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Users will be able to follow a clickable ad link in the Spotify app as they listen to podcasts, which will take them to a product website.
Spotify is introducing an advertisement feature that will allow listeners to easily find products mentioned during podcasts.
The call-to-action, or CTA, cards are initially being rolled out to US users across select Spotify original and exclusive podcasts. The Swedish streaming giant announced the move yesterday (6 January) with the claim that it was “bringing interactivity to the audio ad experience”.
The cards will appear as a podcast ad begins playing and again later when the user is browsing in the app. They will feature a clickable link that will take the listener directly to the product website without having to remember a promo code or URL.
These CTA cards will remain visible to Spotify users in the app for up to a week after they have listened to the podcast mentioning the relevant product, or until the ad campaign wraps.
“With the launch of this new ad experience, we’re making podcast ads interactive for the first time, transforming the format from something that can only be heard, into an experience that you can also see — and, most importantly, click,” Spotify said.
The streaming platform said this will feature will provide a boost to advertisers, as its initial tests “have shown twice as many site visits with these new clickable ads compared to non-clickable podcast ads”.
This is the latest feature to be introduced as part of Spotify’s plan to make interactivity the “next great frontier in audio”. It has already introduced video podcasts through its Anchor platform as well as Q&As and polls as part of its bid to increase user-creator contact.
Spotify has also invested heavily in ad insertion technology. It acquired podcast hosting and ad company Megaphone in 2020 in a $235m deal.
Last year, it expanded in the audiobook sector by acquiring audiobook company Findaway and it bought podcast discovery platform Podz in a bid to replicate its music discovery feature for podcasts.
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