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Can musicians take their music to the next level using Facebook Ads? Hi, my name is Francisco. I own a digital marketing firm called Planet Marketing. We specialize in Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Remarketing. Over the years, I have worked with quite a number of musicians. The first thing that most of them ask is; is Facebook a good fit for promoting musicians? If that’s something that you have been asking yourself, this article is for you. The post is divided into the following sections;
- Should musicians advertise on Facebook?
- Best approaches to promoting musicians on Facebook.
- Creating your first ad.
Should Musicians Advertise on Facebook?
Facebook has it’s challenges, but for musicians, it’s probably the best marketing platform. If you go through this blog, you will notice that I have written quite a number of articles on the subject of Facebook ads marketing.
The major challenge with Facebook ads that I have discovered is that of intent. When someone uses Google to look for “restaurant near me,” as an example, they are usually well advanced in their intention to go out to grab a meal.
However, on Facebook, people are looking for other things. They are there to chat with friends and family and to consume all manner of information that’s floating around on the platform. Buying is usually far from their mind. So, most businesses have a challenge here, though these challenges are not insurmountable.
So, is this a factor for musicians? Do they face similar challenges when advertising on Facebook? Well, fortunately, that is not the case. Music is part of the things that people expect to encounter on Facebook. Anyway, before I get carried away, here are some of the reasons why Facebook is a very good fit for advertising musicians;
People who listen to your music are already on Facebook
Here is the thing; you don’t have to look high and low for your target audience. The people who listen to your music are already on Facebook. That’s probably the major reason why Facebook advertising has really taken off over the past few year.
Find more statistics at Statista
Just to put things into perspective, Facebook currently has a daily active user base of over 1.7 billion people. These people are scattered all over the world. You can see the current number of Facebook users in the above graph from Statista.
But what does this mean? Well, it means the people to who you wish to promote your music are on Facebook. The challenge for you is to know how to reach them. And that’s what I am here for! I will show you the best way of doing just that in this post.
Targeting your audience is easy with Facebook
That’s the second reason for musicians to advertise on Facebook. Targeting your audience couldn’t be easier. As a musician, you probably already have a Facebook Page. You probably also already have a website.
If you don’t have these asserts, then you have been missing out. Your website and your Facebook Page act as platforms on which to engage with people who love your music.
These platforms also make it easy to define your target audience when doing Facebook ads for musicians. This is something on which I will dwell in the next part of this post.
Even struggling musicians can afford Facebook ads
Cost is where some people balk when it comes to advertising in general. If you are an up and coming musician, you probably do not have unlimited funds to splash on Facebook ads. So, can musicians afford to advertise on Facebook?
The good news is that everybody can afford to advertise on Facebook. Are you aware that you can boost a Facebook post from as little as $1? I discuss the merits and demerits of boosting posts here. It works for some people but not for others.
Anyway, the point here is that you can afford to advertise on Facebook. Even when creating ads, you can also get started for as little as $5 a day. So, anybody, including mom and pop businesses can afford to advertise on the platform.
You can learn how to manage your own campaigns
Still on the subject of affordability, the great thing about Facebook ads marketing for musicians is that they can run their own campaigns. It’s something that takes a while to master, but it’s definitely something that can be done.
Where most people falter is on the getting set up bit. So, you may want to check out my Facebook Ads Setup Plan. If you sign up, I will do all the initial hard work. Afterwards, I will hand over an account that’s up and running. I will even throw a landing page and 2 live ads into the bargain.
Best Approach to Creating Facebook Ads for Musicians
Which approach should you adopt when creating Facebook Ads for musicians? Well, you can simply jump into the fray. However, that is hardly going to give you the desired results. What most people do not realize is that much of the work when it comes to Facebook advertising happens away from the ad.
I also specialize in Google Ads and it’s the same matter even there. It’s what you do off Facebook or Google that has the most impact in terms of whether or not your ads are going to achieve the desired results. The following points will help you create Facebook ads that bring people flocking to your music;
Set up Facebook Pixel on your Site
Serious musicians have well maintained websites. A website is something that you can use to promote yourself and your music. You can also sell your music on your website. Your site is important, not only as a promotional platform, but as one of the places where you can get an audience for your Facebook ads.
You may or may not have head about remarketing or retargeting. Basically, it’s when people are shown ads that are related to what they were doing on a particular website. So, if someone visits your website and clicks on a link to one of your albums, that interest is noted.
Diagram of Retargeting
The next time that they visit Facebook, they are shown an ad featuring the album in which they were interested on your website. It means you have a second chance to convince that person to buy your music. But how is interest on your website tracked?
Well, it all happens through what is referred to as a Facebook Pixel. Basically, that’s a piece of code that you install on your site. It keeps track of what people are doing there. Next when they go to Facebook, they get shown your ads.
These ads are based on their interest on your website. So, the importance of having Pixel installed on your website is that you can create Facebook ads that target people who have been to your site.
Maintain a vibrant Facebook Page
Facebook marketing for musicians is not all about creating paid Facebook ads. Far from it! The beauty of Facebook is that you can market yourself without having to pay a single cent. This process begins with the creation of a Facebook Page. Pages on Facebook are created free of charge.
Your Facebook Page then becomes the platform for you to interact with your Target Audience. You can meet new people on there while marketing upcoming concerts. In fact, you can just about do everything on your Page as far as marketing is concerned.
A Page is also useful as a source of the target audience for your ads. As an example, you can target your Facebook ads at people who have liked your page. That an example of a custom audience. We talk about custom audiences below.
Consider targeting Custom Audiences
Facebook custom audiences
Custom audiences are based on interactions that people have previously had with you. There are many source of custom audiences. You can target people who have been to your site, as already noted. You can also target people who have watched your videos or who have liked your Page.
The power of Custom Audiences lies in the fact that these people are not complete strangers. They probably already listen to your music. And they probably already know about you. So, if, as an example, you are launching a new album, this could be the best approach.
You can create a Custom Audience that’s comprised of people who have watched your video. It’s simpler for you to convince these people to buy your new album than it would be for you to try to sell yourself to a whole new audience.
That’s not saying there is anything wrong with targeting new people. In fact, you can also do that while targeting your custom audience. The following can be sources of your custom audiences when doing Facebook Ads marketing for musicians;
- Website
- App activity
- Customer list
- Offline activity
- Video
- Lead form
- Instant Experience
- Shopping
- Instagram account
- Events
- Facebook Page
- On-Facebook Listings
Expand your reach with Lookalike Audiences
One thing that may happen when creating Facebook ads for musicians is that the audience that you define could be rather small. That’s particularly the case if you are a small musician. So, what do you do in that case? You can definitely not sell yourself only to a hundred people and expect positive results.
Fortunately, Facebook has what are referred to as Lookalike audiences. These are based on the other audiences that you would have defined. Lookalike audiences are similar to your custom audiences. So, you could opt to have your ads shown to people who have liked not only your music, but also music that’s similar to yours.
Create videos featuring your music
We have already noted that musicians are not as handicapped as other businesses when it comes to advertising on Facebook. In fact, you can generate quite a sizeable audience by sharing videos featuring your music.
Perhaps you could share a video of one of your live shows. Or you could share a snippet of your upcoming album. Depending on how well known you are, that’s bound to generate a lot of interest. You will get a lot of people to like your video.
Facebook says that these videos should be over 3 minutes long. Remember we are not talking about ads here. We are talking about simply posting a video on Facebook and sharing it with other people. The aim will be to attract as many people as is possible to your music.
Target an audiences composed of people who have watched your video
This is related to what we have already noted. Let’s say you have posted a video and it has been watched by 5000 people. You can then create a Custom Audience for your Facebook ads that’s composed of these people who have watched your video.
Perhaps you will be promoting the launch of a new album. Or you could be selling merchandise to them. The great thing is that these people already know you. They are not complete strangers. As such, you won’t have trouble convincing a few of them to take the desired action.
Do a lot of split testing
A large chunk of people that I meet try out Facebook ads for one week or so and they give up because they have failed to see the results that they were expecting. That’s the wrong approach when doing Facebook ads marketing for musicians. It takes time to come up with the right formula, particularly if you are doing things yourself.
What you need to do is to carry out a lot of split testing. Test one version of your ad and then another. Run these versions simultaneously. See which version brings you the best results. That’s the best thing about Facebook ads. You are not struck in a straitjacket. You can play around with your ads to find the best. From there, everything will fall into place.
Creating your First Ad
Now we get to the part where we create our first Facebook ad. That takes place in Ads Manager. There are about 3 steps to the whole process. First, you need to choose a Campaign Objective. From there, you will have to set up your Target Audience and Define your Budget and Schedule in the Ad Set. Finally, you will be required to create your ad.
The Campaign Objective
Facebook has what are referred to as Campaign Objectives. These basically outline what you wish to achieve with each ad. You get 11 Campaign Objectives. However, you can only have one per Campaign. And unlike Google Ads, there is no Campaign without a goal guidance. The following are the available Campaign Objectives;
- Lead generation
- Conversions
- Messages
- Traffic
- Store traffic
- Brand awareness
- Catalog sales
- Reach
- App installs
- Video views
- Engagement
Campaign Objective for Facebook Ads for Musicians
Choose a Campaign Objective
People usually struggle here because they are not too sure which Campaign Objective to choose when doing Facebook ads marketing for musicians. Well, you don’t have to worry too much. Remember we noted that you should do a lot of A/B testing.
So, you can experiment here. In fact, you can have different ads running on different Campaign Objectives. If you are selling merchandise via your website, then you could have an ad with Catalog sales as the Campaign Objective.
You could have another ad where your aim will be on creating Brand awareness. In that case, you could target a new audience. We will briefly show you how to do that later in this article.
Another approach would be to choose Video views as your Campaign Objective. That’s the one that we are going to go with for our example. We want as many people to watch a snippet of our video as is possible. These people can then click on the video to buy the entire album.
The Ad Set
In the Ad Set, you get to define your Target Audience. We have already covered a lot of the work that you do here. We noted that you can target custom audiences composed of people who have been to your site or who have watched your video or your liked your Page. Tracking for events on your site or app is via Pixel. When creating a new audience, you can target based on the following;
Location
Where do you wish to have your ads shown
First, you need to define the location for your audience. Are the people that you are targeting in the United States or worldwide. When selling digital music, you can target a global audience.
However, when selling your merchandise, you may wish to target people in a particular area. It depends on whether you ship worldwide or just within your country. For this example, we will target people in the United States.
Age
Age can also be used when defining your target audience when creating Facebook ads marketing for musicians. To which age groups does your music most appeal. Maybe it appeals to teenagers. Or maybe it appeals to a more mature audience. You know your music best, so this is something that’s going to be easy for you to define.
Gender
Use the gender setting to further define your audience. Music tends to be gender specific. Some musicians appeal to women, while others appeal to men. So, you can use this setting to choose the correct setting.
Language
You can choose to have your ads delivered to people who speak a particular language. If you sing in Spanish, as an example, you can have your ad only shown to people who speak Spanish. The same goes for other languages.
Demographics, interests and behaviors
Narrow down on your target audience
This falls under the Detailed Targeting section. In this section, you can really narrow down on your target audience. For our example, we will target people who are into Hip Hop music.
Assuming that you sing like Nick Minaj, we will target people who are interested in her. And if it’s Nicki Minaj herself advertising on Facebook, then it would be a simple matter of targeting people who have shown an interest in her.
Budge and Schedule
You will also find the budget and schedule section in the Ad Set. The thing to note here is that you should set limits on your spending. Don’t run open ended Campaigns. I usually set start and end dates for my Campaigns.
That way, I won’t ever overspend. I know exactly how much I will have spend by the end of each Campaign. If I wish to continue with a Campaign, it’s a simple matter of allocating additional funds.
The Ad
Facebook ads for musicians work best in the video format. Ads on Facebook can also be in the form of single images and carousels. Make sure that your video ad is not over long. You can upload a video or you can create a video from the images that you have uploaded.
Whatever you do, make sure that your ad has an impact. Remember, people on Facebook have better things to do. You can intrude into this mindset by teasing them with a snippet of your upcoming video as an example.
Summary
This article was dedicated to showing you how to create Facebook ads for musicians. If you are a musician, then Facebook is the right platform for you to reach out to your target audience. Not only is the platform big, but it’s also easy to target people there.
You have the option to target custom audiences that’s composed of people who have interacted with you in one way or the other. Maybe they have been to your website, or they have watched your video. Or maybe they have liked your Facebook Page.
Anyway, this article has been a teaser. I know, that’s surprising considering how long the post is. But Facebook Ads marketing really a big subject. You can learn more by signing up for my Facebook Ads mini course using the form below. Or you can sign up for my Facebook Ads setup plan. That way, you can let me handle all the hard work for you while reaping the rewards.