The Real Reason Why Facebook Ads "Don't Work" For Musicians

Posted by Digital_Zone on June 21st, 2021

One common thing that I hear a lot from musicians is "I used Facebook ads once and it didn't really work for me."

And that's common for a lot businesses not only musicians. But as musicians we're not selling a remedy to a challenge like a dentist, or perhaps a lawyer. So we've to start marketing music differently.

What a lot of musicians do is they have a recording or perhaps a single to promote. They create a post that says something such as "Take a look at my sweet new single!" Chances are they put a million different links to iTunes, Spotify strategies, Tidal, SoundCloud, YouTube, Bandcamp, and tell people to be controlled by it for free.

There is a few problems with this specific method.

The initial problem is when you send you to definitely a 3rd party platform like Spotify playlist pitching it's pretty much impossible to keep track of how many individuals went there from your ad. Also you can't followup with these people because you do not have a message or way to check out up with them again.

But the next problem is more linked to human psychology. As humans once we meet someone for initially we are really unlikely to do anything they ask us to do.

So in case a stranger walks your decision and asks you to do something it's not likely to happen. If your friend asks you to do something you are much more likely to do what they want.

This "GO CHECK OUT MY MUSIC" ad is doing exactly the same thing.

I like to create an example to describe this.

Lets say I do want to promote my cool new country music album, so I go down seriously to my local country music bar, walk up to the initial person I see and say:

"Hey I obtained this cool new album I really think you'd like it. You are able to listen to it free of charge but we've to be controlled by it outside within my car because I only have one copy of it. So you want to come check it out?"

The chances of that person doing that are slim to none.

And that's what a lot of musicians are doing with their ads.

You're basically asking an entire stranger to stop anything that they're doing and then leave Facebook to go listen to your music.

And there's actually a much better solution to promote your music with Facebook ads.

Imagine this different scenario...

You get into your local country music bar, but this time you go up to the DJ or bartender and say "Hey if I provide you with a few bucks could you play my new album for anyone to be controlled by?" They say yes and use it on.

So you search around the area and you notice some individuals nodding their head and grooving to your sweet tunes.

You go up to them and begin a conversation and let them know about your band, that you moved here from a different city. By the end of this interaction you say "I'd love to give my EP free of charge can I get your email to send it for you?"

They say yes. And boom. At this point you have a direct connection to someone who is interested in your music, and might become a fan.

We could try this same task on Facebook by running a paid video ad. Don't put any links or anything crazy in the text. Merely a simple headline. What this does is it lets people discover your music naturally and if they're curious they'll click over to your page and find out more about you.

And if you've create your custom audience lists in Facebook you are able to run a follow-up ad in their mind down the road asking them to provide you with their email as a swap for the album for free.

This approach is a much better means of advertising your music on Facebook because you're not asking an overall total stranger to do something. Instead you are sharing your music and they could choose to view your video or scroll onto the next thing.

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Digital_Zone
Joined: November 10th, 2020
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