Back in the Stone Age of advertising, big brands—with their equally big budgets—could easily tap into the wide reach offered by traditional media. Small or medium-sized businesses, though? Not so much.
Luckily, a digital world means big change for marketers—and businesses of all shapes and sizes. Here's how the rise of digital display advertising has created a more level playing field for SMB brands.
What is digital display advertising?
You've already seen digital display advertising in action: It's nearly everywhere you look online. And there's a wide variety of formats to choose from to fit any marketing goal—whether that's boosting traffic, awareness, consideration, purchase intent, or conversions.
At its most basic level, a digital display ad is a simple image that links to a URL. But these days, many digital display ads make full use of rich media—text, images, audio, and video—to create compelling messages that speak directly to target audiences.
The most common types of digital display ads include the banner ads that adorn many websites. These range from leaderboard units to the ubiquitous MPUs (or the 300x250, as they're commonly called) to skyscraper (or vertical) ads. Display ads can also be interactive, such as the call-to-action (CTA) ads listeners see on Spotify.
Responsive display ads: One size fits all
Today's world is on the move, and that means your digital display ad will be viewed on a variety of devices. Sounds like a challenge, but with responsive ads, the situation's under control.
So, what's a key benefit of responsive display ads? Put simply, they fluidly adjust themselves—size, appearance, and format—to fit any screen. This means a seamless ad experience for anyone viewing your campaigns.
Reap the benefits of digital display ads
Remember that level playing field? These days, there's no need for SMBs to have a massive ad budget to reap the same high-end benefits that big-name advertisers saw in the olden (but not-quite-golden) days of advertising.
With the right digital display advertising strategy, including responsive digital ads, here's what advertisers can accomplish:
- Increased reach. The ability to set precise targeting parameters gives you greater potential to reach more of your ideal market.
- Fine-tuned targeting. With today's spot-on targeting tools, you can develop laser-focused campaigns to help you reach your audience, wherever they are online.
- Better brand awareness. Brand awareness is usually high up on marketers' list of priorities and goals. Digital display ads are an efficient way to drive this awareness.
- More established brand identity. Digital display ads are also a great vehicle for emphasizing that "special something" that sets your business apart.
- Ease of measurement. Unlike more traditional ads, digital display ads on Spotify give you access to key metrics about campaign success, as well as helpful data for building future campaigns.
No ad creation experience? No problem
You can always use your own creative for your campaigns—but help is available if you need it. Spotify Ads Manager gives you display advertising services and tools to create and manage your digital advertising campaigns, including free creative and voiceover services that bring your scripts to life.
Interactivity with CTA cards
It's no secret that Spotify users are engaged and attentive, whether they're streaming music or watching video podcasts. With Spotify's CTA cards, you can add eye-catching visual cues to your digital audio ads to bring interactivity to the Spotify streaming experience. In addition, you can add CTAs to any video ads you run with Spotify—whether served between (sound-on) or during (sound-off) songs.
Powered by Spotify's Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) tech, CTA cards appear on screen while your audio ad is playing and again after listeners have heard it. This feature allows users to tap on the CTA and journey to wherever you're sending them—either in the moment or later on.
Get inspired
Want more inspiration? Read more about the different types of advertising on Spotify—and check out the below examples from advertisers who created digital display ads with us and achieved great results.
WETHENEW wins with an audio and video campaign
LinkedIn engages young professionals on Spotify
For their "Find your in'" campaign, LinkedIn leveraged multiple Spotify formats including Display to raise awareness among Gen Z professionals in Germany, promoting their new slogan "Find your 'in.'"
The campaign utilized audio ads, video ads, playlist sponsorships, and podcast ads targeted at students, graduates, job seekers, and young professionals. This comprehensive approach resulted in significant improvements across key metrics, including a 7-point increase in platform familiarity, a 10-point increase in website visit intent, and a 19-point increase in message association.
Lazada livens up its advertising with a personalized campaign
Lazada, a major Southeast Asian e-commerce company, partnered with Spotify to create a personalized audio campaign in Indonesia. The campaign featured six variations of Lazada's new jingle, each tailored to different musical genres (Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, Dangdut, and K-pop) and targeted to specific geographic locations based on genre popularity.
This innovative approach resulted in significant improvements across key metrics, including a 22-point increase in both consideration and ad recall, and a 23-point increase in brand perception for fast delivery.