Spotify Launches Carousel Ads and Sponsored Playlists in Australia
Spotify launches Carousel Ads and Sponsored Playlists in Australia, signaling a major shift toward visual advertising as video engagement surges 44% year-over-year.
Spotify launched two new visual advertising formats on March 31, 2026, introducing Carousel Ads and reimagined Sponsored Playlists to its platform, with Australia among the first markets to go live.
The move signals a formal shift by the world's largest audio streaming platform toward visual, performance-driven advertising.
New Formats Bring Visual Advertising Into the Listening Experience
Sponsored Playlists are now live in Australia via direct purchase from Spotify's sales team. The format gives brands 100% share of voice across Spotify's highest-traffic editorial playlists, including New Music Friday and Today's Top Hits, with visually prominent placements and audio ads throughout.
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Carousel Ads will follow within two weeks through Spotify Ads Manager. The format places swipeable ad units directly in Spotify's Now Playing view. Brands can feature up to six cards, each with its own image, description, and unique clickable link, including pricing and promotional details.
Priceline, eBay, and GNC participated in early beta testing of the Carousel Ad format and reported strong engagement results, according to Spotify.
"Whether they are engaging with video podcasts, or sharing new music discoveries, our local fans are deeply intentional about their time on the platform," said Adrian Bingham, Head of Sales at Spotify Australia. "By moving beyond background noise to become a part of the fan experience, advertisers can turn this high-impact engagement into measurable results."
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Platform Engagement Data Underpins the Visual Pivot
Spotify's decision to launch visual ad formats is backed by a set of platform metrics pointing to changing user behavior. Video engagement in the Now Playing view grew 44% year-over-year as of Q1 2025. Time spent on the app surged 26%. Global "in-focus" usage, meaning users actively watching the screen rather than just listening, rose 37%.
Video podcasts are also growing 20 times faster than audio-only podcasts on Spotify, expanding the platform's visual content inventory alongside its advertising formats.
These figures form the foundation of Spotify's argument that its Now Playing view is now a high-attention visual surface, comparable in engagement to a social media feed.
Ads Manager Adds Automated Bidding and Split Testing
Alongside the new formats, Spotify Ads Manager has introduced A/B (split) testing and automated bidding. Automated bidding allows brands to deliver their full campaign budget without manual adjustments. Split testing measures performance across completion rate, click-through rate, video view expand rate, cost per click, and cost per acquisition.
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The platform also offers generative AI tools that allow advertisers to create scripts and voiceovers at no cost, reducing production time from days to minutes.
Audio Advertising Remains Structurally Underfunded Relative to Attention
Audio advertising captures only 4.5% of U.S. ad budgets despite consumers spending more than 2.5 hours daily listening. Spotify's visual ad expansion is a direct response to that gap, positioning the platform to compete with YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for budgets currently concentrated in visual channels.
The Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX), launched in early 2025, enables programmatic buying of Spotify's audio, video, and display inventory through platforms including The Trade Desk and Google Display and Video 360. This means brands can access Carousel Ad inventory within existing programmatic buying workflows, without requiring a direct sales relationship.
Digital audio advertising is projected to exceed US$2 billion annually as programmatic access scales across the platform.
Carousel Ads will be available through Spotify Ads Manager in Australia within two weeks of the March 31 announcement.
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