How to set up Meta ads using SubmitHub Links

Are you running a playlist, a blog, a YouTube channel, or just contemplating promoting your music as an artist? Then, you've likely considered using Meta ads, which currently offer the best value for money in terms of reach and effectiveness.

This is one of the longer-read articles, so let's start with a little Table of contents:

1. Introduction & About landing pages and SubmitHub Links
2. Setting up a landing page with SubmitHub Links
3. Creating a Meta Ad with SubmitHub Links
4. Pairing Your Landing Page with Meta using the Meta Pixel ID
5. Pairing Up Meta's Conversion API with SubmitHub Links
6. Creating a Meta Ad Campaign

Introduction

Effective advertising is crucial for reaching and expanding your target audience. To achieve this, you need to measure your results and let Meta optimize the ad based on those conversions. This is where landing pages come into play, as Meta ads might not perform well without them, especially when going for Traffic only.

The necessity for landing pages and measuring conversions has led to the creation of many paid options such as Hypeddit or Toneden. However, these often load 8Mb of data, collect numerous cookies, and come at a cost. Not ideal, right? To address this concern and assist both our curators and artists, we've created an alternative – the fastest, lightest option available, collecting absolutely no cookies, visually appealing, and also FREE. We call it SubmitHub Links, allowing you to create a landing page or a redirect link in seconds.

And from now on, you also have the option to have multiple links on one smart link landing page. That will be ideal for "link in bio" on your socials, or when you promote multiple platforms, for example, a playlist on Spotify, Apple, Deezer, Tidal, YouTube Music, etc., with one smart link.

So, what are SubmitHub Links?

SubmitHub Links is a lightweight and versatile landing page or redirect builder that stands out for its exceptional speed and privacy-centric approach. It collects no cookies, ensuring data protection and compliance with privacy regulations. This feature also contributes to its fast loading time, providing a seamless user experience for your ad campaigns.

The best thing about it is that anyone can use it (it is free), and you can add any link to it. This includes not only Spotify playlists or song links but also links to any streaming platform, websites, social media, merch hubs, offers, and whatever else you might think of linking to.

What's next

You will learn:

• How to quickly create a custom landing page for your Playlist/YouTube/Blog.

And, if you want to use the landing page for advertising, you’ll learn:

• How to create a Meta pixel in your Meta account and insert it into the landing page.
• How to create a custom conversion in Meta that tracks and measures who actually went through and reached your playlist/blog/other goal page.
• How to create effective Meta ads using these custom conversions so that Meta knows better whom to display the ads to next.

If you prefer watching rather than reading, we have the tutorial in video form as well.

Setting up a landing page with SubmitHub Links

1. Navigate to SubmitHub Links. Note: The tool is free, however, you need to be registered on SubmitHub. The (free) registration takes 2 minutes.
2. To create a new landing page, click "Add link."
3. Add a title to your landing page. This title will create the landing page link (slug), but you can edit that as well. For example, if your playlist is named "Indie Rock Bangers," the title on SubmitHub Links will be Indie Rock Bangers. The link to your landing page will become: submithub.com/link/indie-rock-bangers, or you can edit it to submithub.com/link/bangers if you prefer.
4. Optionally, add a description of what this landing page is about or what it links to. In our example, it could be ‘The best Indie Rock bangers on Spotify, including Pixies, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, and more.’ Keep it simple but punchy to encourage visitors to click on the action button.
5. Choose whether you only need one link to add to your landing page (Single link) or if you'll go for Multiple links (useful for artist profiles, blog's latest articles, or social media links, showcasing multiple playlists by a curator, or the same playlist on multiple platforms).
6. Add the URL to where you want visitors to go and name the button. We recommend adding a strong call-to-action phrase (CTA), such as Listen, Play, Read More, or To The Playlist.
7. Upload a visually striking photo for the landing page. Bold colors, clean designs, and appealing pictures work best. Choose an image that would make you click if you were the visitor.
8. Save, and you're done! Your landing page is ready. You can even view some basic analytics in your SubmitHub Links section – including the number of visitors, clicks on the button, and their countries of origin.

Now, if you plan to use Meta ads to drive users to the landing page, adding a Meta Pixel will help you measure the success of the campaign and optimize it. We'll talk about it in the next section.

Creating a Meta Ad with SubmitHub Links

After generating your landing page with SubmitHub Links, the next step is to create a Meta Ad and link it to the landing page using a Meta Pixel. Dylan covered the ad creation process in detail here, so be sure to check it out. I'll touch on ad creation later in the article as well. 

But first, let's start by setting up (or accessing, if you already have it) your Business account on Facebook (Meta). Add billing information and other necessary details, as Meta prompts you. The initial setup involves adding all required information, which Meta guides you through if you haven't done it yet. Once that's done, let's proceed with setting up a Meta pixel and then launching a campaign.

Meta Pixel creation

A Meta pixel is important for Meta to communicate with your landing page. Typically, you create it only once and then use the same pixel for other campaigns. You can also create multiple pixels if you so wish (e.g. for better organization or if a pixel works/connects weirdly after being connected to many landing pages).

Go to your Ads Manager after logging into your Meta account. On the left bar, locate the “hamburger” icon (three horizontal lines) and click on it. “All tools” will appear, and click on “Events Manager”.

In the Events Manager, on the left bar, find a green plus icon. Hover over it, and it will say "Connect data." Click on it.

Then, select Web, and click Connect. Name your "Dataset," which, in Meta's (confusing) terminology of this part, is actually a Pixel.

Continue with "Set up manually."

Select Meta pixel, and Finish.

Go back to Data Sources and copy the Pixel ID from the list of pixels. If this is your first pixel, there will only be one. Otherwise, find the name you just assigned to your new pixel and copy the number below it. You'll need this ID for setting up your SubmitHub Links landing page in a moment.

Well done! You now have a new Pixel and its ID. Save it somewhere, and let’s move on.

Pairing your landing page with Meta using the Meta Pixel ID

Return to your SubmitHub Links page, and find the landing page created for this advertising campaign.

Edit, and click on "Include a Meta pixel."

Add the Meta Pixel ID number and in Custom events, leave Page View and ViewContent as default.

If you plan to run multiple ads with the same pixel, refer to the more advanced section lower down.

Now, go to your landing page (in our case, submithub.com/link/indie-rock-bangers) and click on your CTA button. Behind the scenes, information about your click is sent to Meta. It may take a couple of minutes for Meta to record this event and display it in the Business manager. Be patient and wait about 15 minutes for it to happen.

ADVANCED (Skip this part if you're leaving the Link click event as the default ViewContent):

If you plan to run multiple landing pages for several ads with one Meta Pixel, you'll need to differentiate between them by creating Custom conversions in Meta.

After saving the landing page, click on the landing page's CTA button for the Meta Pixel to register the event. Now, take a brief pause – Meta is slow and needs time to register and process the conversion (click). If you don't wait at least 15-30 minutes, the next step might not appear, and you'll wonder if you did something wrong. You didn't; Meta just hasn't processed the event yet.

After waiting a bit, go back to Meta's Ads Manager, click the Hamburger (three lines button), go to Events Manager. Click on the Pixel you created (the one with the ID number you added to your SubmitHub Links landing page). There will be a green button "Create" in the top right corner; click on it and select "Create Custom Conversion."

Name it (for our Indie Rock Bangers ad, we'll name it Indie Rock Bangers Click). As Data Source, pick the Pixel you created for this campaign. The Event field should be set to View content, and in the Rules, change URL to Event Parameters -> content_name -> contains – and add the slug from the SubmitHub Links landing page Link click event field (in our case, ‘indie-rock-bangers’).

Then click Create. Your Custom Conversion is all set up now!

With your Meta Pixel in place, let’s create your first ad.

NEW: Pairing up the landing page with Meta API (for better conversion tracking)

You can now link Meta's Conversions API to track events (conversions) more accurately. It’s not required, and your campaign and Link landing page will work fine without it, but it’s worth setting up if you have a minute (it speeds up page loading and reduces tracking on your computer). Here’s how to do it:

1. Once your pixel is ready, go to Meta Business Manager. Find Events Manager by clicking on the hamburger menu, and select the pixel you're using (it’ll be listed as a clickable blue name on the right sideof the Events Manager page, and also in the Data sources list). Click on the pixel name, then go to its Settings tab.
2. Scroll down to the Conversions API section and click the blue "Generate access token" link.
3. Copy the code and save it. Then, add this code under the Pixel ID in your SubmitHub Links setup. That's it, after clicking the Test button and confirming it's working, just save, and you're done!

Creating a Meta Ad Campaign

1. Go to the Ads Manager and click on the green button, Create.
2. Select Sales as your conversion and set up the ad manually – Meta may push automation, but manual control is what you need. Choose Manual Sales Campaign. (Some prefer Engagement campaigns, as they’re the only other ones that track conversions over a landing page. If that’s your preference, go for it! Everyone’s experience varies, but in mine, Sales campaigns have performed better. You can always test both and see what works best for you. The setup for both is very similar, so I’ll walk through the Sales campaign, but the Engagement setup is nearly identical.)
3. At the campaign level, name your campaign to make it easily identifiable. Avoid the generic “Campaign 1,” “Campaign 2,” and “Campaign 3.” For example, “Indie Rock Bangers – IG + FB” or "Indie Rock Bangers - Tier 1 - Instagram only" could work for our Indie Rock Bangers playlist. Just make sure it's going to be obvious for future you to understand what it's about at first glance.
4. Proceed to the Ad Set level, name the ad set (you can copy the Campaign name), set a budget, and schedule. A Daily budget with no end date is practical for consistency, while a Lifetime budget offers more control (but you have to re-budget every once in a while). Choose based on your preference.
5. In the Conversion section, leave the “Website” conversion location, and select your pixel from the pixel selection. Choose “View Content” if you left the Link click event empty when setting up your landing page (= for 1 pixel per 1 campaign only) or choose “Custom Conversion” if you created one (in our example, it is Indie Rock Bangers Click).
6. Now, create (and possibly save) your audience. Limit countries to those with Spotify (if you're a playlist curator) or those you want more visits from (for your blog, YouTube, etc.). Add the interests of your target group, famous bands from your playlists, or similar to your music. To do that, you need to Switch to the original audience option (again, Meta will try to get you to go automated, but don't).
7. Set up your placements. Opt for Manual placements to control where your ads appear. IG and/or FB Wall posts, IG and/or FB Reels, IG Stories, IG Explore are our recommended placements; select some or all of these and uncheck the rest.
8. After proceeding, name your Ad depending on which Ad creative (picture, video, etc.) you'll use. Use a recognizable name for easy identification (e.g., "Indie Rock Bangers Ad1 Girl Dancing"). Ensure your creative is vertical (story/reel format - 16:9 or 3:4) or portrait (4:5)/square (1:1) for optimal performance, and for the best results, go for a video with sound (ideally, from the playlist). Add Headlines, Descriptions, and link to your SubmitHub Links landing page (e.g., submithub.com/link/indie-rock-bangers n our case) with the right Call to Action (Listen is the best for music, Learn more for most of the rest).
9. If everything in your ad is ready and as desired, click Publish. You're all set! Now, you're measuring conversions and making the most of the SubmitHub Links landing page. Wait for the results, adjust targeting if needed, try new ad creatives, and consider raising the budget if it performs well. But first, wait at least 1-2 weeks to see the real performance (it takes a bit to work properly).

A word of advice: You can – and should – create multiple ad variations. Testing different ad creatives and having multiple Description and Headline options in your ads means you have a bigger chance to find what resonates with the audience. With just one option, you can just be off and give up on the advertising too soon as it simply may not work the best. The same goes for ad sets (with the same or different ads) – test different targetings. You may be surprised that what you thought was the weakest will perform the best.