What countries do you guys usually target for direct-to-Spotify ads?

[georgik]

Some stats:
Average pay per stream from USA: 0.0035
Average pay per stream from Brazil: 0.0013
Average pay per stream from Mexico: 0.0014

( source: https://www.igroovemusic.com/blog/wi...y.html?lang=en )

I'm conflicted as to whether I should be targeting rich or poor countries. On the one hand, rich countries pay more; on the other they also cost more. Perhaps it doesn't matter?

Or maybe it's best to spend my ad budget targeting poor countries and using their streams to generate algorithmic growth everywhere -- including rich countries? Thoughts?

[AndrewSouthworth]

Some stats:
Average pay per stream from USA: 0.0035
Average pay per stream from Brazil: 0.0013
Average pay per stream from Mexico: 0.0014

( source: https://www.igroovemusic.com/blog/wi...y.html?lang=en )

I'm conflicted as to whether I should be targeting rich or poor countries. On the one hand, rich countries pay more; on the other they also cost more. Perhaps it doesn't matter?

Or maybe it's best to spend my ad budget targeting poor countries and using their streams to generate algorithmic growth everywhere -- including rich countries? Thoughts?

I tend to go the route of targeting all Spotify countries minus India. Even though a lot of countries on there pay very little, when you get an algorithmic boost its often global. USA is very high on my list of countries and I do most of my ads to every Spotify country.

This is the list of countries you can target, just don't use India (unless you're from India or want to grow your audience there) https://support.spotify.com/us/artic...-is-available/

[Knights of Red]

I’ve been using Andrew’s techniques for my last 4 song releases and the only time that I missed Release Radar was a time when I was targeting all Spotify countries including India. (I now know that Andrew recommends against targeting India.)
Even though I was getting a lot of plays most of them were from India and I think it caused me to miss Release Radar. In my next campaign I nixed India and had a special Ad set targeting US, Canada, Germany, and UK) which represented about 25% of my budget. I hit Release Radar again with that campaign.
I’m still unsure of how much Spotify weighs streams in main countries like the US to put you on Release Radar, but it does seem to matter.

[AndrewSouthworth]

I’ve been using Andrew’s techniques for my last 4 song releases and the only time that I missed Release Radar was a time when I was targeting all Spotify countries including India. (I now know that Andrew recommends against targeting India.)
Even though I was getting a lot of plays most of them were from India and I think it caused me to miss Release Radar. In my next campaign I nixed India and had a special Ad set targeting US, Canada, Germany, and UK) which represented about 25% of my budget. I hit Release Radar again with that campaign.
I’m still unsure of how much Spotify weighs streams in main countries like the US to put you on Release Radar, but it does seem to matter.

I've found it doesn't mater actually, but maybe my streams were high enough from large countries where it negated the effect. I know at least a few of my songs were very heavily in Brazil, and then they hit RR and ended up getting a big push in the US from the algorithmic push. However my songs always have the USA in the top 7 or so countries, and Germany is also pretty high typically.

India however could cause an issue if it consumes your whole budget and doesn't let other countries get results, so I can totally see that being the problem.

That being said, nowadays i'm targeting more and more of the US. Partially because I have a base audience now and I want to solidify it by growing in my home country, and also because I plan to start getting into some merch and product based campaigns in the coming months and really don't want to deal with international shipping haha.

[EdChristopher]

Based on experience, where you market your song also plays a factor where your track gets added on algorithmic playlists, I've tested this on a few songs, a couple of my songs were added to release radar...and where I targeted my audience is where my song got pushed...

Song 1: Released 5 months ago, Marketed in Philippines (where I'm from), Indonesia and India...got on release radar and until now I get streams from those locations
Song 2: Released last month, Marketed in Philippines, Mexico, and U.S./Saudi Arabia, and that's exactly where the algorithmic playlists are pushing us.

Although I'm not completely sure because I cannot afford targeting a worldwide audience yet haha, so take this with a grain of salt

[georgik]

That's very worrying, as my whole strategy right now is to use cheap listeners to generate algorithmic growth in rich countries

[AndrewSouthworth]

That's very worrying, as my whole strategy right now is to use cheap listeners to generate algorithmic growth in rich countries

It seems like its different for everyone I guess haha. In my experience I always get a decent algorithmic push in the US even if almost none of the campaign results were from the US.