The news: Spotify’s Ad Exchange and Ads Manager tools are evolving.

The number of monthly active advertisers using Spotify Ad Exchange has grown 222% since its 2025 launch—and Spotify is now introducing new features for both Ad Exchange and Ads Manager to simplify how advertisers buy, create, and assess ad success.

• Spotify is offering advertisers reserved buying alongside its existing biddable model in Spotify Ad Exchange. Its Programmatic Guaranteed feature allows advertisers to reserve inventory at fixed rates during peak ad seasons, including audio and video ads in music.
• Advertisers can access Programmatic Guaranteed through The Trade Desk and Google’s Display & Video 360, with more DSPs expected to follow.
• Programmatic Guaranteed also allows advertisers to leverage Spotify’s suite of targeting features, including custom first-party segments based on events, artists, and content engagement.
• Integrations with partners like Kantar and Samba TV support measurement across the ad funnel.
• Spotify expanded its Reserved Buying feature in Ads Manager for self-serve advertisers marketing in music and podcasts. The feature includes fixed CPM pricing to simplify planning.

Stacking up to competition: YouTube dominates in video and podcasts, with an expected 32 million more US podcast viewers than Spotify this year. Spotify’s continued push into programmatic video and podcast ad capabilities is designed to narrow that gap.

YouTube’s programmatic machine operates at a massive scale, particularly in video and podcast advertising. Spotify’s aggressive expansion into these formats—paired with more flexible buying options and clearer performance measurement—signals its bid to compete more directly for brand and performance budgets.

Zooming out: Spotify’s continued evolution into a scaled, programmatic channel has previously proven successful.

• Advertisers using Yahoo DSP previously saw a nearly 70% increase in conversions and a 90% reduction in cost per action after gaining access to Spotify Ad Exchange through an integration that enabled more precise measurement across Spotify’s content.
• Previous optimizations saw a 103% higher page view rate for campaigns using Ad Manager’s web traffic objective and 4.3 times higher install rate for campaigns running the app install objective.
• Campaigns on The Trade Desk including Spotify reported an 8.7% lower cost per household and 44% lower cost per action.

Implications for marketers: Spotify is evolving from an optional, performance-friendly audio add-on into a premium, full-funnel programmatic media channel with predictable pricing and strong measurement.

Marketers now have the advantage of locking in Spotify ad inventory ahead of time at a fixed price, reducing volatility during high-demand periods without sacrificing data-driven optimization. For Spotify, these updates will help position it as a more direct challenger to YouTube for full-funnel video and podcast budgets.