The music marketing game is constantly evolving, and the bar for quality has never been higher. We are now seeing fully-produced music video content chopped into 15-second increments as the norm for promoting our work on social media. People are saturated with daily content from artists at the top and the bottom of the game alike, and the standout stars are the ones consistently manufacturing ear- and eye-catching moments for their fans. So how can we make sure what we’re doing actually...
12 days ago • 4 min read
Paid advertising is the most powerful music marketing tool you can master. Sure, there are surface-level benefits to running ads that are easy to see—more listeners and streams on streaming platforms, more engagement and followers on social media, more video views, etc. But the true power of ads doesn’t lie in the vanity metrics (there’s nothing wrong with those) but in something more. Learning to run paid ads via Facebook and Instagram allows you to automate your marketing, save yourself...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Testing new ad creative is an effective way to maximize the efficacy of your Meta advertising campaigns. By continually introducing new creative options—photo, video, music, etc.—we can more readily find our “winners” and ensure they remain the best fit for our audience for an extended period of time. So let’s have a look at what it takes to run a creative split test, examine when and why we might do that, and dig through how we can best determine our winning ad(s) on the other side. When and...
26 days ago • 4 min read
Having multiple targeting options at your disposal is always a good thing, but sometimes you need to know which one works best. Enter: the split test. Just because one audience works in one context doesn’t mean a different one won’t be better in another. And in most ad campaigns, starting with more than one option is the best way to go about it. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to test multiple audiences at once, no matter the campaign type or your advertising goals on the other side of it....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
The right targeting can make or break your ad campaigns to grow on Spotify, so it’s always good to have options. I am constantly tinkering with targeting options inside my own ad campaigns so we can take those winning combinations and apply them to campaigns for others with DuPree X. I also just like to have more than one setup I know I can depend on in the event the first option I try doesn’t work. So, after all of my testing, here are the four ad set targeting setups I lean into the most....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Spotify’s audience segments are a useful tool to gauge the efficacy of your music marketing. But they are more than just a clever breakdown of listener behavior over the past 28 days. We can use this data to understand how our ads are driving traffic to our work as well as how our catalog of music is performing as a whole once people reach it. And with Spotify’s recent update to this feature, we can now unpack even more about what drives meaningful engagement for our music with respect to...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Lookalike audiences are a powerful way to apply account-specific cold targeting to your ads. Now, technically speaking, lookalike audiences are cold-targeted options akin to using similar artists, genres, and other affinities in your campaigns. However, in my experience, lookalike audiences are generally better and more powerful. Almost like a “warm” cold targeting, if that makes any sense at all. And what’s more is, because these audiences are built upon your data, not some arbitrary...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Creating your own audiences is the surest way to take your Meta advertising to the next level. Sure, cold targeting in the form of similar artists, genres, and affinities can certainly be effective, but nothing works better than targeting people specific to you. Every artist is different, every song is different, and every audience is always just a little bit different too. And those differences can be powerful. Now there are a lot of options involved when it comes to creating your audiences...
2 months ago • 6 min read
The music advertising landscape is constantly changing—so what works in 2024? Are conversion campaigns still king for promoting your songs or your playlist? Do traffic ads even work anymore? Which one should you use? I have personally run both of these campaign types for years, and the short answer is: it depends. So let’s talk about the specifics of traffic and conversion campaigns and cover which campaign type you should use, why you should use it, and when. Traffic vs. conversions To kick...
2 months ago • 4 min read
