How do boosts work?
On this page
A boost is a paid promotion that puts something of yours in front of more people across offtheave. Pick what to boost, write a short ad, set a budget and dates, and pay from your cart. Your boost runs until its budget is spent or its end date passes.
What you can boost
Your own songs, beats, mixtapes, videos, shorts, playlists, photos, photo albums, posts and community posts. The item has to be public: private, followers-only and not-yet-released items can’t be boosted, videos and shorts must finish processing, and posts in private communities can’t be boosted. A scheduled release can be boosted once it’s out. Songs on a mixtape are promoted by boosting the mixtape.
Start a boost
- Choose what to boost. You can:
- press Boost on the item’s page or in its menu (shorts have a Boost button on the side),
- choose Boost from the item’s menu in your library,
- or open the picker from Create → Boost something, Boost it in Creator Studio, or New boost on the Boosts tab. In the picker, search by title or artist, filter by type and sort by Newest or Most popular. Items that can’t be boosted say why.
- On Create Your Boost, check What You’re Boosting.
- Write your Ad Copy: an Ad Title (5 to 100 characters) and an Ad Description (10 to 280 characters). The preview updates as you type.
- Under Set Campaign Budget, choose Cash (USD) or XP Points (and $DORA when $DORA payments are available), then enter your budget. The form shows the minimum.
- Under Schedule, pick a Start Date and End Date.
- Press Add to Cart, then pay from your cart by card, with XP, or with $DORA when it’s available. The boost starts once it’s paid.
A budget in XP converts at 1 XP = $0.01. See How do I spend XP?
Where boosts show up
The preview on Create Your Boost shows your ad in each place it can run: the Activity Feed, the Global Slot, and for songs, beats, mixtapes, videos and shorts a Module Slot in the matching section of the site. The boost also appears as a post in your activity feed.
How your budget is spent
Your budget goes down as people actually see the boost. An impression only counts when the ad is on screen, not just loaded. You can follow Impressions, Clicks and Click rate as it runs.
Managing your boosts
Open Creator Studio → Overview and the Boosts tab. Each campaign shows its state, spend and reach:
- Not paid: waiting in your cart. Press Pay, Edit ad text, or Delete it (nothing is charged).
- Running: press Pause to stop it for now.
- Paused: press Resume, or Edit ad text.
- Ended, Budget spent or Finished: press Top up to run it again with its stats. See Topping up a boost.
Paid boosts can’t be deleted. Pause one instead.
Troubleshooting
- “Only public content can be boosted.” Make the item public (and let a video finish processing), then try again.
- “You can only promote your own content.” You can boost only things you uploaded or posted.
- My boost isn’t running. Check that it’s paid, not paused, has budget left and that today is between its start and end dates.