3 Secrets for Meta Ads That Get Your Music Heard

"You should run ads to promote your music."

"Playlists are the #1 marketing strategy in 2026."

"How I Met Your Mother is 100x better than Friends."

And then you're like, Finch, can you please stop talking?

Yes, I talk a lot about what you should do. But I should show you more of how to do it.

So here are 3 "secrets" that helped me run successful ad campaigns for my most recent clients. There are so many ads out there, and so many musicians, and your ads need to stand out.

Quick note: when I say ads, I mean Meta ads that show on Instagram and send people to your music on Spotify.

Secret 1: the filter

You don't get a second chance at a first impression, and the first thing people see in your ad is the visual. Even if you film the song in a parking lot, some editing can make it look 100x better.

The one thing I never skip is a good filter. It makes a huge difference to how the video looks.

I edit everything in CapCut Pro on the web. It costs a couple of dollars a month, and you can cancel once your videos are done. My favorite filters there are "Cuisine" and "Focus". And to clean up the audio, I always tick "reduce noise".

A filter might not sound like a secret. But for some reason I don't see musicians using filters enough, or they go way too gentle with them.

For an example, look at Father Of Peace. The band uses tons of filters on their videos, and it makes them look so good.

Secret 2: the hook

Around 85% of people watch Instagram Reels and other social videos with the sound off.

So you need to make people want to hear your song before they hear it.

Besides good visuals, the best way to do that is a great hook. That's one short line on screen that tells the person scrolling why they should listen.

Hooks that make people think "this is so me" work well, and the more specific you are, the easier it is to relate. "If you like indie pop, listen to my song" is too general. "If you wonder what it feels like to finally move on, I wrote this song for you" is the kind of line I mean.

Try a few hooks over different visuals and different parts of the song. That way, making 10+ ads to test gets a lot easier.

What works every single time is being hyper specific. You know when you see an ad and think, how did they know I was just thinking about that? That's the feeling you want. And the Meta algorithm will find the right people for you, trust me.

Secret 3: the audience

Okay, I just said the Meta algorithm will find the right people for you. But let's not give it 100% control.

Once the ads are ready, it's time to build the campaign. I always turn off the Advantage+ AI options Meta offers and set things up by hand, so I can limit who the ads reach.

With full control, this is the template I use for the audience:

People interested in Spotify + people interested in a genre or similar artists + people interested in something that defines them.

The third part is what sets my ads apart.

One recent client had a song about healing and rebirth, so I built the third part of the audience around interests connected to healing. The ad's hook also talked about healing, and the combination led to outstanding results.

From there, Meta finds the people who say, "How did this ad find me? This song is so me."

Those are my 3 methods for ads that get your music heard. If you want to watch me build a whole campaign on screen, from the creatives to the targeting, I recorded it as a course called Label Level Ads.

A content idea to try: "Did ____ steal my song?"

Ragebait is content made to get a strong reaction, usually a bit of anger, so people click, comment and share.

This one does it perfectly: "Did ____ steal my song?" Most of the time the two songs sound nothing alike, and that's exactly why people start arguing in the comments.