As a playlist curator, your ultimate goal is to increase your audience and engage with them over time. There are several ways to promote your playlist, including paid advertising, influencer marketing, and email marketing. In this article, we will share some best practices for launching a paid social media advertising campaign.
1. Test, Learn & Measure
There is no secret formula, and the best methodology is to test several platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) to see which performs the best. Advertising on each platform does not guarantee the best performance, so you need to try different options and see what works best for you.
To launch ads on multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, there are three types of campaign goals:
- Reach: the number of people who become aware of or view your ad
- Traffic: the number of people who click on a link
- Conversion: the number of people who engage with your post or website. As a playlist curator, this could correspond to the number of people who click “play” on your playlist. This is the most relevant campaign goal for a playlist curator.
2. Define your objective and your campaign strategy
What is your objective? Do you want to reach the maximum number of people for awareness/views, increase traffic (clicks on the link), or drive engagement (get people to engage with your post/playlist)?
Consider creating a smart link for each playlist. Use one smart link per playlist, and customize the page with artwork to make it visually appealing. With ToneDen or Feature.fm you can link the smart link to the Facebook Ads pixel to track conversions in the smart link, see where people are clicking, and on which playlist.
Define your platform goals as a playlist curator. For example, “I want this campaign to find people who will click on a link from my smart link.” This makes more sense than targeting people who only click on the ad/post on Facebook. Although it may cost more, you can be assured that people will click on the ad/post and then on the link. If you only target people who click on the ad/post on Facebook, you may have 3,000 clicks on the ad but only 50 clicks on the playlist. However, if you target people who will click on the ad/post and then on a link in your smart link, you may have 200 clicks on the ad and 100 clicks on the playlist. The second option usually drives a higher conversion rate. There are two schools of thought: people who want to drive traffic and others who prioritize conversions. You need to test and learn.
3. Define where your ad will be placed
Should you feature your ad in users’ Facebook feeds, or in Facebook Marketplace?
While some people prefer featuring their ads only in stories, this can be more expensive as there are fewer placements. On the other hand, taking every placement can be cheaper, but less impactful because the algorithm may feature your ad in placements that are not desirable. For example, if you are running a campaign focused on traffic or reach, choosing “apps & sites” (ads between apps and websites) can result in your ad being featured in placements that are not effective.
The feed and stories are the most impactful placements to consider.
4. Analyze your performance
Here is a list of key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the performance of your campaign:
- Number of clicks (traffic)
- Number of clicks vs. streams (engagement)
- Price per click
- Cost per stream
- Click-through rate (CTR), which is the percentage of people who saw the ad and clicked on it. The visual, wording, and audience targeting can all influence the CTR.
- Cost per mille (CPM), which is the price to broadcast to a specific audience or the price for a thousand impressions. In the US, CPM is typically more expensive than in countries like Argentina or Brazil because the market is more competitive.
5. Define your targets
- Audience
It is highly recommended to have multiple audiences for the same campaign. This will allow you to compare the performance of each audience. For example, if your target audience includes people who listen to Post Malone and Justin Bieber, you can build one audience for Post Malone and another for Justin Bieber. Then, you can compare the costs and results for each audience.
- Content
Test several visuals for your playlist and determine which ones perform the best.
- Country list
Create a country list with three tiers (price for advertising is very different between those tiers. You’ll pay way more for the same amount of ads in Tier 1 than in Tier 2 than in Tier 3)
Tier 1: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany
Tier 2: Italy, Spain, and others
Tier 3: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and others
Depending on your goals, creating bundles may or may not be beneficial. You can add all countries at once because Facebook will automatically target the country where it’s cheapest to advertise. Instead, you need to separate countries into different lists. Ultimately, it’s all about testing.
As a playlist curator, your ultimate key performance indicator (KPI) should be click-to-stream. The cost-per-mile (CPM) can give you some direction about the broadcasted volume according to your budget.
The last KPI, which isn’t on Facebook, will be on Spotify where you can see the impact on the playlist directly. You should add a “boost” from time to time and look at the playlist’s number of followers and streams. Cross-referencing data from Facebook to Spotify is super important.
On Facebook, you have the ability to cross audiences by narrowing your interest targeting with another targeting: “I want to target an audience that is interested in Spotify and also meets other criteria, such as liking Drake, for example, for a rap playlist.”. Add a visual with Drake and one of his songs to the playlist.
For a Gamer Playlist, you can create an FPS Gaming playlist and target “Spotify” and people who are fans of Counter-Strike, COD, Fortnite, etc.
Is it better to narrow the target audience?
Yes and no. If your target audience is too narrow, it will be expensive. Do you want to target a broader group or only the most interested people?
The rule is to target an audience of at least 3 million people. As a playlist curator, you can target more than 3 million people, but we recommend not targeting fewer!
Next articles:
> How to grow your own playlists?
> 5 effective tips for writing quality feedback to artists
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