Disclaimer: You don’t need a huge budget to use Facebook Ads effectively. However, if you don’t believe in spending ANY money to promote your music, this strategy isn’t for you.
Growing your email list is one of the smartest things you can do for your music career: Email is the most direct and effective way to communicate with your fans. And because YOU own your list, you don’t depend on the quirks, updates, and changes in popularity of any one particular social network.
Experts agree that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc. however are great SOURCES of traffic to your website and email list.
With Facebook Ads in particular, you can easily target and reach a large number of potential fans. And you don’t need to spend a ton of money: You can set a daily budget as low as $5 (and run your ads for a limited time) for this to work.
So how do you set up a successful campaign and create a steady influx of new listeners?
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Target your ideal fans
One of the coolest features of Facebook Ads is that you can target people based on pages they have liked.
Before you launch a campaign, think about your ideal fans and which TV shows, magazines, organizations or other bands they might be following on Facebook already.
For example: An Outlaw Country band might target people who watch Sons of Anarchy or the fans of Hank 3. A jazz pianist who just recorded an album of Herbie Hancock tunes can target people who like the Herbie Hancock page. You get the idea…
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Grab their attention with an offer they can’t resist
Now that you know whom you’re targeting with your ad, you need to grab their attention with an offer they can’t resist.
(Whatever you come up with here is what you’ll be promoting with your Sponsored Post in Step 4.)
From the example above: The Outlaw Country band could record a hillbilly version of the SOA theme song (remember if you do actually use a cover version you’ll need a license). By giving your ideal fans something you know they’re interested in – before they even know you exist – you can be sure to get the most out of your promo budget.
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Create a landing page
Remember the goal here is to get people to sign up for your email list. That’s why you need to create a specific landing page to capture people’s email address in exchange for whatever you came up with in Step 2.
(Here’s the landing page for a campaign I did a while ago for songwriter Gregg Inhofer who recorded a guitar-free version of Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix and is giving it away for free on his Facebook page.)
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Create a post to promote
Now that you’ve created an irresistible offer and a landing page to go with it, you can create the actual Facebook post that you’ll be promoting.
Post an eye-catching image and in the description include a clear call-to-action to click the link to your landing page. Something like this:
“If you like Sons of Anarchy, check out our hillbilly-cover version of the SOA theme right here: <LINK TO YOUR LANDING PAGE>”
Now you can go to the Facebook Ads Manager and set up your campaign…
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Setup your campaign
To setup your campaign, go to the Facebook Ads Manager and create a new ad.
First, select your page. Then select the “Promote Page Posts” option. Right below, choose the page post you want to promote (choose the post you created in Step 4!).
Next, in the “Create Your Audience” section you can target your ideal fans: In the “Precise Interests” field, enter the name of the fan page whose fans you’re targeting. If it makes sense for your campaign, you can target by age, gender, or location, too.
Finally, in the last section, you can name your campaign, set your campaign budget, and schedule. Here’s what I suggest if you’re just getting started:
Set a daily budget of $5-$10, and run your campaign continuously for a few days. Under “Optimization” choose to optimize for clicks. See what kind of results you’re getting and go from there…
Bonus Tip: Use the Power Editor
If you want to take it a step further, you can use Facebook’s Power Editor to show your promoted post in the Newsfeed only (and not in the sidebar). The Power Editor is a little confusing at first, but it can really improve your results.
To summarize:
Promoting the right post to the right audience can get you lots of clicks (I’ve gotten results as low as $0.03/click). Don’t advertise for Facebook Likes. Instead, use Promoted Posts to send potential fans to a custom landing page and capture their email address with an offer they can’t resist.
What’s your experience with Facebook ads? And what do you think of the steps above to build your email list with Promoted Posts?
Author Bio: Lukas Camenzind is a music marketing expert and artist manager. Combining a passion for music and online marketing, he has helped musicians reach and engage more fans at varying stages of their career. To learn about proven marketing strategies to reach more fans, go to: http://www.posteram.com