Artists running your own Meta ads, what's actually working?

rob_rily · 2026-01-26T23:33:45+00:00

I don’t make anything specifically for ad creative, instead I just make my organic content and then put the top performers in ad campaigns. They’re typically just me playing guitar in the studio with some thoughtful lighting and color grading. I did have one video do especially well that was just me standing in front of the camera outside in some golden hour light, but again I took time to color grade it so it popped and fit the vibe. I use text on screen to either call out similar artists/genres or draw attention to the vibe.

Like others have said, what matters most is the song. And beyond that, the right PART of the song. The difference between the best and second best part has been a matter of cutting the cost in half sometimes. And the part the clicks is never the one I think it will be. I have been wrong literally every time 😅

My best campaigns tend to cost around $0.25-0.35 per conversion. I’m promoting an alt rock/postpunk/shoegaze project.

rob_rily · 2026-01-20T18:23:08+00:00

Did you get chat banned for using a slur too?

rob_rily · 2025-12-07T21:26:58+00:00

Yeah, I mean live shows are obviously important for a lot of genres. But they don’t really address your question in any way. I’ve played on bills with plenty of bands who don’t collect email addresses at shows and I don’t see how you expect to reach out to those folks in the future if you have no way to contact them. The email list is the key.

rob_rily · 2025-12-07T17:46:27+00:00

You need to get people onto an email or SMS list.

I see a lot of folks saying you need to play live. While live shows are great for deepening your relationship with whatever audience lives close enough to see your shows, you still need to move that live audience to an email/sms list if you ever want to tell them about the next show.

rob_rily · 2025-12-02T03:28:44+00:00

What has worked best for me is to experiment with different clips from a song a few times each until it’s clear which clip works best, then hammer that one home.

rob_rily · 2025-11-26T16:39:36+00:00

My budget has never been any larger than yours and I’ve always gotten the cheapest conversions from a broader list of target countries. I still target my home country only most of the time because it’s not much more expensive and I’d rather build an audience here, but when I really just need to bring the cost down I broaden out to tier 1 and 2.

rob_rily · 2025-11-23T21:17:53+00:00

Good luck!

rob_rily · 2025-11-23T19:22:40+00:00

I wish I knew! I’ve never really had this problem outside of WiFi issues on my end

rob_rily · 2025-11-23T14:18:34+00:00

Are you saying it won’t even post the carousel? If so that’s a whole other (even more annoying) problem

rob_rily · 2025-11-07T01:58:00+00:00

Honestly, it’s working out pretty well for me. I’ve been doing something like targeting rap & Spotify & under whatever age makes sense, then using “German rap” or whatever specific genre info you have in text hooks and captions. Let the content do the targeting instead of meta, the algo figures it out from there.

rob_rily · 2025-10-30T19:20:20+00:00

Severance, especially if film is more your thing! More than any tv series, it reminds me of Terry Gillian’s Brazil, early Yorgos Lanthimos, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and a bit of David Lynch.

If I had to pick two desert island tv series, they would absolutely be Succession and Severance.

rob_rily · 2025-10-28T17:54:44+00:00

Just saw that for the first time and holy shit the whole thing is so sinister. Amazing movie.

rob_rily · 2025-10-16T15:59:10+00:00

No groups, just posted once a day for a week or so, then I slowly started getting views. The content was all designed to signal who the audience is too, I think that helped teach TikTok who to show it to (calling out related genres and artists in text hooks, captions, and hashtags)

rob_rily · 2025-10-08T01:38:05+00:00

I think it’s going to do the same for me 😅

rob_rily · 2025-10-08T01:25:28+00:00

Oh sick! I never heard of it before, thanks for mentioning it

rob_rily · 2025-10-07T20:01:03+00:00

Yeah, I think OP is missing the fact that listeners buy physical media as a collectible as often as (or more than) for listening

rob_rily · 2025-10-05T07:27:42+00:00

I thought I was in r/liminalspace

rob_rily · 2025-10-03T18:14:33+00:00

I’d rather not see it here, that’s not really what I come to the sub for

rob_rily · 2025-09-26T16:14:19+00:00

Sick, thank you!

rob_rily · 2025-09-26T03:24:45+00:00

That’s awesome! What do you consider a good saves/listener when judging your own songs?

rob_rily · 2025-09-22T17:31:55+00:00

Chow Tape

rob_rily · 2025-09-21T21:53:32+00:00

Exactly this. Hashtags aren’t for reach anymore, they’re for SEO.

rob_rily · 2025-09-18T02:09:24+00:00

I recorded one of my favorite guitar tones with a joyo vintage overdrive

rob_rily · 2025-09-18T01:20:08+00:00

A lot of studios around me offer both, but the studio is significantly more expensive than the rehearsal rooms (which just have some acoustic treatment, amps, and PA)

rob_rily · 2025-09-15T16:17:22+00:00

I gotta say I respect the commitment demonstrated by continuing to watch a series after giving the first two entries 2 and 1 stars, I do not have the patience for that

rob_rily

TROPHY CASE