In an era when music is consumed primarily online, the ability to effectively target your audience is becoming an essential skill for any artist, label or manager. Yet many advertising campaigns on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Facebook fail not because of the quality of the content... but because of poor targeting.In this article, we decipher the 5 most common targeting mistakes, to help you avoid wasting your budget and maximize your visibility.Targeting too broad an audienceTrying to reach everyone is a common mistake. By doing so, you risk spending your budget on impressions that don’t reach your ideal audience.On top of that, the algorithm doesn’t necessarily prioritize people who are genuinely interested in your content.To avoid targeting too broad an audience, you should target a simple niche (example: rap fans interested in gazo, niska ...) and use specific interests (Spotify, Beatmaking, local urban scene ...).Not understanding your real audienceNot understanding your listeners can prevent you from achieving optimal targeting.Do you really know the people who listen to you? Their ages, their styles, their taste...?For example, if you post a campaign on Youtube short while your main listeners are on Tiktok, your targeting will have little impact.To overcome this, analyze your data carefully using Spotify for Artists, TikTok Analytics, Instagram Insights and create precise personas (e.g. Yanis, 19, Laylow fan, listens non-stop to Deezer, lives in the Paris suburbs).Finally, use tools like Base for Music, which gives you a clear, centralized view of your fan distribution — thanks to its "Audience" feature, which segments your listeners by age, gender, location, and the platforms they use.Ignore the geographic dimensionMany artists tend to target the whole of France by default during promotional campaigns or sound releases. When their music might work better in Lyon than in Bordeaux.Ignoring the geographical dimension of your targeting can be a handicap because you're spending money where your audience isn't very committed, and you're not taking advantage of your geographical strengths.Best practices would be to use city/area statistics (Spotify, Meta Ads) and launch localized campaigns around your concerts, clips or events.Base for Music helps you here as well: the platform automatically pulls geographic data from your various platforms (Spotify, Meta Ads, TikTok…) and centralizes it in a clear, easy-to-use dashboard.This allows you to launch more relevant, geo-targeted campaigns — for example, around a concert or a local event.Neglect A/B testingDoing a single campaign, with just one visual and one text, is taking a huge risk. Indeed, the problem with doing a campaign with only one visual or one text is that you'll never know if another visual or text would have worked better. What's more, you're also limiting the algorithm's ability to learn in terms of SEO. The best thing to do is to create several variants: visual A vs B, text 1 vs 2, short vs long video, test different targeting: age, interests, formats and use the A/B testing tools integrated into Meta or TikTok Ads.The content you publish during your campaigns is crucial, so it shouldn’t be overlooked. It needs to be high-quality and tailored to your target audience.At Base for Music, every campaign includes built-in A/B testing, ****with multiple targeting variations based on your presets — taking advantage of the expertise of our account managers, our algorithm, and data from past campaigns.Forget personalized audiences (and retargeting)A common mistake is focusing solely on cold campaigns — which are ad campaigns targeting an entirely new audience who doesn’t yet know the artist.The issue is that by ignoring people who have already interacted with your content (streams, views, likes, shares…), you’re missing out on a much more qualified audience. Someone who has already seen or heard about the artist is far more likely to respond positively or engage again in the future.To fix this, your targeting should include:Retargeting on YouTube viewers, visitors to your store or landing pagePersonalized audiences based on your e-mail list, your Meta Pixel or your TikTok account.Lookalike audiences to expand to similar profilesConclusionFailed campaigns are often the result of a lack of audience understanding or relying too heavily on autopilot settings in ad platforms.The good news? Avoiding these 5 key mistakes can transform your campaigns, lower your cost per click, and most importantly, attract the right people to your music. Base for Music helps you identify, segment, and reach these qualified audiences.