How to Use Advertising on Streaming Platforms to Attract Customers

To create the communication strategy for any brand, the main logic is this: investment in advertising and marketing must be where the audience’s attention is. Today, attention is the most valuable currency precisely because it is highly fragmented, selective, and disputed by different media and formats: music, podcasts, series, movies, and more. The boundary that defines audience attention is not only on mobile or social media, it is also on streaming platforms.

When we talk about streaming, there is still a reflex to see it as a mere form of entertainment. But in reality, streaming has become a system for content distribution, monetization, and personalization, present in everyday life and in different real-life contexts.

While many social platforms depend on screens, clicks, and active interactions, streaming offers something deeper: continuous attention, spread over time, from the first gesture in the morning to the last one at night. It accompanies people during commutes, in the kitchen, during workouts, in the shower, at work, on the subway, while cleaning, and more.

Over the years, streaming has replaced part of the consumption of traditional media and generated new forms of measurement and engagement. Platforms like Netflix and Spotify are at the forefront of this revolution, promoting hybrid monetization models that combine subscriptions and advertising, as well as innovative ad formats.

In this article, we will understand how streaming has been consolidating itself as a strategic channel for advertising, why brands are migrating investment to this environment, and which models and opportunities are emerging in this new attention economy.

Advertising on streaming is one of the main trends in the digital market

Companies need communication strategies that can reach people at the right moment and in a relevant way. One of digital’s great promises has always been the ability to segment, and in streaming this promise becomes even more tangible. Streaming platforms combine behavioral, demographic, and contextual data to present highly relevant ads.

Traditionally, advertising metrics focused on impressions or gross reach. In streaming, metrics of real engagement and useful attention, such as effective exposure time, interaction with content, and response to the message, are considered more valuable.

These metrics allow brands to better understand which audiences were truly impacted and how advertising content is influencing consumer decisions.

The implementation of monetization models in streaming

Initially, platforms entered the market promising a “100% ad-free” experience. This promise was one of the pillars of differentiation compared to television and other free services. However, over time, companies realized that, along with the need to balance revenue, there was an opportunity to monetize users’ attention without compromising the overall consumption experience.

Netflix, for example, launched an ad-supported plan in 2022 and, according to 2025 data, this modality already reaches more than 190 million monthly active viewers globally, measured by the Monthly Active Viewers (MAV) metric, which counts individuals who watched at least one minute of ad-supported content in the month, and not only subscriber accounts.

A study on ad-supported streaming in Brazil showed that 81% of viewers watch content with ads on streaming platforms, regardless of the device used, including Smart TVs and connected devices. This number is a sign that the Brazilian audience is also exposed and receptive to ads within these environments.

According to Comscore’s 2025 State of Streaming report, the total time watched on ad-supported platforms increased by 43% in 2025 compared to 2024.

This shows that, with the increase in subscription costs and the saturation of services, many consumers choose to accept ads in exchange for savings or a greater diversity of content.

Netflix Case: Data, attention, and the shift toward advertising at a global scale

After years positioning itself as a premium service focused exclusively on uninterrupted content, Netflix changed its strategy and turned advertising into a central component of its business model.

Netflix’s ad-supported plan was launched in 2022 and, since then, has grown rapidly, becoming one of the largest global ad-supported audience platforms.

This growth shows that the strategy is working: estimates indicate that users of this modality spend, on average, around 41 hours per month consuming ad-supported content.

This global base is so relevant that, in some demographic segments, particularly among young people aged 18 to 34, ad-supported Netflix already surpasses some traditional television broadcasters in the United States in reach.

In Brazil, the ad-supported plan also has strong traction: recent reports indicate that around 29.2 million people use the ad-supported plan monthly, representing a significant share of the service’s audience in the country.

1. New attention metrics

Netflix followed a strategic path to transform audience data into relevant metrics for advertisers with the creation of the concept of “Monthly Active Viewers” (MAV).

This metric is fundamental for advertisers because it brings audience calculation closer to real consumption reality, meaning it considers how many people are actually being exposed to advertising messages. This differs from account-based counting, which can overestimate or underestimate reach.

2. Engagement metrics

Netflix’s ad-supported plan also reinforces the need for metrics that go beyond delivered impressions or the number of ads displayed.

In the context of streaming, brands and platforms consider factors such as:

Time watched: how long the viewer was actually exposed to the ad and the adjacent content.

Interaction with the content: whether by responding to calls to action, generating brand searches, or creating later engagement.

Real exposure to the creative: ensuring that the ad was effectively seen or heard, and not merely loaded in the background, is essential to measure value.

These indicators are part of a broader shift in digital advertising: the notion of “useful attention” becomes more important than simply counting impressions or gross reach because it reflects how much the audience truly absorbed the message.

3. Narrative context

The environment in which an ad appears, for example, during an emotional scene in the final episode of a popular series, can drastically change how the message is perceived by the viewer. This narrative context adds value to exposure and increases the chances of recall and conversion.

Likewise, advertising performance varies according to the device used. With the increase in the use of Smart TVs, game consoles, and connected devices, streaming ads gain visual and auditory relevance that often surpasses the attention available on smaller screens or in traditional media.

4. Evolution of ad formats

Unlike traditional television, where advertising appears in predefined breaks and often interrupts the experience, Netflix has been experimenting with more integrated and contextual formats, focusing on making ads less disruptive and more relevant to the viewer.

One example of this is the use of ads generated by artificial intelligence (AI), programmed to appear within scenes or as dynamic overlays during viewing, which creates more organic and personalized advertising experiences.

This approach was announced as part of the platform’s evolution strategy for 2026 and signals a move toward intelligent ads that interact with the content, instead of simply interrupting it.

In addition, Netflix has been experimenting with dynamic insertions in live broadcasts, using technology such as dynamic ad insertion (DAI), which allows ads to be displayed in sports events and real-time content in a personalized way, creating even more valuable advertising inventory for brands.

5. Strategic impact for advertisers

With the combination of growing inventory, more precise metrics, and creative formats, Netflix has opened a new chapter for advertising on streaming. For advertisers, this represents:

Reach at a global scale: tens of millions of users watching ad-supported content every month.

Real audience engagement metrics, which help optimize campaigns in real time.

More contextual and less intrusive advertising formats, which improve the user experience and increase message effectiveness.

In this scenario, Netflix is not just another platform that serves ads: it has become a highly measurable and strategic premium media channel, competing directly with traditional TV inventory and other digital channels for attention, viewing time, and advertising impact.

Spotify Case: Audio as a means of deep engagement

Spotify is a case that illustrates how advertising can be highly effective in digital audio environments, reaching users in everyday moments and creating engagement opportunities that other media often cannot replicate.

Unlike most visual advertising experiences, audio has the power to connect with the listener while they perform routine activities, such as driving, walking, cooking, or exercising, making each brand touchpoint potentially memorable.

1. Spotify’s global scale

Spotify has consolidated its position as one of the largest audio streaming platforms in the world. In 2025, the company reached 713 million monthly active users, with around 281 million paid subscribers, showing continuous growth in its global base throughout the year.

These numbers reflect a large-scale platform, whose user inventory, both in the free ad-supported tier and in the premium tier, offers broad reach for audio advertising campaigns.

In Spotify’s monetization model, a fundamental part of the strategy is the base of free users who use the platform with ads. This ad-supported tier represents a significant share of the company’s total audience: in the first quarter of 2025, around 423 million used the free version with ads.

Therefore, users who do not pay are an essential part of Spotify’s advertising ecosystem. They increase reach, provide attention data across multiple contexts, and make it possible for advertising revenue to complement the platform’s business model, although at a smaller percentage compared to Premium.

2. Audio advertising formats

One of Spotify’s greatest strengths for advertisers is the variety of advertising formats available, which go beyond the traditional 30-second ad:

Audio ads inserted between songs allow brands to enter the natural flow of music consumption with short and contextualized messages.
Video and display ads within the app take advantage of the visual moment when the user interacts with the platform.
Insertions in podcasts and long-form content tend to generate deeper engagement and sustained attention, particularly in formats where brands can be associated with relevant content.
Contextual experiences based on playlists or moments of the day, such as ads targeted to people who listen to workout, relaxation, or commute playlists.

This diversity makes audio a strategic platform for cross-channel campaigns with high engagement, both because of exposure frequency and because of its ability to adapt to the listener’s usage context.

3. Contextual segmentation and personalization

Another differentiator of Spotify is the ability to segment campaigns precisely based on behavioral, demographic, and contextual data. Campaigns can be configured to reach audiences according to:

Age group and gender
Listening habits, such as workout, study, relaxation, or commute playlists
Geographic context and time of use

This granularity allows brands to deliver more relevant and personalized messages, increasing both brand recognition and the probability of conversion, because speaking to the user at the right moment with the right message is essential for the efficiency of a strategy.

Conclusion: Streaming needs to be in your media strategy in 2026

Streaming is the environment where the audience’s attention is. In a scenario where consumers fragment their time across different screens, activities, and platforms, streaming has become a point of convergence between entertainment, data, and advertising, functioning as a channel capable of sustaining frequency, relevance, and impact.

The consumption of on-demand audio and video follows people’s routines throughout the day, in different contexts and with varying levels of attention. This pattern favors advertising formats that communicate with the real journey, whether in moments of visual immersion or in situations where the screen is not active.

This ability to occupy multiple contexts expands the possibilities for brands to connect with consumers, something that other media can hardly deliver at the same level.

Another decisive point is data granularity. Streaming platforms combine usage behavior, demographics, and preferences to organize audiences and deliver personalized creatives. This strengthens strategies based on segmentation, personalization, and context, reducing media waste and increasing the probability of conversion throughout the journey.

Consumers have already incorporated streaming into their routine and are exposed to ads on multiple devices, which reinforces that there is enough demand, habit, and scale for the channel to be treated as a priority in planning.

In summary, streaming brings together three elements that matter for any contemporary media strategy: qualified attention, actionable data, and personalization at scale. That is why, in 2026, it should play a central role in the design of campaigns that seek efficiency, depth of impact, and coherence with real consumer behavior.