The most successful ads don’t just look good—they’re also dynamic and engaging. That’s why rich media ads are a key part of many companies’ advertising strategies. These are the ads that stop you in your tracks: Think homepage takeovers, dynamic tickers, or banners with embedded video elements.

Wondering how to add rich media to your own brand’s advertising arsenal? Here’s what you need to know about these multi-format campaigns.

What is ‘rich media’?

Rich media refers to ads with advanced features that encourage engagement and interaction from the audience. Examples include moving or expanding banners on a webpage, or ads that prompt people to take a specific action like responding to a poll.

While traditional digital ads rely on a single, static piece of content, rich media advertising takes a layered approach by combining several components to create a memorable experience. Rich media ads often include different types of embedded media, links, and opportunities for detailed tracking and analytics of the actions people take before, during, and after interacting with them.

Why use rich media ads?

An engrossing rich media ad can draw in your target audience for a longer and more meaningful engagement than traditional ad types. These ads can also be more striking and memorable than traditional media.

On Spotify, audio ads and video ads combined outperform audio-only ads across key categories: They generate 7% more brand awareness, 27% higher purchase intent, and 66% more incremental sales than ads that use audio alone.¹

How to leverage rich media advertising

In Spotify’s ads manager, you can create multimedia ads that elevate your brand across platforms. Use the optional Canvas for Advertisers to incorporate engaging visuals into your ads at no extra cost. This feature lets you tell your brand’s story with an immersive looping visual that accompanies your audio ad. Or, experiment with Opt-In Video Ads—video ads that initially play without audio, but allow users to click through to view the content in a full-screen format with audio.

In many cases, you can utilize existing assets to build a dynamic and layered rich media ad. This can include a combination of copy, images, and videos you’re already using in campaigns on other channels. By bringing together different formats, you stand to create a richer and more memorable ad experience for your audience—data shows that campaigns using both audio and video components achieve 7% higher brand awareness compared to audio-only campaigns.²

When creating a rich media ad campaign, think beyond the creative—it's also important to consider where your advertisement will lead. If you’re urging your audience to click through, make sure your landing pages are optimized to align with your campaign. They should also provide users with useful information, whether that's a product purchase page, a form to submit, or an opportunity to learn more about your brand.

Rich media ad examples

Find inspiration and learn how other brands are using rich media to bring their advertisements to life on Spotify:

Even though rich media ads contain multiple moving parts, you don’t need an unlimited ad spend to take advantage of the format. With Spotify's ads manager, small and medium-sized businesses can also leverage different ad formats to create compelling media-rich campaigns. Log in or sign up to get started.