A test Spotify Showcase nets astoundingly disappointing results [Brian Hazard]

Music promotion pro and musician Brain Hazard tested Spotify’s Showcase and Marquee marketing features so you don’t have to.

by Brian Hazard of Passive Promotion

Last month I wrote about how Spotify effectively removed audience targeting from Marquee. Worse, my campaign “targeting” all 55.2 million Spotify users in the US only managed to spend 10% of my $500 budget.

I concluded that Marquee is now mostly indistinguishable from Showcase, except the latter will quickly blow through any budget you set.

WRONG!

My freshly completed Showcase campaign for the same track also managed to only spend 10% of my budget, and this time I only budgeted $100!

As you can see, every previous Showcase campaign targeting “Default audience” (i.e. no targeting) spent my entire budget wham bam thank you ma’am.

If you’d like to see the results of those campaigns and learn how to create your own, see my previous post on the topic.

I won’t bother breaking down down the results of this one other than to say it had a better-than-average 31.58% intent rate.

So if the song doesn’t suck (at least compared to my other songs), why can’t Spotify spend my budget?

My guess is that it’s a simple issue of supply and demand. Showcase and Marquee are opening up to more and more artists, and there may not be enough real estate to go around.

In the case of Marquee, Spotify probably doesn’t want to slam every user with a pop-up every time they open the app, especially with price increases impending here in the US.

With that in mind, here’s a summary of my current advice:

If you can customize your audience: Launch a Marquee campaign in every country available, directing to your This Is playlist if you’ve got one. Pull the plug if you’re not seeing at least 2.5 streams per listener and a 25% intent rate. Follow up successful campaigns with Showcase.

If you’re stuck with “default audience”: Reserve Marquee for EPs and albums, starting in your home country. Follow up successful campaigns with Showcase.

Granted, there’s little harm in launching either campaign type in any country at any budget, as long as you keep an eye on it. You can always pull the plug.

In general, Meta ads have proven more effective than Marquee or Showcase to cold audiences. If your goal is simply to reach new listeners, that’s still your best bet.

Rest assured Meta will always spend your entire budget, whether it’s $1 a day or $10K!

Brian Hazard is a recording artist with over twenty years of experience promoting a dozen Color Theory albums, and head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California. His Passive Promotion blog emphasizes “set it and forget it” methods of music promotion.
Catch more of his promotional escapades in his How I’m Promoting My Music This Monthemail newsletter.