Instagram is one of the biggest and most influential social platforms in the world, and in addition to being the foundation of our advertising for growth on Spotify, Instagram itself is a top priority for building a fanbase for many artists as well.
The two primary strategies for building an audience on Instagram are organic and paid.
Organic growth is free, but it is difficult to do it effectively and consistently, which is why most artists struggle to see the gains they want on the platform.
And while not a replacement for a strong organic content strategy, paid advertising can help you to increase your rate of follower growth while you work to unlock the organic content system that performs best for you.
To build our audience on Instagram, we are going to use what I like to refer to as an Instagram Growth Campaign.
This ad campaign consists of three stages: the campaign level, the ad set level, and the ad level.
Let’s take a look at each.
Creating your campaign
To increase our follower growth on Instagram, we’re going to start with a simple traffic campaign inside Meta’s ads manager.
Because we’ll be sending users from our ad directly to our Instagram profile, there’s no need to overcomplicate our strategy with landing pages or pixels.
A traffic campaign is all we need.
Once our campaign objective is set up, we’re going to set our budget and move to the ad set level.
Optimizing the ad set level
Inside our ad set, our two primary concerns are targeting and placements.
For targeting, I like to be highly specific with where I am trying to build my fanbase, so I will generally target the United States (because that’s where I live), as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Your choice of countries may differ, but my advice is to only select those areas where you want to create a complete funnel for your fans (e.g. content, email, customer acquisition, selling paid offers, etc.)
Once I’ve selected my countries, I’ll set my age range to match my desired audience, and I’ll leave the detailed targeting portion wide open to take advantage of Meta’s machine learning.
Once our targeting is set, it’s time to select our placements.
The placements you ultimately select will depend on the style of ad you’re using and how it’s formatted, but the main thing to remember is that you only want to use Instagram placements–after all, that’s where we’re trying to grow.
I’ll generally select a combination of stories, Reels, and feed placements.
Once we’ve drilled down our placements, we’ll move to the ad level.
Customizing your ad
There are a thousand different ways to find the right ad creative here, but the method I most prefer is to recycle content I know already works.
For me, this usually takes the form of using a Reel that has gotten some traction or employing an existing ad from a successful Spotify campaign.
Whatever method you choose, I highly recommend your ad is a video, as this will be more engaging and deliver more traffic to your profile.
Now that you’ve uploaded your ad, change your call to action to match the content in your ad creative (mine says “Listen Now” because the ad is music-based) and add your Instagram profile link as the website destination.
And once that’s done, we can hit publish.
Bonus tip: put a link to Spotify in the website field of your bio. Once someone visits your profile and chooses to follow, give them the option to go deeper and listen to your music.
The end game
Paid advertising is not a replacement for a solid organic content strategy on Instagram, but it can certainly serve as a boost, especially while you’re still figuring out what kind of content works best for your audience.
In an ideal world, this ad system will supplement the creation of high-quality content on a regular basis that serves your fanbase, both new and old alike.
And as you continue to create better organic content, you will have more, higher-quality ad creative to choose from that you have the benefit of knowing already resonates with your audience.
Instagram is one of the biggest and most influential social platforms in the world, and in addition to being the foundation of our advertising for growth on Spotify, Instagram itself is a top priority for building a fanbase for many artists as well.
The two primary strategies for building an audience on Instagram are organic and paid.
Organic growth is free, but it is difficult to do it effectively and consistently, which is why most artists struggle to see the gains they want on the platform.
And while not a replacement for a strong organic content strategy, paid advertising can help you to increase your rate of follower growth while you work to unlock the organic content system that performs best for you.
To build our audience on Instagram, we are going to use what I like to refer to as an Instagram Growth Campaign.
This ad campaign consists of three stages: the campaign level, the ad set level, and the ad level.
Let’s take a look at each.
Creating your campaign
To increase our follower growth on Instagram, we’re going to start with a simple traffic campaign inside Meta’s ads manager.
Because we’ll be sending users from our ad directly to our Instagram profile, there’s no need to overcomplicate our strategy with landing pages or pixels.
A traffic campaign is all we need.
Once our campaign objective is set up, we’re going to set our budget and move to the ad set level.
Optimizing the ad set level
Inside our ad set, our two primary concerns are targeting and placements.
For targeting, I like to be highly specific with where I am trying to build my fanbase, so I will generally target the United States (because that’s where I live), as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Your choice of countries may differ, but my advice is to only select those areas where you want to create a complete funnel for your fans (e.g. content, email, customer acquisition, selling paid offers, etc.)
Once I’ve selected my countries, I’ll set my age range to match my desired audience, and I’ll leave the detailed targeting portion wide open to take advantage of Meta’s machine learning.
Once our targeting is set, it’s time to select our placements.
The placements you ultimately select will depend on the style of ad you’re using and how it’s formatted, but the main thing to remember is that you only want to use Instagram placements–after all, that’s where we’re trying to grow.
I’ll generally select a combination of stories, Reels, and feed placements.
Once we’ve drilled down our placements, we’ll move to the ad level.
Customizing your ad
There are a thousand different ways to find the right ad creative here, but the method I most prefer is to recycle content I know already works.
For me, this usually takes the form of using a Reel that has gotten some traction or employing an existing ad from a successful Spotify campaign.
Whatever method you choose, I highly recommend your ad is a video, as this will be more engaging and deliver more traffic to your profile.
Now that you’ve uploaded your ad, change your call to action to match the content in your ad creative (mine says “Listen Now” because the ad is music-based) and add your Instagram profile link as the website destination.
And once that’s done, we can hit publish.
Bonus tip: put a link to Spotify in the website field of your bio. Once someone visits your profile and chooses to follow, give them the option to go deeper and listen to your music.
The end game
Paid advertising is not a replacement for a solid organic content strategy on Instagram, but it can certainly serve as a boost, especially while you’re still figuring out what kind of content works best for your audience.
In an ideal world, this ad system will supplement the creation of high-quality content on a regular basis that serves your fanbase, both new and old alike.
And as you continue to create better organic content, you will have more, higher-quality ad creative to choose from that you have the benefit of knowing already resonates with your audience.
Instagram is one of the biggest and most influential social platforms in the world, and in addition to being the foundation of our advertising for growth on Spotify, Instagram itself is a top priority for building a fanbase for many artists as well.
The two primary strategies for building an audience on Instagram are organic and paid.
Organic growth is free, but it is difficult to do it effectively and consistently, which is why most artists struggle to see the gains they want on the platform.
And while not a replacement for a strong organic content strategy, paid advertising can help you to increase your rate of follower growth while you work to unlock the organic content system that performs best for you.
To build our audience on Instagram, we are going to use what I like to refer to as an Instagram Growth Campaign.
This ad campaign consists of three stages: the campaign level, the ad set level, and the ad level.
Let’s take a look at each.
Creating your campaign
To increase our follower growth on Instagram, we’re going to start with a simple traffic campaign inside Meta’s ads manager.
Because we’ll be sending users from our ad directly to our Instagram profile, there’s no need to overcomplicate our strategy with landing pages or pixels.
A traffic campaign is all we need.
Once our campaign objective is set up, we’re going to set our budget and move to the ad set level.
Optimizing the ad set level
Inside our ad set, our two primary concerns are targeting and placements.
For targeting, I like to be highly specific with where I am trying to build my fanbase, so I will generally target the United States (because that’s where I live), as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Your choice of countries may differ, but my advice is to only select those areas where you want to create a complete funnel for your fans (e.g. content, email, customer acquisition, selling paid offers, etc.)
Once I’ve selected my countries, I’ll set my age range to match my desired audience, and I’ll leave the detailed targeting portion wide open to take advantage of Meta’s machine learning.
Once our targeting is set, it’s time to select our placements.
The placements you ultimately select will depend on the style of ad you’re using and how it’s formatted, but the main thing to remember is that you only want to use Instagram placements–after all, that’s where we’re trying to grow.
I’ll generally select a combination of stories, Reels, and feed placements.
Once we’ve drilled down our placements, we’ll move to the ad level.
Customizing your ad
There are a thousand different ways to find the right ad creative here, but the method I most prefer is to recycle content I know already works.
For me, this usually takes the form of using a Reel that has gotten some traction or employing an existing ad from a successful Spotify campaign.
Whatever method you choose, I highly recommend your ad is a video, as this will be more engaging and deliver more traffic to your profile.
Now that you’ve uploaded your ad, change your call to action to match the content in your ad creative (mine says “Listen Now” because the ad is music-based) and add your Instagram profile link as the website destination.
And once that’s done, we can hit publish.
Bonus tip: put a link to Spotify in the website field of your bio. Once someone visits your profile and chooses to follow, give them the option to go deeper and listen to your music.
The end game
Paid advertising is not a replacement for a solid organic content strategy on Instagram, but it can certainly serve as a boost, especially while you’re still figuring out what kind of content works best for your audience.
In an ideal world, this ad system will supplement the creation of high-quality content on a regular basis that serves your fanbase, both new and old alike.
And as you continue to create better organic content, you will have more, higher-quality ad creative to choose from that you have the benefit of knowing already resonates with your audience.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.