Your differential mass is the rate of change in the mass. It will depend on the object's density (g/cm^3, kg/m^3, etc).
In your case, you have a hollow sphere, so the mass will change in relation to the area (assuming the sphere has an infinitely small thickness). That would be g/cm^2, kg/m^2, etc.
That should allow you to change your variable to dr, the differential radius, since the volume and/or the area will depend upon the radius.