How to CORRECTLY run Social Media Ads (with no experience)?
- Musician Guidance
- Feb 9, 2022
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 11, 2022
If you want to get more streams, more followers, sell more tickets to your gigs, sell more of you merchandise, and overall, expand your recognition in the music industry (but are tired of doing it organically), then running paid social ads is a one of the best options.
It’s the major reason as to why practically all businesses and artists with budgets choose this route, because it works, BUT only when done correctly.
Running paid ads without the proper knowledge, plan or message will quite simply drain your bank account, and provide you nothing back, but a fat receipt from the platform running the ads.
With paid social ads, you can spend thousand of dollars and get nothing meaningful back, or spend a hundred bucks and get better results than you could have ever dreamt of (although typically, there is still a “learning curve” to pinpoint the exact audience, that brings in the best results).
Before we dig deep, and share with you how to correctly use social media ads, (which for the purpose of this blog will be Facebook and Instagram ads), we first need to say DO NOT use the “promote” or “boost post” feature on Facebook and Instagram.
To put it simply, (and as nice as we can), that is for noobs, and the results will almost never be effective (which we will explain shortly).
Through those buttons, Instagram and Facebook make it incredibly easy for just about anyone to spend money, promote their post and seemingly get great results from it.
As a result, it lures a lot of people in, and you will undoubtedly get likes, comments, messages and follows from it, but nearly all of them will not be from people actually engaged in your content.
The problem is that the targeting is extremely broad (when using these quick promotion buttons), and as a result, whatever your end goal is, we can almost guarantee it will not be met.
For example, if you send that traffic to your website, given how broad the audience is, all that it will result in is an outrageously high bounce rate, and extremely low time on site per visit (which by the way, will not help with your SEO).
If your goal is “more messages,” given the broad targeting, all that will consist of is having bots and spam accounts reach out to yourself.
If you choose “more profile visits,” you will be bombarded with spam accounts, or accounts that are not interested in your page (for the most part).
As a result, we can guarantee that the results will be nowhere near worth the cost.
For those that are unfamiliar with ads, and especially targeting, let’s break it down even further, so that we are all crystal clear on the limitations of using the “promote” button or “boost post” button.
When clicking those buttons, at the time of creating this blog, you have 3 targeting options:
Locations - allows yourself to pinpoint any location in the world.
Interests - allows yourself to show your post to people with certain interests
Age and gender - allows yourself to show your post to people within a certain age range, and particular gender
Here’s the problem with that. There are things called click farms, which Wikipedia defines as “a large group of low-paid workers are hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster."
In essence, people (or bots) stealing your money. To understand it better, imagine millions of fake accounts on Facebook that select many of the popular “interests” Facebook makes you select when signing up, such as “music.” If you pay to target those broad interests, such as “music,” a fair share of your budget will go to those bots / fraudsters.
We may seem cynical, but it is only because we do not want to see you waste your hard earned money on those features.
We are actually a big fan of Facebook and Instagram ads, but only when done right, which for starters is going through Facebook Business Manager.
If you’re unfamiliar with that, it is basically where the “pros” run Facebook and Instagram ads, given the abundance of resources, including re-marketing features, and detailed targeting options, to not only reach real people, but also get extremely detailed data, to make adjustments when necessary, so that you can drive down your cost per result.
A result is your goal, which could be a sale, (selling a CD), a lead (getting someone’s email for your email list), or nearly anything else.
Before we get more into Facebook Business Manager, we’re going to quickly outline some more limitations experienced when clicking “promote” or “boost post.”
Limitations:
Not able to choose placements (meaning your ad may not even show up on Instagram or Facebook, but rather affiliates or subsidiaries of those companies).
Not able to re-market to (which in our opinion is the most important feature).
Not able to target based off of income, employment status, job title, behaviour, (and about a hundred more targeting options).
Limited “goals” (does not include app installs, lead generation, conversions, store traffic, brand awareness, and many more goals).
Cannot do A/B tests (which is where you run two ads with one different variable to see which outperforms the other).
Cannot narrow audiences further (which is where you can state that those that see your ad must have this and that, for example, must have an interest in music, and also have a job title of “musician” - this option can help avoid some bots, and narrow your audience to the ideal person.
You cannot track the results (such as with a Facebook or Google pixel), which basically tracks the audience after sending them to a desired location. For example, with the pixels, if you sent traffic to your website, you would be able to see what pages they visit, how long they spend on the site, see if they fill out a form, or make a purchase, etc. Having a pixel also allows you to re-target to them in future ads.
There are truthfully many, many more limitations, but we’re sure you get the point.
So in summary, do not “promote” or “boost post,” but rather go through Facebook Business Manager. Also, unless you know the space, we would probably encourage yourself to seek professional help, to ensure you get the most for your budget.
Anyway, now that you know what to do, how should you use social ads, to maximize you results?
You first need to understand that Facebook and Instagram ads are ultimately a delivery method. When used correctly, they will “drop off” ideal “customers” at the destination you want them to (website, social page, etc), but from that point on, they have done their job, and the rest lies in your hands.
Therefore, in order to maximize results, you need to ensure the destination is not only what is promised in the ad, but also of the highest quality, and clearly shows what the customer should do next.
For example, if the ad says “stream my new song now,” but the destination is your website homepage, and the user needs to click on “my music” (as an example), you have added a speed bump, which could result in them clicking off your website right away (as they do not see your song), which is the only reason they clicked on the ad.
Or if the ad says “buy my new merchandise” and the picture in the ad is of a red shirt, but when they click through, a blue shirt shows, they may switch off right away, because once again, you are not showing what they clicked on the ad to see.
What we cannot overstate is that you not only need to be consistent in what the ad says and shows, but also what is provided to the “customer” when they click through to the destination.
So what do we mean by consistent? While colors, headlines and images are important, the major thing that needs to be consistent is the offer!
The offer in the ad NEEDS to match the offer shown at the destination link right away. If it is not shown within 3 seconds, there is over a 75% chance the user will click off right away.
In addition to consistency however, you also need to plan out what you want. By this, we mean, do you really want one stream on your new song, or do you want them to follow you, so that they stream every one of your future releases?
There is a big difference in those. One provides you $0.003, (per stream, give or take), and the other could provide you a fan for life, that spends hundreds of dollars on your music, merchandise, CDs, etc. each year.
So what you need to do is ensure your offer is not only enticing enough to get clicks, but also provides something of value to yourself, while maintaining consistency between the ad and the destination.
Remember, this does not have to be done in one ad either. Statistically speaking, the chances someone does what you want them to do after clicking on the ad the first time are very low.
As a result, you will need to install a pixel, (which we briefly explained earlier), so that you can re-market to them, based off a wide range of events, such as whether they added something to the cart, or visited a certain page.
We’re really only scratching the surface here, because we do not want to overwhelm yourself, but at the same time, do want to provide you the knowledge to ensure successful campaigns.
If you have questions, as always, our team is here to help. Never hesitate to reach out to us.
Okay, finally, what funnels do we recommend?
This will completely depend on your goal, such as increasing streams, selling merchandise, gaining page likes or followers, etc.
With that being said, we can provide our recommended funnels, based off what has worked for us, artists we work with /have worked with, or others we know of.
NOTE: This is based on experience, but we are not social media marketers, and therefore while it has worked for us, and those we know of / work with, it may not work for yourself.
Therefore, we strongly recommend consulting with a professional.
With that being said, here are our recommended funnels:
Want more streams?
What to show?
A 15 - 30 second preview of the best part of your song (in the form that will be displayed when clicked through). For example, if you are sending them to Spotify, do not show a music video on the ad, because when they click through to Spotify, they will not be able to see the rest of the video, and therefore your offer would not match the destination. A music video would be great if you were sending them to the full music video on YouTube.
The call to action (which you can select on Facebook), could be “listen now.”
We will leave the headline and caption/description up to yourself, but recommend that you highlight the offer in them.
What campaign should you run?
Run traffic campaigns to the precise page where they can listen to your song. We have seen many artists run traffic campaigns to their Linktr.ee page, which has all streaming platforms where your song can be streamed, and while that may work, we would recommend that you pick a platform and send them to it.
You could also do an A/B test between sending them to your Linktr.ee page and directly to Spotify (or any other streaming platform).
For re-marketing, we would recommend changing up the ad to include social proof, such as a quote someone said about your song, or showing how many people have already listened to your song, something to get them to listen to it again.
Want more merchandise / CD sales?
What to show?
A catalogue of the items that will be seen when the ad is clicked on.
The call to action (which you can select on Facebook), could be “shop now.”
We will leave the headline and caption/description up to yourself, but recommend that you highlight the unique selling proposition and offer of the product, such as “softest t-shirt or your money back.”
What campaign should you run?
We would recommend running traffic campaigns with an A/B test, that tests landing pages. For example, run one ad to the page with the product(s), and the other directly to the payment page (of the product shown in the ad).
For re-marketing, we would recommend changing up the ad to include urgency, along with a special offer. For example, “shop today and get 20% off. Offer ends in 2 hours.”
In addition to adding that urgency, if you generated a sufficient amount of traffic from your initial campaign, you could change the goal to “conversions,” but if not, keep it at “traffic.”
That was A LOT of information, and truthfully may be tough to comprehend in one read-through.
Remember though, we are here to help you succeed. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
And just before we end off the blog, we have compiled our best tips to ensure successful ads.
Tips for successful ads (no matter what your end goal is with them).
Have a clear offer
Example - “Get the softest merchandise ever”
Provide exclusivity
Example - “Only a few spots left”
Provide a fear of missing out (FOMO)
Example - “We will never have an offer this good again"
Have urgency
Example - “Offer ends tomorrow”
Have a call to action that matches offer
Example - “Shop now”
Use power words
Example - “guaranteed” or “free” or “life-changing” or “new”
Have eye-catching content (to stop someone scrolling on social media)
Example - bright colors or sounds (although ads almost always start muted)
Show the unique selling proposition (what is unique about your offer)
Example - “The quickest way to” or “the best way to”
Single out your target market
Example - “Struggling to find a good breakup song?” (the target market would therefore be those looking for a breakup song to listen to)
Solve a problem that your target customers have
Example - “No more shuffling through songs mindlessly”
Never stop testing your ads (creative - which is the video / images chosen, ad copy, call to action, audience, etc.)
Lastly, do not over-run ads to the point your audience gets annoyed with them - keep your ads fresh and relevant, and always look at data from previous ads so that you can make educated adjustments to decrease your cost per result.
Lastly,
With all these tips, new knowledge and our continued support, we are sure you will be able to scale your music, but at the end of the day, we still strongly encourage you to have a plan in place. Never spend your hard earned money on promoting something, when you do not know what is next.
What would you like us to write a blog on next?
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