Data-Driven Proof: How a Targeted Ad Campaign Drove a 600% Increase in Saves
This week, our overall streams were down. But our most important metric, for our highest priority artist asset, was up 600%. This was not an accident. This is the story of finding the signal in the noise and how a small, targeted ad campaign created a powerful result.
Section 1: The Reality of Natural Decay
First, let's start with a dose of reality. For most music catalogs, the daily streaming chart is a sea of red. After the initial spike of a new release, listenership naturally declines over time. This is a normal and expected decay curve.
Here is a look at the JGBL portfolio-wide data:
JG BeatsLab portfolio Spotify stream counts
Chasing a temporary spike in streams across an entire catalog is often a losing, and expensive, battle. Instead of fighting against the current of natural decay, we decided to focus our efforts on building an asset that could create its own momentum.
Section 2: The Strategy - Building an Asset with the "Playlist Flywheel"
Our goal was not just to get temporary streams, but to build a permanent distribution channel that we own and control. The "Playlist Flywheel" is a simple concept: by driving traffic to your own curated playlist, you increase its followers and saves. As the playlist grows in authority, it begins to generate its own organic streams, creating a self-sustaining cycle.
For this test, we focused on a specific asset: our "Friday Night Fire: Tailgate Anthems!" playlist.
Section 3: The Execution - A Simple, Targeted Campaign
We did not use a massive budget or a complex strategy. We used a single tool with a clear, focused goal.
Platform: SubmitHub's "Popular Playlists" feature. This allowed us to target listeners who are already actively engaged with playlists in our target genre.
Budget: A modest 15 credits per day.
Goal: The campaign's only goal was to drive traffic directly to the "Friday Night Fire" playlist to increase its total saves and followers.
Section 4: The Results - The Signal in the Noise
After one week of running this small, targeted campaign, the results were undeniable. While the rest of the catalog followed its natural decay, the "Friday Night Fire" playlist exploded.
Here is the Spotify for Artists "Saves" chart for the playlist, showing a 600% week-over-week increase in saves.
The data from our SubmitHub campaign confirmed that this lift was not an accident. The campaign showed a high click-through rate and an even higher conversion rate of clicks to playlist saves. The campaign was directly responsible for this result.
Conclusion: The Takeaway
The lesson from this experiment is powerful. Do not get distracted by vanity metrics like total stream counts or discouraged by the natural decay of older tracks.
Instead, identify the single most important metric that builds a long term asset for your artist. In our case, it was growing a playlist that we own. Then, apply a small, focused budget to move that single number. That is how you win in the long run.
