Display advertising puts your brand in front of people when they're already engaged with something they care about—scrolling through a feed, browsing for their next listen, or mid-session on an app they're actively using. It covers a broad range of visual ad formats: static banners, swipeable multi-card units, high-visibility leaderboards, and responsive formats that adapt to whatever placement they land in.

This guide covers how display advertising works, the main formats available, what good performance looks like, and what makes Spotify's display environment worth your consideration.

What is display advertising?

Display advertising is a form of digital advertising that delivers visual ads—images, banners, or interactive creative units—within websites, mobile apps, and digital platforms. It's how brands reach specific audiences with branded visuals across the open web, streaming services, social platforms, and apps.

Display ads work on a push model: they appear within content a user is already consuming, rather than in response to a search query in a search engine. A user searching for "running shoes" and seeing a paid search result has expressed explicit intent. A user in a music app who sees a shoe brand's display ad has been reached based on targeting criteria, such as their interests, behavior, or the context they’re in. That's the core distinction between display and search, and it shapes how display advertising is planned and evaluated.

The environments where display ads run vary widely: open web publishers, mobile apps, connected TV, audio streaming platforms, and social networks all carry display inventory. Each environment has different attention dynamics, audience behaviors, and creative requirements.

How display advertising works

Display advertising involves three things working in combination: where the ad appears, who sees it, and how it gets there.

Placements

Display ads appear in designated inventory slots within digital environments—fixed banner positions on a webpage, in-feed slots within an app's interface, or overlay formats on a streaming service. The placement determines how the ad is experienced. An ad inside a focused, in-app session typically commands more attention than one embedded in a sidebar on a webpage with a dozen other browser tabs open.

Targeting

Advertisers can reach audiences through several targeting approaches:

• Contextual targeting: matching ads to the content environment—a sports brand appearing on a gym playlist, for example
• Behavioral targeting: reaching people based on past browsing or listening behavior
• Demographic targeting: filtering by age, gender, location, or life stage
• Interest-based targeting: on music and audio platforms, reaching listeners by the genres or content they gravitate toward

On Spotify, targeting draws on first-party streaming data—what listeners play, when, and how—giving advertisers access to audience signals that are grounded in real listening behavior rather than browsing history alone.

Buying methods

Display inventory is typically bought in one of three ways:

• Programmatic: real-time bidding via a demand-side platform (DSP), giving advertisers access to broad inventory at scale
• Direct IO: reserved inventory negotiated directly with a publisher, offering more predictable delivery and premium placements
• Self-serve: buying through a platform's own ad manager, with direct control over targeting, creative, and budget

Each buying path affects which formats are available, what targeting options exist, and how creative is served. On Spotify, in-feed display is available through our self-serve platform Spotify Ads Manager, Direct IO, and programmatically through Spotify Ad Exchange. Carousel ads are available through Ads Manager only, and leaderboard inventory is exclusive to Spotify Ad Exchange.

Types of display ads

Display advertising covers a wide range of visual formats, each suited to different campaign goals and placement environments.

Banner ads

The foundational display format. Banner ads appear in fixed positions within webpages or app interfaces, using a static or animated image to deliver a brand message or drive a click. Common dimensions include the leaderboard (728×90px) and medium rectangle (300×250px), though in-app environments often use square formats (1:1) that fit naturally within mobile interfaces.

Leaderboard ads

A wide, horizontal format that runs across the top or bottom of a screen. On platforms like Spotify, leaderboard ads appear on desktop Browse (Search) screens, offering high-visibility placement for campaigns focused on awareness. On Spotify, leaderboard inventory is available exclusively via Spotify Ad Exchange.

In-feed display ads

Rather than sitting in a sidebar, in-feed display ads are integrated within an app's content flow, such as the Now Playing view of Spotify. They reach listeners at moments of active engagement, when the app is open and in use. The key difference from web banner inventory: the user is looking at the screen by choice, not encountering the ad while scrolling past it.

Responsive display ads

Responsive display ads automatically adapt their size, layout, and composition to fit available inventory. Advertisers supply a set of assets—headline, image, logo—and the platform assembles combinations to fit the placement. This makes it practical to run across diverse inventory without manually creating separate creative for every size.

Carousel ads

A multi-card format where users swipe through a series of images within a single ad unit. Each card can carry its own image, tagline and destination URL, making carousel ads well-suited to product collections, seasonal promotions, or sequential brand storytelling across cards. On Spotify, carousel ads appear in the Now Playing view on desktop and mobile, giving listeners an interactive experience without interrupting playback.

Interactive and rich media formats

Display advertising best practices

Match your creative to the placement environment

A display ad inside a focused, in-app session should feel native to that environment: visually clean, immediately readable, with a single clear message. Multiple competing elements, small text, or overloaded layouts reduce impact in any placement, especially in fast-attention mobile contexts where a listener is there for the music, not the ad.

Pair display with audio or video

On Spotify, internal analysis of high-performing campaigns shows a consistent pattern: 70%+ audio, 10–20% video, and up to 20% display.³

Set frequency caps

Repeated exposure to the same display creative, to the same audience, generates fatigue rather than familiarity beyond a certain point. Most platforms allow you to cap the number of times a single user sees your ad per day or campaign. Use this feature, and refresh your creative regularly for campaigns running over several weeks.

Test creative variations before committing to a single execution

Display campaigns benefit from running multiple creative executions simultaneously, then letting performance data determine the winner. Test headline variations, image choices, and CTA copy early rather than after the campaign is live.

Align the landing page with the ad creative

Display advertising benchmarks

Understanding what display advertising typically delivers gives you a baseline for evaluating your own campaigns. These figures vary significantly by platform, format, creative quality, and audience.

Open web display (industry averages):

• Average CTR: approximately 0.05–0.1% across the Google Display Network⁴
• Average viewability: around 50–60% for standard web placements, per Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify industry reports⁴
• Brand recall lift: varies substantially by creative quality, format, and placement context

In-app display: In-app display advertising typically outperforms open web display on viewability, because ads appear within active sessions rather than on passive webpages where users may never scroll to the ad position.

Display advertising on Spotify

Spotify's display advertising environment has a few characteristics that set it apart from open web display or social platforms.

In-app, in-session delivery

Display ads on Spotify serve only when a listener is actively in the app or the web player. They run in the Now Playing view where fans see the track they’re currently listening to, on the Browse (Search) screen when they’re searching for their next track, and above the track list in Spotify-owned playlists. Display ads run in all three of these placements, meaning your ad appears in attentive moments, rather than an invisible background browser tab.

This is the structural difference between Spotify display and open web display networks: on Spotify, the placement is in-focus by design. Listeners are in the app or web player on purpose.

A sound-on environment

Spotify listeners are already in an audio mindset. Display ads that visually reinforce an audio or video campaign in this environment benefit from an audience that's already paying attention to the platform—not split between it and other browser activity.

The Spotify display formats

In-feed display — appears in the Now Playing view, the Browse (Search) screen, and Spotify-owned playlists, on desktop and mobile. Available via Spotify Ads Manager, Direct IO, and Spotify Ad Exchange.

Leaderboard — horizontal banner on desktop Browse (Search) screens. Available via Spotify Ad Exchange only.

Carousel ads — multi-card swipeable format in the Now Playing view, with up to six cards each carrying its own URL, tagline, and optional price overlay. Available via Spotify Ads Manager.

Learn more about carousel ads →

How to buy display on Spotify

Display advertising on Spotify is available through three paths:

• Self-serve: Spotify Ads Manager — in-feed display and carousel ads
• Programmatic: Spotify Ad Exchange — in-feed display and leaderboard
• Managed service: Direct IO — in-feed display only

For full format details and specifications, visit the Spotify display ads product page.