What to put in your ad

Your targeting decides who sees the ad. Your creative decides whether they stop. For music, a few things matter more than polish.

Creator? It all applies, just swap song for your content. Your hook is your strongest clip, your product is you on camera, and yes, sound on.

Use video, shot for the phone

Vertical (9:16) for Reels and Stories, or 4:5 for the feed. A clip of the song over performance, studio, or behind-the-scenes footage beats a static cover image almost every time. Keep faces and key text in the middle of the frame, the top and bottom get covered by Instagram's buttons.

Hook in the first 3 seconds

People scroll fast. Lead with the strongest 3 seconds of the song or the most eye-catching moment, not a slow intro. If they don't stop in 3 seconds, they're gone.

Let the song play, sound on

This is a music ad. The track is the product. Don't bury it under a voiceover.

Real beats polished

Content that looks like a normal post (a phone clip, a real moment) usually outperforms a designed graphic. Fans scroll past anything that looks like an ad.

Give Meta 2 to 3 different ads

Add a couple of A/B variations that are genuinely different: a different clip, a different opening line, not the same thing twice. Meta spends more on whichever one works, and you learn what your audience responds to.

Keep the text short

One line of primary text and a short headline. Say the one thing that makes someone want to hit play.

When you're ready to go deeper on creative, the dashboard and Roadie can help you build and pick it.