The guide
Which platform to start with, what to do yourself, when to hand it to a team, and what no ad campaign can promise.
[ The short answer ]
Start on Meta with several short videos of the same song, send listeners to a link you can track, and judge the campaign by plays, saves and follows, not clicks. Add YouTube when you have a video and Spotify’s own tools once your release is eligible.
Run it yourself if you have the time to learn an ad account. If you would rather make music, use a managed service that shows you every number and never promises a stream count.
[ Platforms ]
Finding new listeners
Instagram and Facebook. The widest reach, the best creative testing and retargeting. Where most music campaigns should start.
Music videos and visualizers
High-attention video. Views on the official video, channel growth, and listeners who sit through a whole song.
Songs with a strong short hook
Tests whether a 15-second moment travels. Works best when you promote posts that are already performing.
Listeners already on Spotify
Showcase and Marquee run inside Spotify for Artists. Both have eligibility minimums, so check the Campaigns tab to see what your release qualifies for.
Younger audiences
Full-screen vertical video. Often cheaper reach with Gen-Z listeners than the bigger feeds.
People already looking for you
Catches fans at the moment they search your name, your song or your tour.
[ Three ways to do it ]
Ad spend only
Open an ad account, build the campaign, make the creatives, read the numbers. It costs nothing but media and time, and you learn your audience. Expect the first campaigns to teach more than they earn.
Retainer plus ad spend
Someone experienced runs your ad account for a monthly fee. Worth it once you spend enough each month that mistakes cost more than the retainer. Ask to see real campaigns for artists at your level.
One budget, fee included
You set the goal and the budget, a team plans and runs the campaigns, and you see the numbers. This is what Bandkick is: prepaid budget, every campaign staged paused for your approval, unspent media returned.
[ Five mistakes ]
The boost button optimizes for likes. A campaign built in the ad manager can optimize for people who click through and listen.
Make several short videos around the same song and let them compete. The winner is rarely the one you expected.
Cheap clicks from markets you will never play look good on a report and do little for a career. Choose the markets on purpose.
Send people to a link you can track, and judge the campaign by what happens after the click: plays, saves, follows.
Platforms need a few days to learn who responds. Decide what you will measure before you launch, then let it run.
[ What ads cannot buy ]
Ads buy attention. They do not buy a fan. A campaign puts the song in front of the right people and the song does the rest, which is why no serious company guarantees streams, followers or placements. Ours are run on a prepaid budget, staged paused for your approval, with unspent media returned and the numbers in front of you the whole way.
Press, radio and playlist pitching are a different job from advertising. For that side, read the guide to music PR, promotion and marketing for independent artists from LUSIVEX, our sister agency.
[ Questions ]
For most independent artists, Meta (Instagram and Facebook) first: it has the widest reach and the best tools for testing creatives. Add YouTube when you have a video, TikTok when a short clip is already working, and Spotify's own campaign tools once your release is eligible.
Start with an amount you can afford to treat as tuition, test several creatives, then put more behind what works. Bandkick's entry tier is a flat $99 for one track. Larger managed campaigns run against a budget you set and prepay, and unspent media is returned.
Ads buy reach and clicks. Whether those turn into streams, saves and followers depends on the song and the creative. Nobody can guarantee a stream count, and Bandkick does not: our terms say so in plain words.
Bandkick is a fully-managed paid media service for music artists, run by the team behind BTS's US breakthrough. You tell us the goal and the budget, our strategists build the plan, every campaign is staged paused for your approval, and our team runs it across Meta, Snapchat, YouTube and Google, with more channels rolling out.
No. Guaranteed numbers usually mean artificial streams, and streaming services remove them and can penalize the release. Real advertising puts a song in front of real people and lets them decide.
A real Meta campaign for one track, built and reviewed by our team, with a live status page across a 7-day flight. No subscription.