When promoting my music on Spotify, I always make sure to have a Spotify playlist campaign running at a low daily ad spend in the Meta Ads Manager.
I’ve used this tactic for about 2 years now, and it’s been incredibly effective in my journey to getting about 5 million streams on Spotify so far.
Here’s an example of a Spotify playlist that I’ve built up to have over 3,000 active followers with the help of Facebook and Instagram Ads:
By running Facebook and Instagram ads to a Spotify playlist that you own, you can really grow your Spotify streams for your new releases and back catalog as you grow your number of playlist followers.
In this article, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the five reasons that you should definitely be considering building out a Spotify playlist campaign like this.
5 Reasons You Should Use Spotify Playlists To Promote Your Music
These 5 reasons are taken from this YouTube video I created where I also show you how to build out the actual playlist in Spotify:
1. Build Up Active Followers To A Spotify Playlist You Own To Increase Your Stream Counts
The first reason that you’re going to want to build out your own Spotify playlist that you run ads to is simply that this is a fantastic way to build out the followers on that playlist.
By including several of your own songs on this playlist, not only can you increase your overall stream counts but you can also be bringing attention to the songs in your back catalog.
This is particularly special because the steady increase in streams can result in your older songs getting picked up in Spotify algorithmic playlists like Radio and Discover Weekly.
2. Confirm Your Facebook Ads Are Getting Real Spotify Streams
The second reason is probably the most important reason:
If you’re running Facebook ads it can be very difficult to tell if you’re actually getting streams or if you’re only getting fancy numbers in the Facebook ads manager.
There’s nothing worse for independent artists than to spend any amount of money on ads just for the ads to hit bots and never result in actual streams on Spotify.
When inside of the Spotify For Artists dashboard, you can navigate over to the “Playlists” section of the “Music” tab to see how many streams you are getting from particular playlists:
If you’re actually spending money on something you want to know that it’s actually working – and running your ads to a Spotify playlist is a great way to confirm if your Facebook Ads are working or not.
3. Increase The Stream Counts Of Your New Releases
The third reason is as you’re releasing new music and adding to your catalog, you can also add those new releases to your Spotify playlist.
If you’re both running ads to that playlist and have a growing number of active followers on that playlist, you can really help boost that new song’s stream counts.
Here’s an example of how I gained an extra 600+ Spotify streams just by adding my latest release to the #2 position of a Spotify playlist that I own:
4. Make Connections & Network With Similar Artists
The fourth reason is you can make connections and network with artists that are on the same level as you by simply adding some of their songs to your Spotify playlist.
Some artists you may way to add to your playlist include:
- Artists in that “Fans Also Like” section of your Spotify profile
- Any artists that you might be talking to on social media or at shows
- Artists that you want to start playing shows with or collaborate with
When you have actual active followers on your Spotify playlist, these artists will start to get extra streams because of you and may take notice of you and your playlist!
5. Get On More Spotify Algorithm Playlists By Making Algorithmic Connections
And the fifth and final reason is that you can also make algorithmic connections with more aspirational artists that you would like to share fans with.
The Spotify algorithm creates connections between artists based on the listening behavior of fans on Spotify.
If a fan listens to Artist A and then right after listens to you (as they would on a playlist), the Spotify algorithm may start making algorithmic connections between the two of you.
When a strong enough of an algorithmic connection is made, your music can start showing up on Spotify Radio playlists for that artist as well as other algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly and Your Daily Mix.
By building up a Spotify playlist that you own, you can influence these kinds of algorithmic connections since you are in complete control of all of the songs on that playlist.
How To Create A Spotify Playlist To Promote With Ads In 5 Simple Steps
There are only 5 key steps that you will need to follow in order to create your own Spotify playlist that can be used with Facebook and Instagram ads:
- Create a new playlist on Spotify
- Make sure the song you want to use in your video ad is in the #1 position
- Fill positions #2 through #10 with your own music (optional)
- Fill the remaining playlist positions with any song of your choosing
- Update the playlist cover with your own custom art
