Spotify Audience Network arrives in Australia linking podcast listeners and advertisers

Audio advertising marketplace Spotify Audience Network has launched in Australia, three months after its introduction in the US.

Spotify Audience Network connects advertisers with listeners on and off the streaming platform, including the platform’s original and exclusive podcasts.

Spotify is home to over 2.2 million podcasts.The new product is available to advertisers and third-party podcast publishers from Megaphone, which Spotify acquired last November, and Anchor which powers over 80% of all new podcasts on Spotify, totalling over 1 million podcasts in 2020.

Advertisers are provided with audience info based on demographics (age, gender, and location) and audience segment (for example fitness enthusiasts, gamers, luxury shoppers), with contextual targeting  coming later this year.

They can target podcast listeners from Spotify’s four studios—Gimlet, Parcast, The Ringer and Spotify Studios—as well as leading third-party podcast publishers and local publishers.

The company said it’s know for some time that podcasts are a uniquely effective ad environment.

“41% of listeners say they trust ads more if they hear them during a podcast and 81% report that they have taken an action after hearing a podcast ad,” it said.

Spotify also noted the move will benefit creators who can bring in more revenue and monetise their content through advertising.

“We believe this technology will enable more creators to make meaningful revenue from their podcasts by providing much better value to advertisers than existing podcast advertising solutions that use RSS,” Spotify said.

In April 2021, Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2021 revealed that 37% of Australians aged over 12 now listen to podcasts each month, up from 25%, and the average Australian podcast listener consumes an average of five podcasts per week.

Spotify is aware of the opportunities for growth.

“We believe that this space is primed for innovation as digital audio becomes an integral part of consumers’ daily routines worldwide,” it said.