll continue to lean into measurement. We know measurement is an area that’s really key for brand marketers and advertisers, especially in the current climate.
“Anything that can allow audio to be put on a plan is going to be really key, we’ve already done a number of research case studies locally and invested heavily in that space – and we will continue to do that in the next six to 12 months as well. But product, platform innovation, and technology are the areas that will be really leaned into in the next 12 to 18 months.”
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Top Image: Adrian Bingham and Kelsey Woo