This onboarding guide provides an overview of how to use the streams objective on Spotify Ads Manager. 

The streams objective enables podcast creators and video creators to launch promotional campaigns for their podcast or video content on Spotify Ads Manager, reaching high-intent listeners, increasing streams of their content on Spotify, and better understanding the impact of their content promotion efforts.

Streams Objective Campaign Checklist

• Market Availability

• Creative Specifications

Booking Instructions

• Create a Spotify Ads Manager account

• Create a new campaign

• Create a new ad set

  • Define your target audience

  • Format and placement

  • Budget and schedule

  • Bidding

• Create your ad

• Review campaign and add payment

• Measure campaign performance

Frequently Asked Questions 

Spotify Ads Manager Account
Steps on how to create a Spotify Ads Manager account are listed in the next section.

A podcast or video on Spotify
The content you choose to promote must be available on Spotify.

30-second audio or video creative
Let us help you create an ad or repurpose assets. Spotify offers free audio ad creation services, or you can repurpose your existing video assets to create a Spotify ad.

Market Availability
NA (US, CA), EMEA (UK, DE, ES, FR, IT), JAPAC (AU, NZ, IN, JP), LATAM (BR, MX)

Creative Specifications

Audio Ad

• Length: 30 seconds or less

• File Type: MP3, OGG, or WAV format

• File Size: 1MB

• Sample Rate: 44.1kHz

• Bit Rate: 192kbps

• Overall Loudness: -16 LUFS
  
  

Audio Ad with Canvas Asset

• Asset Type: Image or Video

• Aspect Ratio: Portrait 9:16

• Resolution: 720px - 1280px

• File Type: JPG or PNG for image, MP4 or MOV for looping visual

• Duration: Static for image, 3 secs - 8 secs for looping visual
  
  

Video Ad

• Aspect Ratio: Portrait 9:16, Landscape 16:9

• File Types: MOV, MP4

• Volume: RMS normalized to -14 dBFS, Peak normalized to -0.2 dBFS

• File Size: 500 MB

• Resolution: HD 720x1280 or similar (portrait), HD 1280x720 or similar (landscape)
  
  

Ad Components

• Advertiser Name: Brand’s name. 25 characters max

• Tagline: 140 Character marketing tagline

• CTA Button: Select from 20 options

• Click-through URL: Must provide (1) click-through URL. URLs should direct to https destinations only. URL should auto-populate in the field if the episode or show was selected using the search bar in the “Ad set details” section. 

• Image Types: JPEG, PNG

• Image Sizes: 640x640

1. Create a Spotify Ads Manager account

Visit ads.spotify.com and click ‘Manage Ads’ to create a Spotify Ads Manager account. 

• You will need a Spotify account to create a Spotify Ads Manager account. 

Once you have logged into your Spotify Ads Manager account, click the ‘Create’ button located at the top left. 

• If you have never made a Spotify Ads Manager campaign before, an additional ‘Create campaign’ button will be located towards the bottom of the screen. Either button will take you to the next step. 

2. Create a new campaign

At the campaign level, you can select which objective you’d like to optimize your campaign for. Campaigns can contain one or more ad sets, and ad sets can contain a collection of ads.

The screenshot above lists the objectives that you can optimize your campaign for. Clicking an objective will toggle the sidebar with details on the objective’s use cases, ad delivery, and supported ad formats. 

To start booking a streams objective campaign:

• Select the ‘streams’ objective.

• In the ‘Campaign details’ field, enter the name of your campaign.

  • This is your internal name of your campaign and will not be shown to Spotify users. 

• Click the ‘Next’ button when finished.

3. Create a new ad set 

The ad set level is where you can select your targeting parameters, ad format, placement, budget, schedule, goal, and bid cap. Campaigns can contain one or more ad sets, and ad sets can contain a collection of ads.

Under ‘Details’ enter the name of your ad set. 

• This is your internal name of your ad set and will not be shown to Spotify users. 

Enter your podcast or video’s title into the search bar to find and select the show that you want to promote. 

• By selecting content, you represent that you own or have all rights to promote this content. 

Define your target audience

Location

• Use the search bar to select which country you would like your campaign to deliver in. 

  • You can click the ‘Add specific locations’ text to add zip code, city, or state/province targeting. 

  • We recommend keeping your location targeting as broad as possible to maximize performance. 

Demographic

• Select which age group you’d like to target. 

  • The default selection is all ages. Select ‘Age groups’ to add specific age groups. 

• Select which gender you’d like the target. 

  • The default selection is all genders.

• We recommend keeping your demographic targeting as broad as possible to maximize performance. 

Detailed Targeting

• Under ‘Detailed Targeting’ click the dropdown menu to display optional additional targeting parameters. 

  • Interests: Target based on listening preferences and habits.

  • Fan bases: Target listeners of a musical artist on Spotify. 

  • Language: Target people based on the language they use on Spotify.

  • Device: Target listeners by which device they’re using (iOS, Android, and Desktop).

• We recommend keeping your targeting as broad as possible to maximize performance. 

Format and placement 

Select your desired ad format. You can choose between:

• Audio Ads

• Video Ads

Select your ‘Placement type’ to choose where you would like your ad to appear. Learn more about placement options here 

You can click ‘Contextual placement controls’ to toggle additional placement options you can add:

• Content type: When In-stream placement is available, choose what type of content your ads are served alongside.

• Music genres: Be heard in specific music genres relevant to your audience or message.

• Playlist tones, activities and settings: Be heard in specific moments (e.g. cooking, working out) via themed music playlists.

• Podcast topics: Choose topics relevant to your audience or message

• Sensitive Topic Filters: Control the placement of your ads within sensitive podcast content. 

We recommend keeping your targeting as broad as possible to maximize performance. 

Budget and schedule 

Input your budget. You have the ability to set an average daily budget or a lifetime budget:

• Daily budget enables you to set a target amount you want to spend each day. The minimum you can set is $15. The average daily budget is a target amount, so some days you might spend more and others you’ll spend less. 

• Lifetime budget enables you to set a maximum amount to spend whenever opportunities appear until the budget runs out or the schedule ends. The minimum lifetime budget you can set is roughly the equivalent of $250 or the equivalent in your local currency. Lifetime budgets must be set up with a start/end date.

Select your ad set’s start date. You can also select an end date for your ad set if desired. 

You can also set a frequency cap. A frequency cap is a limit to the amount of times a unique user can see your ad in a given day, week, or month. 

Bidding

Enter the bid cap for your ad set. 

• A bid cap is the maximum amount you are willing to pay per 1,000 impressions.

Auction Pricing Explained: 

• Audio and video ads from Spotify Ads Manager are priced through an ad auction. When it’s a listener’s turn to hear or see an ad, Spotify auctions the ad space and advertisers compete to ‘win’ the impression.

• A bid cap is the maximum amount you’re willing to pay per 1,000 impressions (‘CPM’). When setting your bid cap, you’ll see a suggested bid range based on your objective and target audience. When you do win an impression, you’ll only be charged the price necessary to win the auction, and you’ll never pay more than your bid cap. Your goal or bid cap can be adjusted at any time.

Confirm what pacing you would like for your ad set delivery. 

• Standard is the default pacing, which aims to deliver ads evenly throughout your selected schedule.

• Accelerated pacing will aim to use your budget as quickly as possible. 

The ‘Estimated results’ table on the right toolbar will update with ranges of your ad set’s expected impressions, reach, and frequency in real time as you input information.

When you are finished editing this page, click ‘Next’ to create your ad. 

4. Create your ad

At the ad level, you can add companion visuals and upload either your audio or video creative. A preview ad on the righthand side will update in real time as you enter information and upload creative. Campaigns can contain one or more ad sets, and ad sets can contain a collection of ads.

Ad Details

• Name: This will be the internal name of your ad and will not be displayed to Spotify users. 

• Advertiser name: Enter either the name of your podcast/video or creator name. 

• Tagline: Additional text you can use to preview your content and hook listeners in. 

• Ad language: This determines which language the call-to-actions for your ad will be in. 

• Call-to-action: This is the button users will click on your ad to stream your content (‘Listen Now’ in the screenshot above). You can select the call-to-action from the dropdown menu. ‘Listen now’ and ‘Watch now’ are recommended for podcast and video creators depending on the promoted content. 

• Click-through URL: The Spotify URL to the podcast or video you selected in the ‘Ad set details’ menu will be automatically populated in this field.

• Tracking URLs: Only DCM impression tracking is supported. Spotify doesn’t use third-party delivery tracking for billing

Companion Visuals 

• Upload your ad’s logo image. This will be the image displayed next to your advertiser name. Spotify Ads Manager has a size minimum of 640x640 pixels and must be in a square shape.

• Upload your ad’s companion image. This will be the primary image displayed while your audio ad plays. 

• Canvas: You have the option to upload a Canvas visual. Canvas is a full-screen (9:16) image or short looping visual that will completely fill the background of the Now Playing screen on mobile devices. Canvas visuals can help increase clicks and create a more engaging ad experience. Canvas is only available for audio ads. See Creative Specifications for specs on Canvas creative. 

Audio

• Upload your audio creative or choose one from your Spotify Ads Manager library.

• If you would like assistance with producing audio, Spotify Ads Manager provides 2 free options:

  1. Quick audio: This is a good fit if you already have your script written. You can enter your script, choose a voice actor, and select a tone (upbeat, calm, etc.) that you would like your script to be read in. Audio will be recorded within 2 business days of submission. 

  2. Full-service audio: This is a good fit if you need assistance with script writing. You can enter your content’s name, talking points, and other details into the creative brief. Spotify will then write your script and produce your audio within 4 business days of submission. 

Video

• Upload your video creative or choose from your Spotify Ads Manager library.

5. Review campaign and add payment 

• After you finish setting up your ad set, click ‘Next’. You will be then taken to a summary page to confirm your campaign and add payment information.

Click ‘Submit’ to submit your ad to Spotify’s standard approval review process. 

Your campaign will go live within 48 hours once approved. 

6. Measure campaign performance

Once your campaign is live, you will be able to view the performance of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads via the Spotify Ads Manager interface. Campaigns can contain one or more ad sets, and ad sets can contain a collection of ads.

Click on the ‘Campaigns’ button on the left toolbar. This will display all of your Spotify Ads Manager campaigns. You can view the campaign-level metrics in each row. You can customize which metrics are surfaced on this page by clicking the “Columns” button. Similar views are provided for ad sets and ads.

For ad set insights, find and click the campaign you’d like to view. The ad sets under this campaign will be displayed. Find the row that contains the ad set you’d like to view the performance for and click the three dots located on the right hand side and select ‘View report’. This will open the ad set’s full report. 

Your full ad set report (screenshot below) will display your ad set’s delivery, engagement, and audience metrics

Ad Set Results Overview: 

• This section provides insight into how your campaign delivered

  • Impressions

  • Reach

  • Frequency

  • Clicks

  • Clickthrough rate (CTR)

  • Completion rate

  • Impressions on Spotify

  • Impressions off Spotify 

Performance: 

• This graph provides insight into the impressions, reach, and clicks driven by your ad set during your flight. 

Engagement: 

• This table provides insight into the consumption your ad set drove 

Note: These are illustrative numbers and not representative of a real campaign.

Audience: 

• This graph provides insight into content consumption by demographic including age, gender, and platform. You can select which metric you’d like to view audience results for from the dropdown menu. These metrics include:

  • Listeners

  • New listeners

  • Average streams

  • Average CPM

  • Conversion rate

  • Clicks

  • Click-through rate

Spend: See how your budget was spent over time

If your campaign is underpacing, please review this Help Center article to help optimize your campaign. 

General:

Are creators able to promote a show or a specific episode with the Streams Objective?
Advertisers are able to promote either a show or a specific episode with the Streams Objective. If the advertisers chooses to promote a specific episode, they will need to manually input the episode's Spotify URL in the clickthrough URL field. Regardless of what option the advertiser chooses, the attribution will be at the show-level.

Does my podcast need to be hosted on a Spotify platform (Megaphone or Spotify for Creators) to use the Streams objective?
No, there are no hosting requirements required to use the Streams Objective. 

Are there any benchmarks available on Streams Objective?
Spotify does not currently offer any formal benchmarks on the Streams Objective. 

What is the minimum spend to run a Streams Objective campaign? 

Spotify Ads Manager requires a minimum spend of $250 or $15/day.

What is the optimal budget for this objective? 

There is no optimal budget for this objective. However, the Spotify Ads Manager booking flow will display estimates for ads served and reach based on your selected budget, bid cap, and schedule. 

How is the Streams Objective different than Video Views Objective?

The Streams Objective is an objective optimized to help podcast creators and video creators drive streams of their content. The Video Views Objective is an objective to help advertisers drive views of their video ad creatives. Video Views can be leveraged by any type of advertiser with a video ad creative, whereas Streams Objective is more targeted towards creators aiming to drive streams of their content. 

What is the difference between using Streams Objective vs. Chartable?

The Streams Objective can be leveraged to launch a promotional campaign end-to-end on Spotify Ads Manager. Chartable SmartPromos is solely an attribution solution, allowing podcast publishers/creators to measure the # of downloads attributable to a promotional campaign on another podcast or network. The Streams Objective is able to measure confirmed listens (streams) whereas Chartable SmartPromos is only capable of measuring downloads. Downloads are counted if a user has downloaded 60-seconds of a podcast but does not account for whether the listener has actually played the podcast for any amount of time.

Distribution:

Which podcasts are my ads eligible to deliver in?

Advertisers’ Streams Objective campaigns are eligible to deliver across select Spotify Original & Licensed podcasts as well as select 3P podcasts hosted on either Megaphone or Spotify For Creators. 

Will my ads reach both premium and ad-supported users in podcasts?

If an advertiser chooses ‘Automatic Placements’, they’re choosing to serve their ad in both music and podcasts. The ads that deliver in podcasts will reach both ad-supported and premium users. Note that we will not serve ads to premium users engaging with a video podcast. 

Will my Streams Objective ads distribute both on- and off-Spotify?
Advertisers’ Streams Objective campaigns will only deliver on-Spotify. 

Will my ads distribute in video podcasts?
Advertisers’ Streams Objective ads may be placed in video podcasts but it is not guaranteed.

Ad Creative:

Why wasn’t my ad approved? 

Your ad might be rejected by Spotify for one of the following reasons:

• The ad fails to comply with Spotify's Advertising Terms and Conditions.
• The ad promotes or links to a Spotify competitor.
• The incorrect length (ads must be 30 seconds or less).
• You are not eligible for the type of placement you selected.

Targeting:

Can I target specific podcasts?
Advertisers are not able to target specific podcasts on your Streams Objective campaigns.

Can I target/exclude known listeners of my podcast?
Advertisers are currently not able to target/exclude known listeners of their podcasts. We’re actively exploring this functionality.

Reporting:

If I opt for Automatic Placements (Music + Podcasts), am I able to see how many ads delivered in music vs. podcasts?
With Automatic Placements, advertisers will be able to see the % of total impressions delivered to music vs. podcasts. 

Miscellaneous:

Can I promote my podcast or video with this ad unit using a different objective?

Yes. However, doing so will optimize towards a different objective than Streams. For example, if you select the clicks objective, our ad serving will optimize for clicks on the ad rather than streams.