Setting Ad Studio targeting options

Reach the right audience with Spotify Ad Studio’s effective targeting options. A range of audience targeting options are available depending on your placement selection.

Available for all placements:

Age, gender, location,, language and platform: Connect with your target audiences across platforms with Spotify’s first-party age, gender, language and location data.
Interest: Reach highly relevant audiences based on their podcast, playlist, and platform preferences.

Available for ads in music (one per ad set):

Real-time context: Reach listeners as they soundtrack specific moments throughout their day.
Genre: Deliver your message immediately after a user has listened to a specific genre.
Fan base: Target known fans of an artist you're promoting or fans of other artists (available when promoting an artist or music event).

Available for ads in podcasts:

Content controls: Build a placement environment best suited to your message by targeting relevant episode content and excluding topics that don’t align with your brand.

For ad sets with automatic placement, if you select an audience segment only available for ads in music, all audiences in podcast ads will be eligible for targeting by default, unless you additionally select audience segments that apply to podcast ads. If you select episode topics, all audiences in music ads will be eligible for targeting by default.

Our location targeting product leverages IP address to determine which users are eligible for targeting, based on the IP address(es) provided in an ad request. You can target your ad sets by the following locations depending on your account country:

United States: Target by country, state, city, postal code, or DMA (A Designated Market Area region is a group of cities that form a broader metropolitan area. For example, the Los Angeles DMA includes the city of Los Angeles as well as the cities and counties that surround it.)
United Kingdom: Target by country, city, postal code
Canada: Target by country, city, postal code
Australia: Target by country, state, city, postal code
New Zealand: Target by country, region, city
Mexico: Target by country, region, city, postal code
Spain: Target by country, region, city, postal code
Germany: Target bycountry, city, postal code
France: Target by country, city, postal code
Italy: Target by country, city, postal code
Denmark: Target by country, city, postal code
Finland: Target by country, city, postal code
Netherlands: Target by country, city, postal code
Norway: Target by country, city, postal code
Singapore: Target by country, city
Sweden: Target by country, city, postal code
Austria: Target by country, city
Barbados: Target by country, city
Belize: Target by country, city
Ghana: Target by country, city
Guyana: Target by country, city
Jamaica: Target by country, city
Kenya: Target by country, city
Nigeria: Target by country, city
Tanzania: Target by country, city
Trinidad & Tobago: Target by country, city
Uganda: Target by country, city

Language targeting allows you to target people based on their Spotify account language. You can target 1 language per ad set. Language targeting is currently only available for music campaigns.

Languages available: EN, FR, ES, IT and DE.

Note: When you use language targeting, the language used in the creative must match the language that you target. Otherwise, it will be rejected.

Interest targeting allows you to reach relevant audiences based on the activities and topics they're passionate about. Interest categories are informed by users’ recent streaming behavior, including their podcast, playlist and platform preferences. You can select multiple interest categories to expand your potential audience.

Available interest categories:

Books: People who listen to books & literature podcasts
Business: People who listen to business podcasts
Comedy: People who listen to comedy-related content (including albums and podcasts)
Commuting: People who listen to commute-related playlists
Cooking: People who listen to cooking-related playlists
Culture & Society: People who listen to culture & society podcasts
DIY Hobbies & Crafts: People who listen to hobbies & crafts podcasts
Education: People who listen to education podcasts on Spotify
Health & Lifestyle: People who listen to lifestyle & health podcasts
History: People who listen to history podcasts
Fitness: People who listen to fitness-related playlists in categories such as workout, running, biking, and weightlifting
Gaming: People who listen to Spotify on gaming consoles or listening to gaming-related playlists
In-car listening: People who listen to Spotify in the car (Ads are targeted to users who recently listened to Spotify in the car, but they aren’t served while users stream in the car)
Love & Dating: People who listen to love, dating, & relationship podcasts
News: People who listen to news & politics podcasts
Parenting: People who listen to kids’ playlists, children’s music, and kids & family podcasts
Partying: People who listen to party-related playlists
Podcasts: People who listen to podcasts (Ads are targeted to users who recently listened to podcasts, but they aren’t served during podcasts)
Running: People who listen to running-related playlists
Science & Medicine: People who listen to life sciences & medicine podcasts
Sports & Recreation: People who listen to sports, sports news, & recreation podcasts
Studying or focusing: People who listen to study- or focus-related playlists
Tech: People who listen to technology podcasts or stream via emerging platforms like smart TVs, gaming consoles, and streaming sticks
Theater: People who listen to Broadway-related playlists
Travel: People who listen to travel-related playlists
TV & Film: People who listen to TV & film podcasts

Real-time context targeting allows you to reach people who are listening to music tailored to specific activities, moments, and moods.

How we do it:

We identify user-curated and Spotify-curated playlists aligned with popular activities and moments.
We deliver targeted messages to users who are listening to playlists in each category. You can select multiple real-time contexts to expand your potential audience.

Available real-time contexts:

Chill
Cooking
Dinner
Focus
Gaming
Holidays
Party
Study
Travel
Workout

These real-time context categories are specific to music inventory. For contextual targeting in podcasts, use content controls.

Genre targeting allows you to deliver your message immediately after a user has listened to a song of a specific genre. You can select multiple genres to expand your potential audience.

Available genres:

Alternative
Blues
Christian
Classical
Country
Easy Listening
EDM
Electronica
Folk
Funk
Hip Hop
Holiday
House
Indie Rock
Jazz
Latin
Metal
New Age
Pop
Punk
Reggae
RnB
Rock
Soundtrack
Spoken Audio
Traditional

These genres are specific to music inventory. For contextual targeting in podcasts, use content controls.

Fan targeting allows you to use Spotify's proprietary streaming data to target known fans of an artist you're promoting or fans of other artists. Here's how:

To identify fans of an artist, we analyze recent listening behavior along with other identifiers such as playlist adds and follows.
If you're a music advertiser who is promoting an artist or event, you can target fans of the specific artist you're promoting or fans of other artists.
Select artist(s) in the Ad Studio interface under the fans header as you're defining your target audience.
We'll deliver your targeted message to fans of the artist(s) you selected.
- Note: When running a campaign to promote an artist or a music event (e.g. concert or festival), your ad creative can only mention and feature the specific artist or event you are promoting.
A label can use an artist's track, image, and name in an ad promoting that artist.
A promoter can use an artist's track, image, and name in an ad promoting an event where that artist is billed as a performer.

Be sure to only feature the specific artist(s) you're promoting in your ad. We won't be able to approve ads that feature or mention other artists.

Fan targeting is not available for ads in podcasts.

For ads in podcasts, Ad Studio offers two types of content controls to help you customize your podcast placement environment:

Exclude sensitive topics: Choose to exclude certain topics that may not be well suited to your brand. Learn more about how Spotify is building a safe space for advertisers.
Target relevant episode topics: Choose the podcast episode topics you want your ad to be placed with. Keep in mind that the fewer topics are selected, the smaller your addressable audience will become.

Podcast content is categorized using episode-level podcast transcription technology, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, to move beyond keywords to understand sentiment, language, and context.