Marketing on Spotify and iHeartRadio

While many people still listen to music on traditional radio stations, and music videos are still the most popular types of content on YouTube, streaming services such as Spotify and iHeartRadio are rapidly becoming the favored ways to listen to music. As marketers and small business owners, it therefore makes sense to devote some of your marketing budget to these platforms. Luckily for businesses, Spotify has recognized the potential for marketing success, and offers an easy and affordable advertising marketplace.  Both Spotify and iHeart marketing campaigns can be started for around $250 per month. While these platforms won’t be for everyone, they might be useful advertising options to look into further.

Spotify
Spotify offers what is referred to as a  "Freemium" product model.  Users can listen for free, but just like with terrestrial radio, the listeners hear ads. This is where advertisers like you come in.  There are multiple types of ads that you can create for Spotify, and perhaps surprisingly, they aren't all audio. This means that you can easily create an entire (audio and visual) advertising campaign based around Spotify if that is where you feel your target audience spends their time. Spotify gives you two options (horizontal or vertical) for using video in your advertising. It can also show display ads (up to 30 seconds) at the top of the Spotify browser. Spotify is also intelligent enough to not overlay your display ads over any other type of advertisement.

If you have a larger budget, then you should consider adding display or video ads to your campaign mix. Research shows that Spotify users spend a surprisingly long time looking at their devices, meaning that there is a reasonable chance that your target audience will see your more visual ads.  Our suggestion is to target and test. Run three ads at a time and figure out which are being successful and which ones aren’t. The platform itself has some nice analytics features to allow for this type of testing.
 
iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio was created to combine America’s favorite radio stations, podcasts, and music together in one mobile app, so people can take their favorite audio everywhere. They are mainly known for their access to radio all over the country, with content from over 850 radio stations. If your business is interested in local or national advertising, this may be a good option for you, as both choices are available. iHeartRadio is also huge in the Podcast space. Compared to radio, Podcast revenue growth has over twice the rate of listening growth. With current trends, it will be over three times by the end of the year.  Podcast revenue rose 80% year over year while unique listeners grew 35%. Not only does iHeartMedia have a strong stable of podcasts, advertisers are finding value in this area.

iHeartRadio has a self-service radio advertising platform that allows small businesses to advertise on the radio and on Podcasts. By answering several questions in their ad wizard, it will help you connect with your target audience. If you don’t have ad content, they will help you create it.

During these hard times, iHeartRadio has partnered with American Express and forty other leading companies to launch the Stand for Small coalition, a digital hub of powerful resources to support small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. You can find out more about what they can do to help here.

While these platforms won’t be for every company, WTE thought them important enough to offer some information to our clients to see if they may be an option to help you grow your business. If we can be of any assistance to you, please email us at sales@wte.net.