Spotify launched their Ad Studio platform early last year. I was giddy with excitement.
For the first time, I could make potential fans hear my music. If they liked it enough to click through, my entire catalog was at their fingertips, AND I’d earn royalties on every play. Maybe I’d even earn enough to pay for the ads! What could be better?
My results, for one. It’s hard to see how they could’ve been worse.
I chalked it up to a lack of targeting options. I wasn’t able to target fans of specific bands, or even reach my own fans. Instead I was stuck targeting the overly broad and ambiguous “Electronica” genre. I’m not sure what “electronica” even means these days, but that was clearly the closest option to synthwave.
Recently I learned that you can now target fans of specific bands. The giddiness returned.
Was my enthusiasm justified? Read on.
My Spotify ad
I’m not going to walk you through the ad creation process like I did last time, since little has changed.
Instead I’ll share my ad and the thinking behind it. It’s pretty straightforward.
I left the high-level targeting rather broad, because last time I didn’t see any benefit to further restricting age, gender, or platform.
