Heart Starts Pounding podcast wins new listeners with audio and video ads

The Brief:

Heart Starts Pounding has a highly engaged social media audience—but that engagement hasn’t fully converted into Spotify podcast listenership. To bridge this gap, HSP wanted to experiment with on-platform tools that could drive organic discovery.

A branding refresh in 2024 created the perfect opportunity to try out Ads Manager’s streams objective as a strategic way to promote the show’s new look while reaching a wider audience. HSP were also keen to take a multi-format approach to the campaign, in the hope of expanding beyond traditional true crime audiences, and tapping into a broader lifestyle-focused demographic.

The Solution:

To reach new listeners and gauge the impact of their rebrand, Heart Starts Pounding ran two separate Ads Manager campaigns: one using audio to engage users during screenless moments, the other using video for when screens were in focus.

HSP created an original video ad featuring the host speaking directly to camera—teasing the true story behind a major new movie release in cinematic style—while the audio ad delivered the same compelling teaser, minus the visuals.

Given the popular subject matter, HSP targeted broadly within Spotify Ads Manager. By testing both audio and video formats, they were able to highlight their new brand aesthetic while experimenting with how different creative approaches influenced listener engagement.

The Impact:

Heart Starts Pounding’s multi-format ad strategy paid off, with video ads and audio ads combining to deliver an impressive ad completion rate of 96.6%. Plus, listeners who converted went on to stream an average of 4.6 episodes each—demonstrating not only that the ads were effective, but also that they ultimately won the show new fans.

The Takeaway:

Heart Starts Pounding’s campaign highlights the effectiveness of combining audio and video ads to drive podcast discovery and engagement on Spotify. While video helped capture attention when listeners were focused on their screens, audio played a crucial role in reaching listeners during screenless moments throughout their day.

Whatever your advertising budget, Spotify Ads Manager’s streams objective can offer unique value for podcast promotion—on one of the world’s most popular platforms for podcast listening.