Spotify Ad Studio unveiled a new set of streaming conversion metrics that reveal how listeners responded after listening to an ad. The addition was made in response to labels and artist teams who requested more insights into how a campaign impacted consumers.
New metrics available inside Spotify Ad Studio include how many listeners listened to the artist after hearing the ad, whether the ad performed better with existing listeners or new ones, songs saved to playlists and more.
Labels and artists can already see who is listening to their music through Spotify for Artists, but the additional metrics in Spotify Ad Studio allow more insight into campaigns. Following an activation, users can see how audiences reacted.
“You’ll learn how audiences engaged with your ad, and you can use that information to inform your future promotional strategies,” said Spotify in a blog post.
“Given their importance to artist teams, we intend to offer these types of conversion metrics for future advertising products.”
Spotify says that “hundreds” of artist teams, labels and music marketers have used Spotify Ad Studio as part of their promotional plans since its launch in 2017. The allure is discoverability, the company says, as Spotify users are already listening and in the mood to discover new music.
To prove this point, Spotify pointed to a campaign by music marketing agency Wavo ran for Rich the Kid and Interscope. An ad featured a sample of Rich the Kid’s new song, along with an introduction from the artist. Of those who heard the ad, 38 percent went on to listen to his music. Almost 20 percent of those listeners streamed Rich the Kid music for the first time that month.
“With Spotify’s new advertising capabilities, we’re getting insight into not just how our campaign is resulting in streams, but deeper actions for an artist like how those listeners are turning into fans and adding a song to their playlist or hearting a song,” said Conor Clarke, CEO and co-founder of Wavo alongside Spotify’s statistics. “Those are the holy grail of metrics for an artist to know.”
Spotify had over 200 million monthly active users as of February 2019. Premium subscribers reached 96 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 36 percent year over year (YoY). The company reported that both Audio and Video format ads grew more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter and audio ads remain the largest contributor to total revenue.
The company made changes to its data policies in the second quarter of 2018 that were designed to improve performance measurement. These metrics, Spotify told investors, continued to drive revenue growth of 77 percent YoY in third-party measurement tools.
