Music marketing is a data-driven effort to understand human behavior.
The more we can analyze and internalize our own data, the better we can determine whether or not what we’re doing is working.
To do this though, we’ve got to know what we’re looking at and what we’re looking for because different numbers can tell different stories depending on what we want to believe.
Let’s with our ads
The primary metrics I’m looking at inside my ad campaigns are CPR, CTR, and CPM (cost per result, click-through rate, and cost per 1,000 impressions).
I like these metrics because the combination of the three gives me a relatively accurate overview of the health of my campaign with very little information, albeit in reverse order.
CPM: are people seeing my ad and how much does that cost?
CTR: when they see my ad are they interested enough to actually click on it?
CPR: are enough people clicking on the ad for me to access my audience at a reasonable price?
Here’s an overview of these metrics (and more) for my ad account over the past 28 days:
Now, I could easily look at these numbers and jump to a few conclusions.
First, looking at only the top three countries, I could simply say France is the best country I’m targeting right now because it has given me the most results.
I could also assume France wins because it has the lowest cost per result of the top three.
Or I could determine The United States is the clear winner because it has the highest click-through rate of the top three countries, and a higher click-through rate generally indicates I’ve found a much more engaged and appropriate audience for my music.
It would also be easy to say Germany is better than France because it has a higher click-through rate or that Germany is better than the US because it has a lower CPM.
Depending on what I want to believe, all of these are, technically, true.
But what about Spotify?
In a campaign like this, results on Spotify are what really matter, and for me, the KPI is followers.
So the question is: how many of these people are actually taking the action I want them to take once they get to Spotify and how much does that cost?
Well, here are some numbers.
For France, I spent $102.72 over the past 28 days and got 87 followers. This put my cost per follower at $1.18. In my experience, this is excellent, especially considering France’s payout per stream (more on that below).
For Germany, I spent $70.15 for 33 followers at an average cost of $2.13 per follower, and in the US, I spent $52.64 for 25 followers at an average cost of $2.11 per follower.
So in terms of base cost per result, France is the clear winner here even though my ad click-through rate is drastically lower than the US or Germany. I may be experiencing a lot more dropoff in the process, but the results on Spotify fully justify it.
But that’s not the only math worth doing. How many streams per new follower would it take to make my money back from this?
The average payouts per stream in France, Germany, and the US are 0.0035, 0.0038, and 0.0040, respectively, all rounded of course.
This means I would need 336 streams, 557 streams, and 530 streams in France, Germany, and the United States, respectively, per new follower, to break even on this ad spend—a lot to ask of a brand new follower as an upfront, one-for-one trade but quite realistic over the lifespan of an actual fan one’s music.
So even though France has the lowest payout per stream of the three, it actually delivers the highest return on ad spend for me.
France is the clear winner here despite the fact that both the US and Germany would indicate a “warmer” audience on the Facebook side of things.
It’s a moving target
Ok, so what am I getting at here?
The main point I’m trying to make is that metrics on Facebook are only one side of the equation, and we can easily lead ourselves to believe something that isn’t necessarily true simply by leaning into our own confirmation bias.
I personally have long wanted to believe The United States is the best place to market my must because it’s where I’m from and because that’s where I have the most listeners on Spotify.
It still might be, but I am certainly going to continue testing new targeting and doing the math to ensure I’m always getting the best return for my investment.
I encourage you to do the same.
Music marketing is a data-driven effort to understand human behavior.
The more we can analyze and internalize our own data, the better we can determine whether or not what we’re doing is working.
To do this though, we’ve got to know what we’re looking at and what we’re looking for because different numbers can tell different stories depending on what we want to believe.
Let’s with our ads
The primary metrics I’m looking at inside my ad campaigns are CPR, CTR, and CPM (cost per result, click-through rate, and cost per 1,000 impressions).
I like these metrics because the combination of the three gives me a relatively accurate overview of the health of my campaign with very little information, albeit in reverse order.
CPM: are people seeing my ad and how much does that cost?
CTR: when they see my ad are they interested enough to actually click on it?
CPR: are enough people clicking on the ad for me to access my audience at a reasonable price?
Here’s an overview of these metrics (and more) for my ad account over the past 28 days:
Now, I could easily look at these numbers and jump to a few conclusions.
First, looking at only the top three countries, I could simply say France is the best country I’m targeting right now because it has given me the most results.
I could also assume France wins because it has the lowest cost per result of the top three.
Or I could determine The United States is the clear winner because it has the highest click-through rate of the top three countries, and a higher click-through rate generally indicates I’ve found a much more engaged and appropriate audience for my music.
It would also be easy to say Germany is better than France because it has a higher click-through rate or that Germany is better than the US because it has a lower CPM.
Depending on what I want to believe, all of these are, technically, true.
But what about Spotify?
In a campaign like this, results on Spotify are what really matter, and for me, the KPI is followers.
So the question is: how many of these people are actually taking the action I want them to take once they get to Spotify and how much does that cost?
Well, here are some numbers.
For France, I spent $102.72 over the past 28 days and got 87 followers. This put my cost per follower at $1.18. In my experience, this is excellent, especially considering France’s payout per stream (more on that below).
For Germany, I spent $70.15 for 33 followers at an average cost of $2.13 per follower, and in the US, I spent $52.64 for 25 followers at an average cost of $2.11 per follower.
So in terms of base cost per result, France is the clear winner here even though my ad click-through rate is drastically lower than the US or Germany. I may be experiencing a lot more dropoff in the process, but the results on Spotify fully justify it.
But that’s not the only math worth doing. How many streams per new follower would it take to make my money back from this?
The average payouts per stream in France, Germany, and the US are 0.0035, 0.0038, and 0.0040, respectively, all rounded of course.
This means I would need 336 streams, 557 streams, and 530 streams in France, Germany, and the United States, respectively, per new follower, to break even on this ad spend—a lot to ask of a brand new follower as an upfront, one-for-one trade but quite realistic over the lifespan of an actual fan one’s music.
So even though France has the lowest payout per stream of the three, it actually delivers the highest return on ad spend for me.
France is the clear winner here despite the fact that both the US and Germany would indicate a “warmer” audience on the Facebook side of things.
It’s a moving target
Ok, so what am I getting at here?
The main point I’m trying to make is that metrics on Facebook are only one side of the equation, and we can easily lead ourselves to believe something that isn’t necessarily true simply by leaning into our own confirmation bias.
I personally have long wanted to believe The United States is the best place to market my must because it’s where I’m from and because that’s where I have the most listeners on Spotify.
It still might be, but I am certainly going to continue testing new targeting and doing the math to ensure I’m always getting the best return for my investment.
I encourage you to do the same.
Music marketing is a data-driven effort to understand human behavior.
The more we can analyze and internalize our own data, the better we can determine whether or not what we’re doing is working.
To do this though, we’ve got to know what we’re looking at and what we’re looking for because different numbers can tell different stories depending on what we want to believe.
Let’s with our ads
The primary metrics I’m looking at inside my ad campaigns are CPR, CTR, and CPM (cost per result, click-through rate, and cost per 1,000 impressions).
I like these metrics because the combination of the three gives me a relatively accurate overview of the health of my campaign with very little information, albeit in reverse order.
CPM: are people seeing my ad and how much does that cost?
CTR: when they see my ad are they interested enough to actually click on it?
CPR: are enough people clicking on the ad for me to access my audience at a reasonable price?
Here’s an overview of these metrics (and more) for my ad account over the past 28 days:
Now, I could easily look at these numbers and jump to a few conclusions.
First, looking at only the top three countries, I could simply say France is the best country I’m targeting right now because it has given me the most results.
I could also assume France wins because it has the lowest cost per result of the top three.
Or I could determine The United States is the clear winner because it has the highest click-through rate of the top three countries, and a higher click-through rate generally indicates I’ve found a much more engaged and appropriate audience for my music.
It would also be easy to say Germany is better than France because it has a higher click-through rate or that Germany is better than the US because it has a lower CPM.
Depending on what I want to believe, all of these are, technically, true.
But what about Spotify?
In a campaign like this, results on Spotify are what really matter, and for me, the KPI is followers.
So the question is: how many of these people are actually taking the action I want them to take once they get to Spotify and how much does that cost?
Well, here are some numbers.
For France, I spent $102.72 over the past 28 days and got 87 followers. This put my cost per follower at $1.18. In my experience, this is excellent, especially considering France’s payout per stream (more on that below).
For Germany, I spent $70.15 for 33 followers at an average cost of $2.13 per follower, and in the US, I spent $52.64 for 25 followers at an average cost of $2.11 per follower.
So in terms of base cost per result, France is the clear winner here even though my ad click-through rate is drastically lower than the US or Germany. I may be experiencing a lot more dropoff in the process, but the results on Spotify fully justify it.
But that’s not the only math worth doing. How many streams per new follower would it take to make my money back from this?
The average payouts per stream in France, Germany, and the US are 0.0035, 0.0038, and 0.0040, respectively, all rounded of course.
This means I would need 336 streams, 557 streams, and 530 streams in France, Germany, and the United States, respectively, per new follower, to break even on this ad spend—a lot to ask of a brand new follower as an upfront, one-for-one trade but quite realistic over the lifespan of an actual fan one’s music.
So even though France has the lowest payout per stream of the three, it actually delivers the highest return on ad spend for me.
France is the clear winner here despite the fact that both the US and Germany would indicate a “warmer” audience on the Facebook side of things.
It’s a moving target
Ok, so what am I getting at here?
The main point I’m trying to make is that metrics on Facebook are only one side of the equation, and we can easily lead ourselves to believe something that isn’t necessarily true simply by leaning into our own confirmation bias.
I personally have long wanted to believe The United States is the best place to market my must because it’s where I’m from and because that’s where I have the most listeners on Spotify.
It still might be, but I am certainly going to continue testing new targeting and doing the math to ensure I’m always getting the best return for my investment.
I encourage you to do the same.
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.