Build a Smart Link Campaign for Your Apple Music Releases

Getting people to check out your newly released songs is hard enough. Getting them to click on the right links? That’s even harder, especially for newer artists.

One person’s on Apple Music. Another’s favourite is Spotify. And someone else is more interested in the music video than they are in the song. If your link isn’t taking them where they want to go, you’ve already lost their attention.

That’s why you need to make use of smart links.

Smart links aren’t some replacements for the same, boring links that you find in people’s bios. These links are designed to give your listeners a simple path to choose their own adventure that doesn’t feel like a maze.

If you’re focused on growing your streams on Apple Music, this is even more important. A lot of tools default to Spotify-first layouts, and that can make it very difficult to bring direct streams towards Apple Music.

As you read on, we’ll tell you how you can work around this issue. By the end, you’ll have a layout that’s designed to work in favour of your Apple Music profile.

Let’s get to it!

What is A Smart Link?

Before we get into starting your fancy campaign, you’ll need to know what a smart link is and what it can do for your account.

In simple words, it is just one small link that takes your listeners exactly where they want to go. It doesn’t matter whether it’s to Apple Music, Spotify or even YouTube. A smart link combines all these links into one clean landing page.

Smart links aren’t a new feature, as they have been around for quite some time. But they’re difficult to use, and you may not have come across them.

When you click on a smart link, it directs you to a website filled with different icons for every platform that your song may be on. Think of it like your music’s universal remote.

But Why Think About Using Smart Links?

Most people don’t want to think about where to listen to music. They just want an option that works for them. A smart link gets rid of that friction by directing them to exactly where they want to go.

Smart links do way more than just direct traffic. With the right tool, a smart link lets you:

• See which platforms your fans are coming from
• Know which platforms your fans want to listen to your music on
• Set up pre-saves or follow gates to improve your reach before your song drops
• Keep your branding consistent across every post

And if you’re thinking that this is just a tool for big artists, you’d be very wrong. Smart links are super useful for newer artists who are still building an online presence. That’s because every click counts, and you want those clicks to land somewhere that helps you grow.

With a smart link, you can focus on directing traffic straight to your Apple Music account. Not the default Spotify app.

Choosing the Right Smart Link Tool

There are plenty of tools that promise to give you the perfect smart link setup, and most of them do a better job than you’d expect.

But the real question isn’t which one is the fanciest. It’s which one fits your needs better and helps you do what you’re trying to do.

If you’re focused on Apple Music, you want something that:

• Let’s you prioritize Apple Music in its layout
• Doesn’t put Spotify ahead of other platforms
• Gives you useful analytics
• Looks good on mobile devices

These are just some popular basics that smart link users often look for.

Some popular smart link tools include:

• Linkfire: Recommended by Apple Music. It has a clean design and gives you detailed analytics to follow. It directly connects to your Apple Music profile.
• Feature.fm: More focused on marketing, it helps retarget users later on, and helps run ads tied to your link clicks.
• ToneDen: Designed to help run full promo campaigns. It allows Facebook Pixel or other analytical tool embedding.
• Hypeddit: More indie-friendly. Lets you create follow-to-download links, and helps direct traffic to Apple Music easily.

When picking the right smart link tool, it’s important to remember that you don’t need a bit of everything. You just need a tool that lets you customize your page and promotes your Apple Music link.

Building Your Smart Link

By now, you’ve got an idea about what you want from your smart link tool. You’ve probably already picked one to work with too. But how do you go about creating your smart link?

What to Add to Your Smart Link

Most people throw everything on their smart link pages, which includes every streaming platform and social media profile. Sometimes, you’ll also see links to merch or irrelevant posts. When they do this, it leads to an unsuccessful campaign.

The goal of a smart link isn’t to overwhelm. It’s to guide users. When trying to focus on Apple Music, it’s important to make that very clear. This means using a layout that highlights the platform as your go-to streaming service. Don’t add it underneath other links.

But should you include other links?

Yes! Apple Music isn’t the only platform people use to stream their music. Neither is Spotify or SoundCloud. That’s why you should be including every relevant link. This will help target a larger group of listeners.

Usually, an artist’s smart link includes:

• Apple Music
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Pre-Save Link
• Follow Link

Making It Look Clean

Smart links perform the best when they’re not clustered with too many sub-links. There’s no need to add any artwork or long description on your smart link page. Just go for an attention grabbing thumbnail and short line of text where you can talk about your song.

When using apps like Linkfire or Feature.fm, enable the redirecting option. This ensures that when people click on the Apple Music link, it takes them to the app and not the website, which helps keep your transitions smooth and less annoying to deal with.

Promoting Your Smart Links

Once your smart link is made, you’ve got to get people to start clicking on it. But you can’t just drop them in a post and expect that to work.

Your smart link is as important as your song release. Its promotion will require the same amount of effort that you’ll be putting in to promoting your song. 

But the best part is that smart link promotion doesn’t require extra steps. It can go hand-in-hand with your music promotion. 

Whenever you talk about your new song, you can add your smart link somewhere in the post. This ensures that people can be directed to the platform they want to go to, to listen to your songs.

For this, you’ll also have to ensure that your links are placed in the right spaces. This includes:

• Your Instagram Bio
• TikTok Video Captions
• Pinned Social Media Posts
• Social Media Stories
• Emails (if that’s still in your marketing campaign)

Promoting your smart links doesn’t mean you have to start spamming them everywhere. The entire point behind using smart links is to make it easier for your fans to find your songs, so don’t mess that up by adding your smart link in places it shouldn’t be!

Tracking Metrics That Are Working For You

By now, you’ve debuted your link to your fans. Thus, it’s time to figure out if the link is actually helping you gain more streams.

If you don’t end up tracking results, you won’t know if all your effort is worth it or not, and this doesn’t mean following a super technical dataset. It just means looking out for patterns that you can use to your advantage.

Check Where Your Clicks Are Coming From

Almost every smart link tool comes with a feature that lets you follow which app your fans came from. This is something you must keep track of.

Once you can figure out which social media platform is generating the most traffic, you can focus more energy on providing content that’s suited for that platform. This helps keep your traffic numbers high.

See Which Platforms Your Fans Are Using

You might want to drive traffic straight to your Apple Music account. But that doesn’t mean your fans want that.

By keeping track of which platforms your fans are clicking on, you’ll know which app fits your goals the best. But that doesn’t mean you give up on Apple Music if it isn’t working. All it means is that you might have to reconsider giving more priority to other streaming platforms.

Every click tells you a lot about your fans. You just have to pay attention.

Keep Track of Timing

It’s easy to assume that the day you release your music is the day you’ll get the most clicks. But that isn’t always going to be the case!

For many artists, traffic may start peaking a week or days before the song’s release. Maybe a new TikTok video led to increased traffic. By checking your traffic’s timeline, you can decide which kind of content to focus more on.

The Bottom Line

Smart links seem like a small tool. But if you start using them properly, they can become a valuable traffic redirector.

Ultimately, it’s easy to forget that people are busy. They’re scrolling through social media very quickly. That’s why you’ve got to ensure that you’re not making them think too hard or look around for something they want. It has to be right in front of them.

A smart link fixes that problem! It lets you direct traffic to where they want to go in just two clicks!

Smart links require some time to set up. But once you put in that effort, you’ll be left with a tool that can be used every time you release new music.

As long as you’re releasing new music, make sure people can hear it. Give them a link that makes it easy to show up where it matters to them!