You’ve launched your Meta ad campaign, set your audience, added your best visuals (or left it up to us), the ad went live… and then? Not much happens even after 5–7 days. Conversions are lower than you’d like, your cost per click is high, and you’re wondering what you can do now.
Firstly, don’t panic. It’s totally normal – some ads, playlists, or songs just don’t resonate with people as much, while others do incomparably better. There’s also that random unluck factor – sometimes Meta simply can’t find the right audience and the campaign struggles, often not really recovering. Whatever happened (or is happening), we’re doing our best to adjust and tweak your campaign – but if it’s still not working, the good news is: there are things you can try before canceling. Let’s walk through them together in this SubmitHub Ads resource for musicians.
Before tweaking anything, take a breath. Yes, it’s tempting to compare – your results to someone else’s, or even to your past campaigns – but instead, ask yourself: What do I want out of this? Am I getting value?
A campaign with 5 conversions per credit, but from less engaged or cheaper countries, may look better on paper than one with only 1.5 conversions – but if that “more expensive” one is targeting the US, and those followers are actually streaming your music repeatedly, following your artist profile, or saving your songs, it could still be a much better value – for you.
So: don’t just look at impressions or clicks. Track actual outcomes Check your Spotify for Artists. Look at follower growth, stream count, streams per listener – that’s what really counts.
One of the most common things we see? Artists saying their own ads used to be cheaper. And often, the reason is simple:
a) Their old campaigns ran for weeks, while the new one’s only been up for 2 days (ads need time to learn and improve!) 🤦 or
b) Their previous targeting included many cheaper countries (like India, Indonesia, or LATAM), while the new one targets premium regions 🤦
So: your ad needs time. Don’t judge anything in the first 8 hours. Give it 5–7 days to stabilize, then more time to fully optimize.
Also: the more countries you target, the cheaper your average cost per conversion. If lowering cost is a priority, go to your Link’s Ads tab and add countries yourself. We do this too when needed, but you’re always in control.
⚠️ Just keep in mind: changing countries restarts the learning phase. So make a change, then wait at least a week before adjusting again.
What if you're getting a ton of conversions, but no followers or streams?
Sometimes, campaigns generate lots of clicks – but no real engagement. Often, those clicks come from lower-engagement countries like India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Turkey, Georgia, Colombia, or Peru.
Meanwhile, countries like the US are more expensive and slower to convert – but when they do, they tend to be loyal: they save songs, follow artists, come back again. That’s why many artists still choose to target them.
How to know if this is happening to your campaign:
Your goal isn’t just cheap clicks. It’s real listeners.
Would you rather pay $0.80 for someone who follows you, saves the track, adds you to a playlist… or $0.12 for someone who clicks once and vanishes? Using your Spotify for Artists data to see who’s/if someone is actually streaming, where your streams are coming from (audience breakdown), and which songs are getting repeated plays is your true ROI (but it is only visible over a longer period of time, not after 2 days).
Pro move: Experienced artists use a “tiered” approach – grouping countries into Tier 1 (high-value markets), Tier 2 (mid-range), Tier 3 (low-cost) in separate ad campaigns. This way, a single cheap region can’t gobble up the whole budget. You don’t have to get that fancy right away, but it’s good to know for the future if you keep running into the one-country budget problem.
But !!! Remember not to run multiple ads for the same countries and a very similar content = you’re becoming your own competition in that case, and making your cost per result higher.
Sometimes a campaign can just get a bit tired – especially if it's been running for a while. That’s when it can help to refresh things a little. We add video creatives when we see it’s needed, but even before that, you can always add your own videos to your campaign (just go to your Link’s Ads tab, and find the Visuals part), or even create some easily in our Ads Studio and upload it to the campaign afterwards.
Just keep it simple – adding 1 to 4 strong, clear videos is plenty. Too many can actually dilute your budget and slow down optimization / make the cost per conversion a bit too high for a while.
A low CTR (under ~20%) often means your visual isn’t connecting. It might be too dark, too vague, too far from the vibe the title promises… or too text-heavy.
If you see your overall CTR is lower than 20%:
More tips for your Link landing page:
If you’re promoting a playlist, ask: what’s the first song they’ll hear? Does it match what was promised in the title and the ad?
Ads only bring people to the playlist – it’s the playlist itself that makes them stay (or not).
If the first few songs are not bangers, don’t match the vibe, or sound too different from the hook track, they’ll bounce – and they won’t follow.
Tip: The track that performs best in your ad (the one Meta shows the most) should be moved to be the first or second in the playlist.
Also, try refreshing the playlist order every couple of weeks to keep it optimized and test what worked better.
Running Meta ads is not plug-and-play. It’s trial, error, adjusting. Even a solid playlist or song might flop one week and thrive the next, or just never work great in Ads. Algorithms shift. Audiences change. Timing, season, and sometimes pure luck all matter.
So:
Most importantly: don’t let one ad campaign define your music or your success. This is a long-term game. Ads work best when they’re part of a bigger strategy – combined with playlisting, blogs, social media, shows, and building fan relationships over time.
✅ Revisit country targeting – add more & potentially cut those eating your whole budget up
✅ Try a new visual if CTR is under 20%
✅ Place your best-performing song at the top of the playlist
✅ Add a short, punchy Link page description
✅ Add 1-2 more videos, especially over time
✅ Avoid music previews and overly complex / confusing landing pages
✅ Focus on stream count, saves, and fans – not just cheap clicks
✅ If nothing works, cancel & start over with a new (duplicated) Link page (it can work better on the second try) OR, for songs, try the mixed playlist strategy