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Facebook Ads For Musicians (100% Free Course!)

By Matthew Vultaggio

February 27, 2023

If you are a musician, artist, or music producer looking to use Facebook Ads to grow and boost your Spotify streams, I’ve put together this completely free course just for you.

Under the name Best Friends Club, I’ve reached 3.5+ million Spotify streams, got on 15+ official Spotify editorial playlists, and have had my music supported by established artists like Martin Garrix and Foals.

For the last 6 years, I’ve been experimenting with Facebook Ads to grow my fanbase, and have found them to be particularly effective when trying to send highly-targeted listeners to Spotify with the goal of triggering the Spotify algorithm to get free streams.

I’ve put together this completely free course to show you how you too can use the power of Facebook Ads to grow your Spotify streams and actually get your music in front of fans.

However, I want to warn you first…

This course is quite long and filled with some technical steps that you must complete in order to properly run Facebook Ads for Spotify growth.

So to make things easier for you, click here to grab your free Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth Checklist to fill out as you complete each task.

The above link will also give you access to a more traditional step-by-step course-format version of this course that may be easier for you to follow along with:

So with all that out of the way, let’s dive into this free course and learn how you can use Facebook Ads to grow those Spotify streams, my friend! 🙂

What You’ll Learn In This Course

In this course, I’ll show you how to get started with using Facebook Ads to grow Spotify streams – even if you are starting from 0.

First – we’ll go over the basics, dismantle common myths about Facebook Ads & Spotify, and go over the strategy for success.

Next – we’ll dive into the exact steps you need to take to get started from creating and installing the Facebook Pixel properly to actually launching your very first Spotify conversion campaign.

Lastly – we’ll go over some advanced techniques, help you troubleshoot any problems with your campaigns, and set you on the right path to continue improving & optimizing your results over time.

So if you’re ready to learn how you can use Facebook Ads to grow your Spotify streams, trigger the Spotify algorithm, and actually get your music in front of fans…

Click here to grab your free Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth Checklist to help you complete the tasks in this course (as well as get a traditional course version instead of this looooong 1 pager).

The Truth About Facebook Ads & Spotify Growth

So you might think you need a boatload of cash or a degree in rocket science to properly grow your Spotify streams with Facebook Ads…

But that is completely untrue.

However…

At the same time, it would be wrong to think that Facebook Ads will be super easy or is the only silver bullet to your success on Spotify.

So before moving forward, I want to break down some myths around Facebook Ads and Spotify growth so that you know exactly what you are getting yourself into.

Myth: You need a huge budget to run Facebook Ads

Although you can see results faster with a bigger budget, it is still very possible to get great results without breaking the bank.

I personally spend between $100 – $200 CAD per campaign, and spend $0 on other tools and services (like music links, mixing, mastering, video production, etc.) each month. 

Myth: Facebook Ads for Spotify growth don’t have an “ROI”

Here is the truth…

You will never see a traditional “return on investment” like getting $3 in Spotify royalties for every $1 you spend on Facebook Ads.

What you can see is growth in your fanbase, increased credibility from successful releases, and increased data sources for further marketing (ie: pixel data so you can retarget your listeners with other offers).

Most independent artists will make small-time money by adding to their back catalog of music over time or by getting a boost of streams from algorithmic or editorial playlists.

If you’re only out here looking to make money… go find yourself a job and you’ll be able to easily calculate the ROI there, my friend. 🙂

Myth: Your first Facebook Ad is going to get you millions of streams

Properly running Facebook Ads is a skill – and just like any skill you are going to suck at it at first.

Growing your streams with Facebook Ads is about consistency and building momentum, it is not some miracle cash-grab system that takes no effort on your part.

Myth: Facebook Ads are easy

Facebook Ads are a real pain in my ass and if there were a better way… Trust me, I’d ditch Facebook Ads in a heartbeat.

The platform is constantly changing, costs are constantly fluctuating, and it can be hard to target the perfect audience.

Unfortunately… the results that ads are capable of getting are too hard to ignore right now and any artist that isn’t on top of this is getting left behind.

Myth: All you need are Facebook Ads

Finding success on Spotify is not just about Facebook ads or getting on sweet playlists.

It’s also about building a brand, social media, web presence, building momentum (or “buzz”), and most importantly… 

Having an active and growing fanbase of real, genuine music lovers that actually care about you and what you do.

Facebook Ads can help you achieve all of that, and even though it is an important piece of the puzzle, it is not the only piece of puzzle.

With those myths out of the way, let’s dive into why Facebook Ads are so effective before going over the best strategy to use them for Spotify growth.

Because after a whole bunch of experimenting with my own music, I found that Facebook ads for Spotify growth is the best solution.

…what about social media?

I noticed that social media posting is not enough because you can’t scale it up easily (you can only post so much in one day) and most people won’t actually click off of the social media platform to check your stuff out.

…what about playlist pitching?

Playlist pitching doesn’t work because your song is only playlisted for so long and the listeners don’t pay attention enough to save the song or follow the artist.

…so why are Facebook ads so great?

Facebook provides in-depth targeting options, flexible budgeting, and has an algorithm that can optimize itself to get the most results possible for the lowest cost possible.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of Facebook ads in more detail:

  1. There are in-depth targeting options for a very wide variety of interests in addition to basic demographics – interests range from brands to genres to artists to products and beyond
  2. You can “scale” the ads and control your budget – the more you spend the more results you get but you can still spend as little as $1 per day if you want (in comparison you can only post on social media so many times in 1 day before people get upset)
  3. Facebook’s learning algorithm can optimize all by itself to get you the most results possible for the lowest cost possible
  4. You can place people that engage with you into “Custom Audiences” and “retarget” them which means to show them your ads at a lower cost than it took to reach them in the first place
  5. You can leverage the Facebook algorithm to create “Lookalike Audiences” which are 1+ million people that are similar to your fans inside of those Custom Audiences

All this means that:

  • You have the power to send highly targeted listeners over to your Spotify profile
  • Leverage the Facebook’s tools and algorithms to find you more of those fans for less
  • Increase your chances of tripping the Spotify algorithm to find you even more of your fans for free

This neatly leads us to the strategy you will be following…

The Strategy For Using Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth

Spotify rewards artists by giving them the opportunity to get placed on Spotify’s algorithmic and editorial playlists.

Getting your song placed on one of these playlists means your song will get shown to thousands of new listeners who are similar to your current listeners.

Each time you release a new song, you get the chance to pitch your music to the Spotify editors, have your song get added to the Release Radar playlist of your followers, and have a chance for your song to be added to the Release Radar playlist of Spotify users similar to your listeners.

By releasing a single (1) new song every 28 days, you can maximize the number of pitches you make, how long your song benefits from being in Release Radar, and improve your stream and follower counts month after month.

You’re simply going to use Facebook Ads to send highly-targeted listeners over to your music in the first few weeks of its release to try to trigger the Spotify algorithm.

The more often you release music, the more you’ll get better at optimizing your Facebook Ads, lowering your costs, tripping the algorithm more often, and increasing your Spotify streams.

Be consistent and persistent with your work ethic, and you may even catch the attention of the Spotify editors and see massive growth.

…so with all that theory out of the way, let’s start getting ready to actually get our hands dirty with Facebook Ads, my friend. 🙂

Important Updates For Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth in 2022

Before diving into getting started with creating Facebook Ads for your upcoming release, there are a few updates to the Facebook Ads platform that you should know about:

1. The Facebook Ads Manager Is Constantly Changing

Facebook tends to make changes to its Ads platform every few months or so. Sometimes these changes are for all advertisers, just advertisers in a specific geographic region, or as part of a random A/B split-test they are performing.

For the most part, this is in an effort to make things easier for advertisers but sometimes it is to keep up with changes happening outside of Facebook (like you will see in the next section).

Usually, this may be something small like a change in how the backend looks or the placement of certain buttons or sections, but sometimes it may be the addition or removal of entire features.

Just be sure to keep this in mind when following any lesson or tutorial on Facebook Ads (not just mine). 🙂

2. Changes Due To Apple’s iOS14 Tracking Update

Due to recent changes from Apple with iOS 14, Facebook has had to make changes to its Ads platform so that custom conversion events are pre-selected and are coming from verified domains.

Because of these changes, there are 2 important tasks that you must complete in order to properly run Facebook Ads:

  1. Verify a custom website domain (ie: www.yourartistname.com) inside of the Facebook Ads Manager
  2. Set up 1 of 8 “configured events” using Facebook’s “Aggregated Event Measurement” tool

If you have not completed these steps yet, I’ll show you exactly how to do so in the rest of this lesson. 🙂

But first, a quick note if you plan to use DistroKid HyperFollow links for your campaign:

Although the DistroKid team is currently working on this, it is not currently possible to fully run Spotify conversion ads because you can’t verify your HyperFollow domain and create a conversion event for your Facebook Ads to optimize for.

Getting Started With Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth

To get started running Facebook and Instagram ads to grow your Spotify streams, you will first need:

If you need help setting up any of the above accounts, simply click any of the highlighted links above.

If you need more help fully setting up a Facebook Business Manager account, click here.

A Quick Warning To Make Sure Your Account Does Not Get Suspended

After setting up your Facebook Ads Account, it can be very easy to get your account temporarily suspended after running your first ads (it’s happened to me twice so far).

Here are some tips to keep in mind when setting up your account to prevent being temporarily suspended:

  • Verify your identity to Facebook
  • Make sure your personal Facebook profile uses your real name, a real photo of you, and is actually used by you
  • Enable two-factor authentications
  • Verify your website domain in the Business Manager
  • Make sure the credit card you are using has no failed payments and has money on it

Once these basics are set up, you can proceed to the next step below, my friend. 🙂

Getting Started With A Facebook Pixel For Spotify Growth

To properly run Facebook Ads for Spotify growth, you need to create a Facebook Pixel, install it, set up your custom domain and custom conversion events, and create a Facebook ad that is optimized around a conversion event (ie: listening on Spotify).

If you do not properly set up the Facebook Pixel, you will not be able to reliably run conversion ads with Facebook and your results will suck (more on this in Spotify Ad Tracking section below).

Here are the 5 steps that you need to complete to set up a Facebook Pixel for Spotify conversion ads:

  1. Create A Facebook Pixel Inside Of The Facebook Ads Manager
  2. Install The Facebook Pixel On To Your Smart Link
  3. Set Up A Custom Domain Inside Of The Facebook Ads Manager
  4. Set Up Custom Conversion Events Inside Of The Facebook Ads Manager
  5. Set Up Your Spotify Conversion Ad Inside Of The Facebook Ads Manager

Not too long ago, getting started was as simple as installing the Facebook Pixel and creating a Conversion ad inside of Facebook.

However…

Due to recent changes from Apple with iOS 14, Facebook has had to make changes to its Ads platform so that you can only use conversion ads if:

  • Conversion events are coming from website domains that are verified inside of the Facebook Ads Manager
  • You are using 1 of 8 “configured events” using Facebook’s “Aggregated Event Measurement” tool

Later in this course, I will show you how to easily complete these tasks as well as get you your very own Facebook pixel that you can use to install onto your Smart Link pages to collect user data as well as track and optimize for conversions.

First, let’s learn a bit more about the Facebook Pixel and how you can use it to track and optimize your Spotify ad performance.

Spotify Ad Tracking Explained

To be able to properly run Facebook Ads to grow your Spotify streams, you need to make sure you have the proper ad tracking in place.

This is where the mighty Facebook Pixel steps in:

The Facebook Pixel can be installed onto your website or Smart Link pages so that the Facebook Ads platform can track when a fan or listener takes an action you want them to take (ie: streaming a song on Spotify).

This way, Facebook can show you how many results you are getting and how much those results cost.

Facebook can also use this data to leverage its powerful algorithm to “optimize” to find more of the type of people that are getting you those results and only serve ads to them – which lowers your costs.

…the problem?

The Facebook Pixel CANNOT be installed on Spotify.

This means you are not able to have the Facebook Pixel track exactly when a listener streams your song and optimize your ads around that highly specific event.

To get around this, this is the best practice for Spotify conversion ads:

Send your potential listeners to a Smart Link page first and set the ‘Conversion Event’ that Facebook will track and optimize for to be a “Listen On Spotify” button on that page.

So now you may be asking…

Why Not Use Ads To Send Listeners Straight To My Spotify?

Sending potential fans directly to Spotify greatly increases the chances of the Facebook algorithm optimizing around bots and click farm accounts instead of real fans.

Although Facebook Ads can be great, they have a severe issue with bots and click farms.

Using a “Traffic”, “Link Click”, or “Landing Page View” campaign dramatically increases your chance of wasting your hard-earned money on bogus results.

In addition to this, although sending potential fans to your website first increases the steps the fan has to take, it also increases the quality of that fan because they have taken more commitments to you.

Also – when a potential fan hits your website, you can track them with other tracking pixels (ie: Google ads, YouTube ads, Spotify ads, Snapchat etc) so that you can expand your advertising efforts beyond Facebook in the future.

So…

If you’re ready to finally create and install your Facebook Pixel, continue on to the next lesson, my friend!

How To Create A Facebook Pixel For Advertising Your Music

The very first step is to actually create a Facebook Pixel so that you can start running ads to your music.

It’s also important to note that you only need 1 Facebook Pixel per artist, band, or project – you do NOT need to create a new Facebook Pixel for each song or release.

Here are the 7 steps to creating a Facebook pixel for advertising your music:

  1. Login to your Facebook Business Manager account
  2. Click the hamburger icon (3 horizonal lines) on the left and select ‘Events Manager’
  3. Click on the green plus icon on the left or hover over the far left panel and click on the ‘Connect Data Sources’ (in green text)
  4. Select the ‘Web’ option and then click the blue ‘Connect’ button
  5. Select the ‘Facebook Pixel’ option and then click the blue ‘Connect’ button
  6. Click the blue ‘Connect’ button
  7. Enter a name for your Pixel, enter your website domain, and click the blue ‘Next’ button

Once your Facebook Pixel is created, you can find your Facebook Pixel ID at any time by visiting the Events Manager page and finding it on the Overview page or the Settings page.

Here is where to find your Facebook Pixel ID on the Events Manager ‘Overview’ page:

Here is where to find your Facebook Pixel ID on the Events Manager ‘Settings’ page:

Before diving into how you can now install your new Facebook Pixel onto your Smart Link page, let’s take a closer look at the steps to creating your Facebook Pixel:

1 – Login to your Facebook Business Manager account

2 – Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left and select ‘Events Manager’:

3 – Click on the green plus icon on the left or hover over the far left panel and click on the ‘Connect Data Sources’ (in green text):

4 – Select the ‘Web’ option and then click the blue ‘Connect’ button

5 – Select the ‘Facebook Pixel’ option and then click the blue ‘Connect’ button:

7 – Click the blue ‘Continue’ button:

6 – Enter a name for your Pixel, enter your website domain, and click the blue ‘Next’ button:

NOTE: You must have a website or at least just the domain (ie: www.yourartistname.com) to create the Pixel AND to properly create Spotify conversion ads later.

And don’t worry… if you don’t have a website or domain quite yet, I’ll show you some options in the next section, my friend. 🙂

How To Install The Facebook Pixel

Once you have created your Facebook Pixel, there are at least 3 ways you can now install your brand new Facebook Pixel:

  1. Install the actual code manually
  2. Copy the Facebook Pixel ID so that you can paste it into your Smart Link service
  3. Use a Partner integration to install the Facebook pixel for you (if available)

When it comes to setting up the Facebook pixel for Spotify conversion ads, you will most likely use the 2nd option and simply paste in your Pixel ID.

If you do not have a website or Smart link solution in place:

  1. I have a separate free course that shows you how to create custom smart links, like the ones I used to get 4M+ Spotify Streams, which you can check out here: https://bestfriendsclub.ca/trainings/smart-links/
  2. You can check out reviews on most of the popular smart link services by clicking here: https://bestfriendsclub.ca/smart-links-for-music/

In the next sections, I will give you a thorough rundown of how to install the Facebook Pixel into different Smart Link solutions.

Setting Up The Facebook Pixel With A Custom Website

If you are using a custom website for your links, there is usually a section in the settings section of your website’s backend to include different pixels for Facebook and Google Analytics.

If you are using WordPress to host your custom website, here is a quick video on how to get set up with the Facebook Pixel:

Setting Up The Facebook Pixel With DistroKid

If you are a DistroKid user, currently you can add a Facebook pixel to HyperFollow pages but you can’t use DistroKid’s HyperFollow links to run proper Spotify Conversion ads for free.

Important: Due to recent changes from Apple with iOS 13, Facebook has had to make changes to its Ads platform so that custom conversion events are pre-selected and are coming from verified domains.

Although the DistroKid team is currently working on this, it is not currently possible to fully run Spotify conversion ads because you can’t verify your HyperFollow domain and create a conversion event for your Facebook Ads to optimize for.

In the meantime, here is what you need to get a headstart on the first step for setting up Spotify conversion ads with DistroKid which is to install the Facebook pixel onto your HyperFollow links:

To set up the Facebook pixel with DistroKid, all you have to do is sign into DistroKid, edit your HyperFollow link, and paste your Facebook pixel into the Ad-tracking pixels section.

It is also important to note that you will need to add your Facebook pixel to each of the HyperFollow links you want to use (adding a pixel to 1 link will NOT add it to all of your others automatically).

Here are the 6 steps to adding the Facebook pixel to a DistroKid HyperFollow link:

  1. Sign in to DistroKid
  2. Click ‘Goodies’ from the top navigation, select ‘Promote Yourself’, and then click “HyperFollow”
  3. Click the ‘Edit’ button on the song you’d like to add your Facebook pixel to
  4. Scroll down to the ‘More Settings’ section and select ‘Ad-tracking pixels’
  5. Paste in your Facebook pixel into the ‘Facebook pixel ID’ field and select ‘Done’
  6. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button

For a more detailed look at these steps with screenshots, check out DistroKid HyperFollow Facebook Pixel Guide. 🙂

Once the Facebook pixel is installed, custom events should now fire for you inside of the Facebook Ads Manager when your fans take certain actions on your HyperFollow link.

However, due to the recent changes I mentioned due to iOS14, HyperFollow links can’t have their domain verified and so will not fire custom events inside of the Facebook Ads Manager at all.

Setting Up The Facebook Pixel With ToneDen

Although I’d recommend running your own DIY ads over paying for ToneDen’s service, I can highly recommend ToneDen’s FanLinks as a fantastic free solution for creating Smart Links.

Here is how to set up the Facebook Pixel with ToneDen:

  1. Copy your Facebook Pixel ID (found in the Facebook Events Manager)
  2. Paste your Facebook Pixel ID into ToneDen as the Default Facebook Pixel inside of ToneDen’s settings under the Advertising section
  3. Use the Event Setup Tool to attach a ‘View Content’ event to your Spotify button
  4. Add this new Custom Conversion inside of Facebook’s Aggregated Event Measurement tool

If you need to learn more about how to use the Event Setup Tool and Aggregated Event Measurement, simply keep on reading, my friend. 🙂

For more info on how to properly set this up inside of ToneDen, check out these resources:

ToneDen’s Facebook Ads Setup Guide

What Event Should I Optimize For?

To get the best results in your Spotify conversion ad, make sure you optimize for ‘View Content’.

Conversion Event To Optimize For: View Content

Setting Up The Facebook Pixel With Hypeddit

Another popular Smart Link solution is Hypeddit. However, it is important to note that you can’t install and use the Facebook Pixel without a paid plan.

So although I can’t recommend using Hypeddit for this reason…

Here is how to set up the Facebook Pixel with Hypeddit:

  1. Copy your Facebook Pixel ID (found in the Facebook Events Manager)
  2. Paste your Facebook Pixel ID into Hypeddit
  3. Create a Custom Conversion for ‘Hypeddit Smart Link Click’
  4. Add this new Custom Conversion inside of Facebook’s Aggregated Event Measurement tool

If you need to learn more about how to use the Event Setup Tool and Aggregated Event Measurement, simply keep on reading, my friend. 🙂

For more info on how to properly set this up inside of Hypeddit, check out these resources:

Setup account-level tracking pixels (Facebook, Google Ads) with Hypeddit

How to setup your Facebook Conversion API with Hypeddit

What Event Should I Optimize For?

To get the best results in your Spotify conversion ad, make sure you optimize for ‘Hypeddit Smart Link Click’ and NOT the ‘Hypeddit Smart Link Visit‘.

Conversion Event To Optimize For: Hypeddit Smart Link Click

Once your Facebook Pixel is installed onto your website or smart link of choice, you can move on to the next lesson, my friend. 🙂

How To Set Up A Custom Domain For Spotify Conversion Ads

Now that you have properly set up your Facebook Pixel, the next step is to verify your custom domain inside of the Facebook Ads Manager.

As I mentioned earlier, Facebook has had to make changes to its Ads platform so that you can only use conversion ads if Conversion events are coming from website domains that are verified inside of the Facebook Ads Manager.

These are 8 steps to setting up a custom domain in Facebook for Spotify conversion ads:

  1. Register a domain name (if you don’t already have one)
  2. Login to your Facebook Business Manager account
  3. Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left and select ‘Business Settings’
  4. Click on “Brand Safety” from the left-hand menu and then select ‘Domains’
  5. Click on the blue “Add” button
  6. Type in the domain name that you own and click the blue “Add” button
  7. Choose one of Facebook’s verification methods (DNS, Meta, or HTML) and complete this inside of the backend of the service you used to register your domain name
  8. Click the green “Verify Domain” button and wait up to 72 hours for Facebook to complete the verification process

Although this process is relatively simple, watch out as Step 7 can be a bit difficult as you need to do a bit of technical work in your Domain backend.

Each Domain service’s backend will look a bit different, but later in this article, I’ll show you how I completed Facebook’s verification method using the service that I used to register my domain.

First, here is a more in-depth visual guide to completing the 8 steps for setting up and verifying a custom domain inside of the Facebook Ads Manager:

1 – Register a domain name (if you don’t already have one):
I’d recommend using GoDaddy if you just need a domain or BlueHost if you’d like a website and domain.

For a full breakdown of how to get set up with BlueHost and my preferred custom Smart Link solution, check out this completely free course.

2 – Login to your Facebook Business Manager account

3 – Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left and select ‘Business Settings’:

4 – Click on “Brand Safety” from the left-hand menu and then select ‘Domains’:

5 – Click on the blue “Add” button:

6 – Type in the domain name that you own and click the blue “Add” button:

7 – Choose one of Facebook’s verification methods (DNS, Meta, or HTML) and complete this inside of the backend of the service you used to register your domain name.

For instructions on how to complete any of these methods, you can click on the ‘select one option’ dropdown menu just below where it says “Verify your domain”:

For more in-depth mini-tutorials from Facebook on how to complete each of the verification methods, click any of these links:

Or, simply continue reading to see how I completed this step using my own Domain service. 🙂

8 – Click the green “Verify Domain” button and wait up to 72 hours for Facebook to complete the verification process:

With that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at how you can actually complete Facebook’s verification method with your domain.

How To Verify Your Domain With DNS Verification:

When I set up Facebook Ads for my own music, I chose to verify my domain using the DNS method.

Although each domain service will look just a little bit different, here are the steps I took to verify my domain inside of BlueHost:

  1. Login to your BlueHost account
  2. Click on “Domains” from the left-hand menu
  3. Click on the “Manage” button for the domain you wish to use
  4. Scroll down to the “TXT” section and click on the blue ‘Add Record’ button
  5. Go back to the Facebook Business Manager, select the option “Update the DNS TXT record with your domain registrar” and copy the TXT record that Facebook lists in Step 2 of that page
  6. Type an @ into the “Host Record”, paste the TXT record you just copied in Facebook into the “TXT Value” field, set the “TTL” dropdown to ‘4 Hours (min), and then click the blue “Save” button

After you have completed these steps, simply wait up to 72 hours for the verification process to be completed.

If your domain continues to say “Not Verified”, simply click on the green “Verify Domain” button again or double-check that you set up your TXT record properly:

Once your domain is verified, you can now proceed to the final step before you can actually create a Spotify conversion ad inside of Facebook, which is to set up Aggregated Event Measurement inside of the Facebook Ads Manager.

First, for a more detailed look at how to complete each of these steps, simply keep on reading.

1 – Login to your BlueHost account:

2 – Click on “Domains” from the left-hand menu:

3 – Click on the “Manage” button for the domain you wish to use:

4 – Scroll down to the “TXT” section and click on the blue ‘Add Record’ button:

5 – Go back to the Facebook Business Manager, select the option “Update the DNS TXT record with your domain registrar” and copy the TXT record that Facebook lists in Step 2 of that page:

6 – Type an @ into the “Host Record”, paste the TXT record you just copied in Facebook into the “TXT Value” field, set the “TTL” dropdown to ‘4 Hours (min), and then click the blue “Save” button:

If your domain continues to say “Not Verified” inside of Facebook, simply click on the green “Verify Domain” button again or double-check that you set up your TXT record properly.

Once your domain is verified, you can now proceed to the final step before you can actually create a Spotify conversion ad inside of Facebook.

How To Set Up Custom Conversion Events For Spotify Conversion Ads

The final step before you can actually begin running Spotify conversion ads with Facebook is to configure your custom events.

This is another one of those additional steps that Facebook makes you do because of the recent changes in iOS 14 and above.

Although Facebook has created a limit of 8 custom events per Facebook pixel, you will only really need 1 or 2 if you are just getting started running ads to grow your Spotify streams.

How To Set Up Aggregated Event Measurement For Spotify Conversion Ads

Here are the 9 steps you need to take to set up Aggregated Event Measurement so that you can run Spotify conversion ads with Facebook:

  1. Login to your Facebook Business Manager account
  2. Click the hamburger icon (3 horizonal lines) on the left and select ‘Events Manager’
  3. Click on the tab titled “Aggregated Event Measurement”
  4. Click on the blue “Configure Web Events” button
  5. Click on your domain to expand the section
  6. Click on the grey “Manage Events” button (there may be a green “Add Events” button instead)
  7. If a dialog box pops up titled “Edit these events?” click on the blue “Edit” button to continue or else proceed to the next step
  8. Click the green “Add Event” button and create 1 with the Event Name ‘View Content’ and another with the Event Name ‘Lead’
  9. Click on the blue “Apply” button to complete this process

First, for a more detailed look at how to complete each of these steps, simply keep on reading.

1 – Login to your Facebook Business Manager account

2 – Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left and select ‘Events Manager’:

3 – Click on the tab titled “Aggregated Event Measurement”:

4 – Click on the blue “Configure Web Events” button:

5 – Click on your domain to expand the section:

6 – Click on the grey “Manage Events” button (there may be a green “Add Events” button instead):

7 – If a dialog box pops up titled “Edit these events?” click on the blue “Edit” button to continue or else proceed to the next step:

8 – Click the green “Add Event” button and create 1 with the Event Name ‘View Content’ and another with the Event Name ‘Lead’:

9 – Click on the blue “Apply” button to complete this process:

Once you have properly set up Aggregated Event Measurement, there are just 2 more things I would suggest doing to make sure you are all good to go.

First – if you are using a custom website you will need to know how to manually (and easily) attach a Facebook Conversion Event to any button or webpage so that the event fires when your fan clicks a button or visits a page.

Honestly, this is very good for you to know whether you are using a custom website or a service like Hypeddit, ToneDen, DistroKid, etc.

Second – you will want to know how to test your conversion events and make sure that Facebook is receiving data correctly.

This way, when you start running ads, you won’t run into any issues like your ads performing awfully because Facebook Ads isn’t configured correctly.

How To Manually Attach A Conversion Event To Any Button

Once the Facebook Pixel is installed on your website, you can use Facebook’s Event Setup tool to easily attach a Conversion event to any button on your page.

Here is how to attach a Conversion event using Facebook’s Event Setup Tool:

  1. From the Facebook Events Manager, click on the grey ‘Add Events’ button
  2. Select the ‘From the Pixel’ option from the ‘Add Events’ dropdown
  3. Click the blue “Open Event Setup Tool”
  4. Type your Smart Link or website URL into the ‘Website URL’ field and click on the blue ‘Open Website’ button
  5. The previous step will make Facebook will open your link in a new tab. Click the grey ‘Track New Button’ button at the top left
  6. The previous step will highlight all available buttons in blue. Click on the button you’d like to add an event to (ie: the Spotify button)
  7. Click the “Select an event” dropdown in the top right, scroll down, select “View Content, and then the blue “Confirm” button
  8. Choose the “Don’t include value” option and then click the blue “Confirm” button
  9. Click the “Finish Setup” button at the top left

While the Event Setup Tool is still open (before completing Step 9), you will be able to see your newly configured conversion events:

Properly configured conversion events will show up under the “Events on This Page” section on the left.

You will also be able to notice a green circle with an eyeball icon and a checkmark next to any buttons with properly configured conversion events.

Let’s take a look at these steps in closer detail before moving on to the next step!

1 – From the Facebook Events Manager, click on the grey ‘Add Events’ button:

2 – Select the ‘From the Pixel’ option from the ‘Add Events’ dropdown:

3 – Click the blue “Open Event Setup Tool”:

4 – Type your Smart Link or website URL into the ‘Website URL’ field and click on the blue ‘Open Website’ button:

5 – The previous step will make Facebook will open your link in a new tab. Click the grey ‘Track New Button’ button at the top left:

6 – The previous step will highlight all available buttons in blue. Click on the button you’d like to add an event to (ie: the Spotify button):

7 – Click the “Select an event” dropdown in the top right, scroll down, select “View Content, and then the blue “Confirm” button:

8 – Choose the “Don’t include value” option and then click the blue “Confirm” button:

9 – Click the “Finish Setup” button at the top left:

How To Make Sure Your Conversion Events Are Properly Firing

There are 3 ways to make sure your conversion events for Spotify growth are properly firing inside of the Facebook Ads Manager.

1. Check the activity on the ‘Overview’ page in your Events Manager.

From this page, you can see overall activity in the top “All Activity” graph, as well as see which specific events have been firing in the section just below it:

2. You can test specific events in real-time by clicking the “Test Events” tab, typing in the Smart Link or website URL you want to test into the “Test Browser Events” section, and clicking the blue “Open Website” button:

This will open up your Smart Link in a new tab, where you can interact with the page to test out all the different events:

Back in the Facebook Ads Manager, you will be able to make sure that the events are actually being received:

3. You can use the Event Setup Tool shown in the previous section to confirm that custom events are attached to buttons and links:

With your Facebook pixel, ad account, and events all properly set up and tested, let’s move onto the main event: actually creating a Spotify conversion ad inside of Facebook.

Setting Up A Spotify Conversion Ad Inside Of The Facebook Ads Manager

The last step to making sure that your Spotify conversion ads are set up properly with the Facebook pixel is to create a “Conversion” ad that is optimized for your specific “Listen On Spotify” event.

Here is how to do just that:

  1. Login to your Facebook Business account
  2. Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left, scroll down and select ‘Ads Manager’
  3. Click on the green “Create” button on the top left
  4. Select the ‘Conversions’ option and then click the blue “Continue” button
  5. Make your way to the Ad Set level by clicking on your ad set in the left-side menu
  6. Name your Ad Set, make sure ‘Website’ is selected, and then click on the ‘Choose an event’ dropdown located underneath the title “Conversion Event”
  7. Select the Conversion Event for your specific website or Smart Link (in this example we use the ‘View Content’ option)

After this, you can finish creating your ad by setting up the audience you want to target and what your ad actually looks like.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can use Facebook to find fans for your music.

First, Let’s take a look at these steps in closer detail:

1 – Login to your Facebook Business account

2 – Click the hamburger icon (3 horizontal lines) on the left, scroll down and select ‘Ads Manager’:

3 – Click on the green “Create” button on the top left:

4 – Select the ‘Conversions’ option and then click the blue “Continue” button:

5 – Make your way to the Ad Set level by clicking on your ad set in the left-side menu:

6 – Name your Ad Set, make sure ‘Website’ is selected, and then click on the ‘Choose an event’ dropdown located underneath the title “Conversion Event”:

7 – Select the Conversion Event for your specific website or Smart Link (in this example we use the ‘View Content’ option):

Once you have completed this step, you will now have an ad that is properly configured to optimize for growing Spotify streams and properly tracking your fan activity.

You can now complete the ad set up process by:

  1. Choosing what audience you want to target
  2. Choosing where on Facebook/Instagram you want your ads to show
  3. Uploading your video ad
  4. Setting the destination URL for your ad to be the smart link that you are using for your release campaign

To help you complete these remaining steps, there is a free sample lesson from another one of my premium courses that you can view when you grab your free Facebook Ads For Spotify Growth Checklist. 🙂

P.S. If you need more help setting up your campaigns, choosing budgets, finding your target audience, and more step-by-step guidance check out the Advanced Facebook Ads Strategies For Spotify Success lesson in this course.

Next, we will look into how you can make sure to keep improving the results you get with your campaigns. 🙂

How To Stay Consistent & Improve Your Results

Once you’ve launched your very first Facebook Ads campaign, the best way that you can improve upon your results is by running more campaigns and testing out different ideas.

The more campaigns you run, the better you will get at running campaigns, the more data will build up in your Facebook Pixel, and the more likely you are to figure out what targeting options work best for your unique music.

With that said – your success all depends on the habits you build, and the first habit you really need to build is music creation.

Marketing your music is hard work and you will find it infinitely harder to focus on releasing new music properly if you are struggling to finish music on a monthly basis.

Music marketing is marathon and NOT a sprint.

Avoid time, energy and financial burnout at all costs because you want to be doing this for years and years to come if you really want to see great results.

With that out of the way, let’s now take a look at some of the specific tactics you can implement to improve your results. 🙂

New Experiments

After reviewing the results of your last release, you may naturally have some new ideas you would like to test.

List them out and decide on 2 or 3 to implement.

It’s important to not go overboard here because if you change too much and find success, it will be harder to pinpoint what exactly it was that got you that success.

Likewise, if you change too much and your next campaign does worse, it may be difficult to find the culprit so that you can stop it.

Things you can experiment with include:

  • Targeting options
  • Video ad creatives
  • Geographies
  • Positions in the song to showcase
  • How you distribute your budget
  • When you release your song

However, know that targeting option changes will usually give you the greatest differences in results.

Custom & Lookalike Audiences

One of the greatest ways to improve the results you get with Facebook ads is to start using or experimenting with different Custom & Lookalike Audiences.

Facebook allows you to place people that have already engaged with you into “Custom Audiences” and show them ads at a lower cost than it took to reach them in the first place – this marketing tactic is also called Retargeting.

Types of Custom Audiences include people who:

  • Watched a % of your video(s) or ad(s)
  • Completed a specific Conversion Event
  • Interacted with your Instagram profile
  • Interacted with your Facebook profile
  • Visited your website or specific webpages
  • Are in an email list of subscribers or customers that you uploaded

You can then leverage the Facebook algorithm to create “Lookalike Audiences” which are 1+ million people that are similar to the people that are in any Custom Audiences of your choosing.

However, it is best to only create a Lookalike Audience once your Custom Audience has reached a minimum audience size of 1,000 before experimenting with adding Lookalike Audiences to your campaigns.

All this means that you have the power to send highly targeted listeners over to your Spotify profile and then leverage the Facebook algorithm to find more of those people for less over time so that you increase your chances of tripping the Spotify algorithm to find you even more of those people for free.

Using or switching up these audiences will be a gamechanger for your Facebook ads results.

To learn more about how you can make the best of your Facebook Ads and improve them from release to release, simply continue onto the next lesson in this course. 🙂

Advanced Facebook Ads Strategies For Spotify Success

This course is meant to help you get started with Facebook Ads, from setting things up properly to launching your very first Spotify conversion ad.

So whether it is because you now have a handle of the basics or it is because you simply want to get a complete picture of what it takes to succeed using Facebook Ads to grow your Spotify streams…

We’ve only just scratched the surface of how to properly run Facebook Ads for Spotify growth.

So there are 3 different ways that I can help you out here, my friend. 🙂

#1 – The Truth About What It Takes To Use Facebook Ads To Get 1,000,000 Spotify Streams

If you’d specifically like to learn more about advanced Facebook Ads strategies and what it takes to harness the power of Facebook Ads to grow your streams…

There is no doubt that there is more to learn if you want to master this tool and use it in a way that you can turn on an automatic fan generation machine whenever you want to.

Some might call it giving the algorithm a bit of a nudge with a few ads…

Some might call it “hacking” the algorithm…

Either way, if you’d like to learn more click here to learn the truth about what it takes to use Facebook Ads to get 1,000,000 Spotify streams.

#2 – How To Go From 0 to 1,000,000 Spotify Streams In 28 Days

Although Facebook Ads are a big part of finding success on Spotify…

It is definitely not the only part.

For a more complete look into what it takes to really grow on Spotify, check out this new video that reveals how to go from 0 to 1,000,000 Spotify streams in 28 days.

The above link goes into advanced Facebook Ads strategies in addition to giving an in-depth look at how the Spotify algorithm works, how you can hack it, and the assets, templates, and skills you’ll need to make it happen.

#3 – Ongoing Support & Learning

Lastly, this one is a bit cliché and it may be obvious, but embracing continuous learning is absolutely crucial to improving your results.

The world of marketing is constantly changing, so immersing yourself in videos and articles is a fantastic way to come up with new ideas to try out or learn how to do things better.

The best part?

All of the information you need is just a YouTube or Google search away.

It may not be neatly packaged up in a course, so you will need to read between the lines and dig deep, but at least it’s free.

To learn more about my absolute favorite free resources to help you succeed with Facebook Ads and growing your Spotify streams, simply continue on to the next lesson, my friend. 🙂

Ongoing Support & Learning

I’ve mentioned it earlier in this course, but Facebook Ads and the world of music marketing in general is constantly changing.

On top of this, it can be challenging to dial in your ads and your marketing to the point where you are seeing results you are happy with.

…the solution to this problem, my friend?

Keep learning, keep experimenting, and ask questions in the right places.

In this lesson, I’ll show you my favorite free resources so that you can continue learning and get help to overcome any future challenges you may encounter.

But first a quick warning: Watch out for the “Self-Improvement Trap”.

There is a lot of content on the Internet and you want to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of endlessly watching videos, taking courses, and reading articles instead of actually getting out there and getting shit done.

Just make sure you are taking courses (yes – exactly like the one you are taking right this moment) and watching videos on music marketing with purpose and NOT for entertainment, my friend. 🙂

Andrew Southworth

Andrew is a fantastic YouTuber who has really dedicated his channel to teaching Facebook Ads for growing Spotify streams.

I’d recommend subscribing to his channel to keep up-to-date on any changes with Facebook Ads.

I’d also recommend cruising through his channel if you are encountering any issues with the performance of your Facebook Ads.

Where to start

Check out this video playlist that Andrew has made that goes over a ton of Facebook Ads for Spotify growth topics:

Where to ask questions

In addition to asking questions in the comment sections of his YouTube videos, Andrew also has a few different community forums that you can join for free:

Genera Studios Free Community

Tom DuPree III

Tom is another fantastic YouTuber who really focuses on putting out content that teaches how to use Facebook Ads for growing Spotify streams.

I’d recommend subscribing to his channel to keep up-to-date on any changes with Facebook Ads and searching his videos if you are encountering any issues with the performance of your Facebook Ads.

Where to start

Check out this video playlist that Tom has made that goes over the top 10 mistakes when using Facebook Ads to promote music on Spotify:

Where to ask questions

In addition to asking questions in the comment sections of his YouTube videos, Tom holds live music marketing Q&As on his YouTube channel every Friday.

Indepreneur

Indepreneur is a really, really great music marketing company that teaches artists how to grow a fanbase with a very large emphasis on using Facebook Ads.

However, I should definitely mention that Indepreneur focuses on general music marketing and actually have a bias against Spotify with a strong opinion against using Facebook Ads for Spotify growth.

With that said, you can learn a lot about music marketing and Facebook Ads from them so I’d highly suggest checking out their YouTube channel and their weekly Creative Juice podcast.

Where to start

Indepreneur have put together a great video playlist on YouTube that goes over general Facebook & Instagram Ads for artists:

Where to ask questions

Indepreneur have a free Facebook Group you can request to join where you can ask questions related to growing your music business.

Just remember to use the search function before asking any questions (the group is extremely active) and remember that some members of the group (but not all) may have a bias against Spotify.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about Spotify growth with Facebook Ads, as well as some ways you can troubleshoot your own ad performance.

What are good or bad Facebook ad results?

Bad = >$0.75

Needs Improvement = $0.60 – $0.74

Decent = $0.40 – $.59

Good = $0.20 – $0.39

Great = $0.10 – $.019

Anything under or around $0.10 is absolutely amazing, but you may want to cross-reference the results you see in the Spotify For Artists dashboard to make sure you are getting real streams and not bot clicks.

What should I do if I am not getting streams but I am getting Facebook conversions?

It is completely normal to see a drop off of 40% – 60% from Facebook conversions to Spotify streams.

For example, some Facebook users may click your ad and then your ‘Listen on Spotify’ button but:

  • Navigate away because the page loads to slow
  • Get distracted and click something else in Spotify or on their phone
  • Get distracted in real life and walked away

If much less than 40% off your Facebook conversions are turning into Spotify streams, here is how to fix this issue:

1. Open up your Facebook Ads Manager, select the ‘Country’ breakdown (under ‘By Delivery’ option), and view the results in the ‘Amount spent’ column

2. If you find that there is a country (or 2) that is completely dominating the ‘Amount spent’, duplicate your ad-set and remove those countries from your targeting locations

3. If this fix does not improve your results after running your campaign for another 2 – 3 days, repeat this process but this time look for unusual numbers in the ‘Amount spent’ column for breakdowns for ‘Placement’ instead of ‘Country’

If 0% of your Facebook conversions are turning into Spotify streams:

Definitely complete the steps above but there are also may be a more general issue with your setup.

Make sure to test your conversion events, double-check your links, double-check the options you’ve selected in your Facebook campaign, and make sure you’ve properly set up your Facebook pixel, verified your domain, and configured your standard conversion events.

Why not target all countries or at least all countries that Spotify is in?

You want to avoid countries that have bots and click farms at all costs – these will make your numbers great inside of the Facebook ads manager but will not translate into actual streams inside of the Spotify For Artists dashboard.

Although you can experiment with other countries, you need to carefully watch this to make sure you are indeed getting streams from those countries – otherwise Facebook will optimize around those countries and only spend your money in those countries, leaving you with no streams and no money.

Why not use the Audience Network?

The audience network usually shows your ad when people are browsing websites or using apps. Essentially, this placement almost always results in lots of clicks but not a lot of streams – so you can test it, but it is generally best to avoid.

Why not send listeners directly to Spotify?

We send listeners to a Smart Link first for a few key reasons:

1. Sending potential fans directly to Spotify greatly increases the chances of the Facebook algorithm optimizing around bots and click farm accounts instead of real fans

2. When a potential fan hits your website, you can track them with other tracking pixels (ie: Google ads, YouTube ads, Spotify ads, Snapchat etc) so that you can expand your advertising efforts beyond Facebook in the future

3. Sending potential fans to your website first increases the steps the fan has to take, but also increases the quality of that fan because they have taken more commitments to you

Why not just use Story placements?

The more placements that the Facebook algorithm is allowed to place ads on, the more it has to work with to optimize your conversions to get you as many as possible for the least amount of money.

Facebook may very well send almost 100% your traffic to Story placements, but at least it has the opportunity to serve an ad to a listener using a different placement if it thinks it will get you a stream for a lower cost.

Basically: using as many effective placements as possible (aka all but Audience Network) will get your more streams for less.

Some of my favorite music marketing tools

Thank you for reading this article, my friend, and I hope you found it helpful as you build your own successful career in music. 🙂

Click here to see a list of my favorite and most recommended tools and resources that I’ve personally used to get my music streamed over 5,000,000 times on Spotify as an artist (called Best Friends Club).

Any of the paid services or tools listed here are most likely affiliate links, so if you do decide to use any of them, I’ll earn a small commission. 🤗

But in all honesty, these are the exact tools that I personally use, love, and recommend to anyone – including my own friends and family.

"Copy/Paste" Your Music Promotion with The FREE Checklist I Used To Get 3,000,000+ Spotify Streams

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