{"id":9708,"date":"2024-03-13T11:56:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T18:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/?p=9708"},"modified":"2024-04-08T13:54:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T20:54:57","slug":"i-take-back-everything-i-said-about-spotify-marquee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passivepromotion.com\/i-take-back-everything-i-said-about-spotify-marquee\/","title":{"rendered":"I Take Back Everything I Said About Spotify Marquee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Spotify launched Marquee two years ago, I was positively giddy. My first post<\/a> on the subject proclaimed that it was even better than Meta ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally I had a way to reconnect with my listeners on Spotify, or at least those deemed part of my \u201creachable audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

That reachable audience quickly climbed from 2.1K to 4.4K listeners in the US. Despite the small audience size, I routinely managed to spend over $200 at $0.50 per click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today that same audience of previous listeners hovers around 23K, but Spotify no longer refers to them as my \u201creachable audience.\u201d And for good reason! They’re no longer reachable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I’m getting ahead of myself…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January of 2023, with 28 Marquee campaigns under my belt, my follow-up post<\/a> declared the contest between Marquee and Meta ads a toss-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued to pair every new release with a Marquee campaign, aiming for at least 2.5 streams per listener and a 25% or greater intent rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today there’s no contest. Meta ads win by a mile.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’ve read this far and don’t know what Marquee is, it’s this:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Spotify<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I describe the campaign type in excruciating detail here<\/a> and share a monster spreadsheet of my results here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I saw Marquee had expanded it’s targeting options, I couldn’t wait to test it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d been so busy with mixing and mastering work that I hadn’t written a new post in nearly two months. The combination of guilt and curiosity led me to splurge on a $500 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My results? Seriously disappointing. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spotify removed the ability to target my previous listeners.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Marquee first launched, you could only<\/em> target people who had already heard your music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I have to target every Spotify user in the selected country. In other words, I have no targeting options at all.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Previously I was able to target an audience as small as 2.1K listeners. Now a custom audience of 90K in the US isn’t big enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever combination of boxes I check, I’m met with \u201cthere aren’t enough listeners in your selection to meet campaign requirements.\u201d I’m left with an audience size of 55.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

55K previous listeners in Brazil and 33K in Mexico don’t cut it either, so I’m stuck with audiences of 18.6M and 15.1M respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But hey, now I can customize the background color.<\/p>\n\n\n

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So it’s basically a wash, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s not to say previous listeners are excluded<\/em>. Presumably Spotify tries to reach them. It just does a far crappier job of it than it used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me to my $500 campaign. Here’s the track if you’re in a contemplative mood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n