Getting started on Ad Studio for education marketers

» Sign up for Ad Studio

First, you’ll need a Spotify account. You can use an existing personal account or create a free Spotify account with a business email. Then, set up your Ad Studio account by signing up with that account.

Work at an agency? Learn more about your account options.

» Create your first ad

Now that you’re signed in and ready to rock, click manage ads to create new ads, edit ads, adjust your account settings, or see your results. Here’s how ad creation works.

1. Tell us what you’re promoting

Choose a brand, product, or organization. This will give you the best targeting and reporting options for education marketing.

2. Set your budget and targeting

We can accommodate most budgets with a minimum of 250.00 in your local currency. Target by age, gender, location, and platform. You can also choose one additional targeting option from genre, interest, or real-time context targeting. Education marketers often find using either interest or real-time context targeting to be most helpful.

Interest targeting lets you reach people based on their regular activities and topics they’re passionate about, as informed by their recent streaming behavior, including podcast, playlist, and platform preferences. Try connecting with prospective students and their families using targeting based on interest categories like education, parenting, education, or studying or focusing.

Real-time context targeting lets you reach people who are listening to music or playlists tailored to specific moments, based on their real-time listening behavior. Relevant contexts you might want to try are studying, focusing, or working out.

Connecting with your target audience when they’re already thinking about their own education or their child’s education will make your message more impactful.

3. Upload or create your ad

First, add a clickthrough URL, an image, and a call-to-action button. Your image will show as your ad is playing, and your call-to-action button will direct listeners to your clickthrough URL.

If you don't have an audio ad, we'll help you create and produce it using our free voiceover tool, which uses professional voice actors. Choose create from scratch, and then follow these steps:

• Tell us what you want your ad to say and how it should sound Background music can help set the tone of your ad and help it resonate with listeners. To add it, simply upload your own music or pick from our library of tracks recorded by independent artists. Next, write your script exactly as it should be read by the voice actor. Select your ad’s language, choose your preferred voice profile, and give us any instructions you have for the voice actor. Then, review and submit your ad.

• We record your voiceover
  After you submit your ad, we send your request off to our talented voice actors, who records your voiceover for no additional charge. Then, we mix the voiceover with any background music and produce the ad for you. Have we mentioned it’s totally free?
  
  
• Review your ad
  You’ll get a notification within 24-48 hours that your ad is ready to be reviewed in your Ad Studio account. After listening to it, you have the option to approve it, make changes, or reject it. Once approved, your ad is ready to be heard.

If you already have a pre-produced audio ad, first check out our audio guidelines, then choose use your own and upload it — simple as that!

4. Check your reporting

Stats start populating 24 hours after the campaign has started. You’ll see stats like ads served, clicks, clickthrough rate, reach, and frequency, as well as metrics that tell you about the audience your ads have been served to. Need to adjust something? You can edit your ad at any time.

» Creative best NEXT practices

Whether you’re using our free voiceover tool to create an ad from scratch and have us record it or recording your own, it all starts with a script. Not sure what your audio ad should say? Don’t worry — class is now in session.

• When it comes to crafting your message, Erika Fields, a digital marketer from higher education marketing agency Carnegie Dartlet, says ads work best when you not only keep your target audience in mind, but also match your ad’s messaging to your website to create a seamless experience.

• Ads that are personalized to the listener get a higher level of engagement. Customized approaches work well, for instance, if targeting New York, you could say “Hey New York!” in your script.

• Ads with a direct call to action have ~3x higher clickthrough rates¹ than those with none, so make sure you tell your audience what you want them to do. If you’re linking to more information for prospective students, make sure to say “Tap now to learn more.”

• Adding music to ads is a natural fit with Spotify — ads with background music resonate, driving 4.3x higher intent than ads without.¹ When selecting music, think about the type of music your target audience listens to and what fits with your message. We don’t want to kill anyone’s vibe.

• And don’t forget to clearly say your institution’s name. Seems obvious, right? You’d be surprised that 9% of campaigns don’t mention the business name audibly in their audio!