Spotify introduces a new service to make podcast ads more like Facebook ads
Don't skip through this ad... Spotify could become the #1 podcast monetizer thanks to “Streaming Ad Insertion” (note to Spotify: Please rebrand that name). Instead of 1 ad per podcast played to all listeners (forever), Spotify's offering this combo:
- Targeted ads: 2 different people, listening to the same pod, get different ads (odds are a direct-to-consumer mattress ad for one, a natural deodorant subscription ad for the other).
- Refreshed ads: A pod recorded today could have an ad for Frozen II. Next year that ad would switch to Frozen III instead. Boom. Dynamically changed.
Nothing angers a marketer more... than when someone hears their ad, but hates their product. Cheesecake Factory making a podcast ad? Lactose-intolerant people will hear it. That's a wasted ad. They'd rather the ad target only 18-36 year-old males who like food that's cheesy, meaty, and cheesy. We've seen this before.
- Facebook's ads are uber targeted (because Zuck knows you're in the "Gaga for Gouda" Facebook group).
- Since targeted ads are more likely to resonate and sell cheesecake goods, they're more expensive for advertisers (and lucrative for Facebook/Spotify).
Spotify’s secret weapon isn’t just data — it’s their willingness to use it... Spotify knows your age, gender, location, and what music you’re listening to (for Snacks Daily listeners, it's Post Malone, Drake, and Ariana Grande). It’s willing to use that data to segment listeners into groups hearing different ads. But pod-rival Apple hasn't been willing to do that — privacy is their major selling point.