Refined Facebook Ads target potential fans

You might well already have seen this new tool rolled out by Reverb Nation which allows you to use their Facebook Ad engine to promote a song to the fans on Facebook of artists who are similar in style and direct them to a dedicated landing page where the fan trades an email address for the download.

If you look at the testimonials at the very foot of their blog piece, it looks like they are acheiving about $0.30 per fan email address. That is impressive.

If we manage anything like that for a Facebook 'like' we think we're doing well when running Facebook Ad campaigns, but I value a fan's email address far higher. Maybe they aren't acheiving this every time, but with campaigns starting at $25 we will definitely be trying it out.

It looks like the engine constantly refines the ads in order to get these kind of click though rates as well - something that is a real pain (but absolutely necessary) when you're admin'ing the campaign yourself.

Here's the blog piece and the video:

 

Promoting Your Music on Facebook from ReverbNation on Vimeo.

Facebook Ads - make the most of them

Chris, who writes at Prescription PR, was the first person to explain to me how he used Facebook Ads to increase his fanbase and those of artists he was working with.

We had several long chats in pubs about it before I tried it for my clients.

So, he knows what he's talking about.

Given all the above then, should you be advertising on Facebook? Well, there are still definitely big advantages to it for musicians. Most bands compare themselves to other acts, and as highlighted above, Facebook is extremely good at letting you target people who are interested in similar music to yours. And it’s still relatively cheap – at least where CPM (cost per impressions) is concerned: if nothing else, you can get a lot of brand awareness for a low spend, with 1000 impressions of an ad often costing as little as 15p. The trick is to make the most of your spend, and here are our top tips for doing just that:

Read the tips here.

 

Facebook Photo Strip = Free Ads

Just a pointer over to the main site.

No Dailies today as I was working on this post.

How to use the Facebook Photo Strip as free ads to get your fans listening to your music and buying your stuff!

Facebook Photo Strip article here.

How to get a lot of Facebook likes - fast

Only one today as I am looking after an ill daughter at home! She's OK - a bit of a virus that won't clear up but is miraculously unaffected once we get past 9AM!

But, wanted to get this to you, as it's important info.

I follow Jon Oszajca and his Music Marketing Manifesto site. He peddles a great product that teaches some less well-know ways for musicians to get their music to a fanbase.

So, when he ran an experiment to see how many 'likes' he could get on Facebook in a week, I kept an eye on it. Over 3000. Not bad!

Sure, Facebook Ads are involved, but read his post for all the details.

Don't waste your time and money on Facebook Ads

Unless, that is, you are prepared to do it properly - which means A/B testing.

We've looked at Facebook Ads for musicians before, such as here. 

There's lots of stuff about this just a Google away.

But, before you start, read this post on Hypebot.

I've run lots of Ads on Facebook and on Google Adwords and I've learnt to my cost that it is ALL about testing one add against another - called the 'control'. It's in doing this that you can refine the ad for maximum effectiveness and minimum cost.

Musicians are a suspicious lot. We tend to hold fast to our gut instincts. We heed the counsel of close friends and die-hard fans. We can be defensive and protective of our artistic “purity.” We’re afraid to do anything that smacks of out-and-out marketing.

But sometimes you shouldn’t trust yourself.

Sometimes you should ignore the advice of loved ones. Sometimes you just need to get scientific about things.

Trust the numbers! They don’t lie.

A/B testing allows artists to try out variable options in an advertising campaign so you know how to best direct your efforts.

Read the piece here.

 

Join us on Facebook - get a free guide to Fan Pages

Our main site redesign is an ongoing project at Make It In Music.

I'm very pleased with where we have made it to so far - now comes the tricky bit of filling it with regular content!

I've started off with looking at Twitter for musicians and will start posting a very comprehensive guide later this week.

Facebook is next.

BUT, before I start posting some of the tips that we use on our musician client's Facebook pages, I want to increase the following on our fan page - I'll then be making changes to that fan page that you can see as we do them - we'll film them and post the method on our site.

So, in the next two weeks, I need you to join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/MakeItInMusic.

And I need you to ask other artists and bands to join.

In order to incentivise you, I am going to give away three copies of the brilliant AllFacebook guide to getting fans on Facebook - called '30 days to attract 3,000 Facebook Fans' - but in order to get one you have to be a fan of Make It In Music on Facebook.

I have learnt a great deal from this AllFacebook eBook over the last year or so and have directly implemented some of the ideas for our clients.

OK, it's only $9.95, so I'm not pushing the boat out with my freebies, but it is well worth having for all artists and I'd recommend it to all musicians.

For those that want to get it for free, well, you'd better just join us on Facebook and see if you can win a copy! I'll announce the three winners on our Facebook Fan page wall and buy you a copy on 1st December (I'll need your email address for that!)

So, I will point you to this page every day as reminder!

To join our Facebook Fan Page go to http://www.facebook.com/MakeItInMusic.

Have a look at the '30 days to attract 3,000 Facebook Fans' eBook here.

12 creative ways to use Facebook Ads for musicians

Good article on the uPlaya blog about using Facebook Ads in innovative targeted ways to acheive a specific result.

Facebook Ads can be very tightly focused using their own data so if you can make them pay in terms of return on investment they can be a brilliant way to build your fanbase.

These tips can help.