🎉LIMITED TIME OFFER: Run your first Soundlink Ad campaign with zero platform fees — kick start your music promotion today!

If I spend $1,000 on ads… how many real fans did I actually get?

Split dashboard showing Meta Ads Manager conversions vs low Spotify for Artists streams

Every campaign manager has asked this at some point.

We know CTR, CPC, CPM, even ROAS. But when it comes to music… none of that matters if the streams don’t show up.

I ran $1,000 in conversion ads for one of our artists.

Ads Manager looked great: $0.18 CPC, thousands of “conversions.”

Spotify for Artists? Barely a blip.

The “conversion” was a click, not a listener. That’s the black hole we’ve been stuck in.

Meme showing a man excited about 1,000 ad clicks

Ads Manager tells one story. Spotify tells another. Neither adds up.

If you’ve been running ads for artists, you know the nightmare:

  • Smartlinks eat half the clicks.
  • Pixel fires, but streams don’t match.
  • Tier 2 traffic looks cheap, but LTV is worthless.
  • Save rate under 7% → Spotify won’t push it.

The gap is brutal.

Meta says: “Great job, 500 conversions.”

Spotify shows: “Your monthly listeners are down 4%.”

That blind spot is where money disappears.

Artist at a laptop at night, head in hands

We’ve all built spreadsheets trying to reconcile the numbers. It never works.

I’ve sat there late at night reconciling Ads Manager with Spotify for Artists.

Click-through looked solid. CPC under $0.25. Conversion events firing.

Then the reality check:

  • $400 spend = 189 streams. That’s $2.11 per stream.
  • Tier 1 targeting looked premium, but no follower growth.
  • The one campaign that looked like a win had a save rate under 5%, so the track died after 2 weeks.

The real cost isn’t just wasted spend. It’s time.

Time I could have spent scaling working campaigns, or pitching artists.

Instead, I’m stuck trying to make two dashboards speak the same language.

The missing link between ad spend and Spotify streams.

I didn’t need another smartlink or another “growth hack.”

What I needed was attribution.

That’s when I tried SoundLink.

Instead of guessing whether a conversion = a listener, SoundLink finally showed me the truth:

  • Who streamed
  • Who saved
  • Who followed
  • Who came back

It wasn’t just “X clicks”, it was real music behavior tied directly to my campaigns.

For the first time, I knew my exact cost per listener, cost per save, and fan lifetime value.

Infographic showing how SoundLink provides direct attribution from ads to Spotify streams, unlike the old way with smartlinks.
Infographic showing what you see in Ads Manager versus what you see with SoundLink.

Clicks ≠ Streams. SoundLink finally connects the dots.

Here’s why this hit differently than every other tool I tried:

  • Pixel setup breaking → no problem, tracking is built into Spotify.

  • Landing page drop-offs → gone, direct to Spotify attribution.

  • $0.05 conversions with no plays → replaced with real cost per listener and follower.

  • Tier 2 country traffic eating budget → transparency on where streams actually come from.

Instead of juggling spreadsheets and guessing, I finally had clean data that told me which campaigns brought real fans.

Spotify dashboard showing increase in followers and streams

$0.75 per real listener. Save rate up 10%. Spotify algorithms finally triggered.

The first campaign I ran with SoundLink was for a mid-tier artist.

$280 budget over 14 days.

Here’s what we saw:

  • Cost per real listener: $0.75

  • Cost per follower: $0.34

  • Save rate jumped from 6% to 12%

  • Release Radar + Discover Weekly triggered within 3 weeks

Compare that to the $400 campaign I ran before with smartlinks that delivered “200 conversions” but no measurable ROI.

The difference wasn’t just better results — it was finally having clarity.

Every dollar tied to real fan actions.

No more selling ‘soft metrics.’ Now I show real ROI.

Before SoundLink, every artist call was the same.

They’d ask: “So how many fans did we get?”

And I’d dance around CPC, CTR, engagement rates.

Now? I show them streams, saves, followers, repeat listeners.

No fluff. No vanity metrics. Just numbers they can feel.

For me, the biggest change isn’t just efficiency.

It’s confidence.

I can finally justify spend to artists, teams, even investors — with real attribution.

Every campaign feels accountable. Every dollar is tracked.

That’s what being a pro looks like.

Artist smiling with headphones on, working on music

Every dollar counts. Start attributing yours today.

Launch Your First SoundLink Campaign → From $10/day

If you’re done wasting budget on:

  • Smartlinks that only show clicks
  • Spreadsheets that never line up
  • Agencies that charge a premium for guesswork

👉 Then it’s time to step up.

With SoundLink, you’ll know:

  • Cost per real listener
  • Cost per save
  • Cost per follower
  • Fan lifetime value

It’s the attribution engine built for pros who want data, not hype.

All your questions answered:

Nope. Soundlink was built for artists and producers — not marketers. You can launch your first campaign in one click.
Right now: Meta (Facebook + Instagram). TikTok and Snapchat are coming very soon.
Yes. The minimum budget is $10 per day — just enough to start seeing real data without burning your wallet.

Set it and forget it—no subscriptions, no hidden fees.

You choose your daily budget. That’s all.

Campaign fee? A 20% platform fee is taken from your total campaign budget

Example:

$10/day × 10 days = You pay $100

$80 in ads, $20 in service fees.

We recommend running campaigns for at least 14 days.

Why? Platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram) need time to optimize — typically around 72 hours — and ideally gather at least 50 conversions to accurately identify and reach your ideal audience. Shorter campaigns often end before the platform’s learning phase is complete, leading to weaker performance and higher costs per result.

For best outcomes, plan your campaigns with:

  • ✅ A minimum 14-day duration
  • ✅ Patience for optimization during the first few days

We recommend launching at least 3 song or playlist campaigns. Not every song or playlist will connect equally with new fans — it’s about finding the right combination of song/playlist and a Soundlink ad campaign that delivers results.

Many great old songs never reached the right audience to begin with. Soundlink helps fix that by placing your music in front of real potential new fans and showing you which song or playlist is converting best.

This insight lets you double down on what’s working, without wasting budget guessing.

Yes. You’ll see anonymous insights like streaming frequency, locations, and platform behavior — all tied to your campaign.

We track new followers that can be attributed to a running campaign.

For track campaigns we count new followers for the first artist of the track.

For playlist campaigns we count new followers for the playlist.

This is due to Soundlink’s Auto-Follow functionality. When fans engage with a campaign (e.g. an advertisement of a playlist or promoted song), they are automatically prompted to follow the first listed primary artist and/or playlist associated with the campaign.

This action occurs immediately after authentication with Spotify, even before the fan streams the track, leading to a higher follower count than Super Streams or actual plays.

This feature is designed to help artists and curators grow long-term audience retention by converting casual listeners into loyal followers.

Because you're not guessing anymore. You're optimizing based on what your real fans actually do.
No. We automatically generate high-performing video ads using your track and cover art.

Soundlink is optimized to drive real full streams — not just clicks or short listens. This means Soundlink bridges the connection between META ads and Spotify to help you reach your ideal new fan: someone who listens to 100% of your song.

It’s not just about getting 5-second plays or clicks to Spotify; we focus on finding listeners who engage fully, signaling to META that we want more people like them.

While we might be able to deliver 100 clicks from META to Spotify, many of those people may only listen briefly. Our priority is not just volume but quality — ensuring that streams come from people who truly engage, leading to more meaningful playlist placements and genuine artist followers.

To maximize performance for our clients and drive sustainable long-term Spotify growth, we split the daily advertising budget across three key tiers (40%, 35%, 25%):

  • High Tier (40%): United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium
    Core premium markets with higher acquisition costs but strong long-term value. These regions drive global visibility, listener credibility, and significant algorithmic impact within Spotify’s most competitive environments.
  • Mid Tier (35%): Mexico, Argentina, Spain
    Low-cost, high-volume markets with strong music culture and engagement. Spanish-language creatives and captions deliver efficient conversions and excellent cost-per-listener (CPL), making this tier a key growth engine for expanding reach sustainably.
  • Low Tier (25%): Brazil, Philippines, South Africa, and broader Asia
    Extremely efficient for scaling listener volume and driving algorithmic momentum at very low cost. These regions help feed Spotify’s recommendation engine and accelerate exposure across premium global markets.

By driving new fans to Spotify across premium, mid-level, and high-volume regions, campaigns create an algorithmic snowball effect. Engagement from cost-efficient tiers like Latin America and Asia often fuels visibility and listener growth in top-tier markets such as the US and UK, resulting in sustainable, compounding global performance.

We recommend promoting a playlist of your songs or catalogue rather than focusing on a single song. Here’s why:

  • ✅ Build Playlist Followers
    When you promote and create your own playlist, you’re growing an audience around an asset you control — one you can continuously update with new releases.
  • ✅ Increase Fan Engagement
    A playlist gives listeners more opportunities to connect with your music. With multiple songs in one place, fans are more likely to find a track they love.
  • ✅ Optimize Visual Appeal
    Make sure your playlist has visually appealing artwork — ideally with the genre name included in the image or text overlay, so it’s instantly clear what the playlist offers.
  • ✅ Name it Clearly
    Name your playlist using specific genre terms that define your music. This helps potential followers quickly understand what they’re signing up for.
  • ✅ Pack It With Songs
    The more tracks you include, the better. Some fans will play the playlist in the background for hours, increasing your total streams and exposure.
Most campaigns begin optimizing within 72 hours. You’ll start seeing data (clicks, streams, followers) within a few days — the more budget and testing, the faster the learnings.
Just your Spotify track or playlist URL and a $10/day budget. We'll handle the rest.
Soundlink | Spotify Music Ads That Actually Work - getsoundlink.com