Why Facebook Ads DON’T Work for Musicians
Episode 012 of The Indie Musician Secrets Podcast
TRANSCRIPT
What’s up? What’s up? What’s up everyone and welcome to the Indie Musician Secrets Podcast. I am your host Jamaal aka Boss Eagle, Billboard-charting hip hop artist and music business coach at Business Minded Musicians. And I want to say welcome to Episode 12 of the Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about why Facebook Ads DON’T work for musicians. But before we jump into that, I want to remind you that you can download this podcast or listen wherever you like to listen to podcasts on all the the platforms — all the things! Also don’t forget to rate and review the podcast as well. That would greatly help to keep moving the podcast forward. So without further ado, let’s jump into today’s topic:
Why Facebook Ads don’t work for musicians.
We’ve all heard the horror stories about Facebook Ads, and it really doesn’t matter who that person is. Right? We’ve heard this from various business owners: salons or studios or whatever have you. We’ve heard this from friends who have their own horror stories about Facebook Ads, or they’re relaying somebody else’s horror stories about Facebook Ads. And maybe you’ve heard this from other musicians and artists who’ve tried to run Facebook Ads [or] Instagram as well — they’re the same company — and have just felt like this just doesn’t work. [And] not only for musicians, but they just don’t work at all right? But we’re musicians here, so we’re talking about why Facebook Ads don’t work for you as a musician.
So what I kind of want to walk you through is the BIG problem: It’s that most people don’t understand ad structure. Now, I totally get it. You get into the Facebook Ads Manager, or maybe you’re going in from the Business Manager [or] the Business Suite, and it can look like nuclear physics in there! Like it’s all a foreign concept. And it can really be kind of overwhelming.
The first thing that you have to understand [as to] why these ads aren’t working is because most people don’t understand ad structure.The simplest way to put it is that there are three levels to ad structure. Think about it like this:
On your computer you have a folder on your desktop. And then inside that folder is another folder. And inside that folder is another folder. So maybe [the first] folder is for your job; your work folder. You open that work folder up, and maybe the next folder is clients. You you open that up, and then there’s a certain client that you want to open their folder — that’s the client that you’re working on. You pick a client that you that you’re working for. (And then if you open that particular client’s folder, there are different projects, etc.)
But you have to understand that there are levels to it. So taking that analogy, Facebook Ads run the same way.
The first level is the Campaign. The campaign is your objective: What are you trying to accomplish? What is it that you’re actually trying to get Facebook to do? Remember, Facebook is a robot, it’ll do what you tell it to do. There are various campaign or objective types. You’ve heard of some of these: traffic engagement, conversion. There’s also video views, lead form — so right off the bat, you have to tell Facebook, what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. And most people they don’t understand that this is this is probably one of, if not, the most important steps. Because if you’re trying to tell Facebook to do one thing, but you want it to do another, that’s not going to work. So the first step is understanding your campaign.
The second step [is] you opening that second folder and that’s the Ad Set. The Ad Set is your audience. Who are you trying to reach and where are they? This is where you’re going to put in that targeted, detailed information [like] age, gender location, interests, etc. You have to decide who it is that you’re trying to reach. And where are those people? Do you want to reach them in Europe? Do you want to reach them in the United States or Canada or New Zealand?
And then the last step is the Ad itself. This is the creative, the media. What are you delivering? What are you offering? Is it a video? A photo? Are you doing a giveaway? Is it some type of caption? That is going to be what the person actually sees on the other end on their mobile phone, tablet, computer, or whatever have you.
So you have to understand ad structure. The first level is the campaign — that’s your objective or what are you trying to accomplish? The second level is the Ad Set. Who is your audience? Who are you trying to reach and where are they? And then the third step is the Ad itself. That is the creative or media you delivering to those people
In my opinion there’s probably not one single answer as to why Facebook Ads don’t work for people, whether it’s musicians or anyone else. But I think probably the main reason Facebook Ads don’t work is honestly because you don’t know how to work them. Everything I just walked through is probably what trips people up. You can’t just jump to the Ad and say, “Okay, I’m just going to deliver this,” and not be thinking about what it is that you’re trying to accomplish in the first place. Yes, there are some more inner workings inside of those things. This is just kind of a basic overall view. Kind of a 30,000 foot view looking down on this. But once you understand ad structure and you understand these individual components, then it’ll start to change things for you.
First, be clear on what you’re trying to do. If you want to get emails, don’t run a Video Views ad, that makes no sense. If you run a Video Views ad, Facebook is going to show that ad to people who are most likely to watch a video. Facebook knows that because of the algorithm. It knows how much time people are spending on things. It knows the actions that people are taking on certain types of posts. So if you want to get emails you want to run a type of ad that takes people somewhere, or creates an opportunity for them, to give you their email. Maybe you run a Traffic ad and you take them to your website. Or you run Lead Form ad and you can get that email right there on the platform. You have to understand the objective that you’re after so that you can get the result that you want.
Second, you have to understand your audience: Who are you actually trying to deliver your ad to? You have to know that before you get to that next step, which is the actual ad itself. You want to understand your audience and there are ways that you can do that. Use data from your digital distributor or your Spotify or Apple Music dashboard. You can take that information (age, gender, where they’re listening), to create the Ad Set around who they are, where they are, their demographics and their details. Also, when you’re thinking about running ads to gain a new audience, you can target new audiences that make sense for your music. I created a [YouTube] video called: “Go Fishing: How to Grow Your Fanbase”. You target people who like similar artists to you. If you’re a solo female country singer, and you’re kind of similar to Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini. You can target people in a certain age demographic, gender or whatever, but have an interest in that artist or that thing that you’re targeting.
Third, you want to deliver quality content, photos, videos, etc. Even if you’re doing a cover song, make sure that it’s quality. Make sure that it sounds good, make sure the video is good. Remember people are scrolling through this stuff. They’re just thumbing through it. What’s going to capture their attention? What’s going to make them stop? Most likely the sound is not going to be on, so what’s going to make them want to stop on your media, on your content, whether that’s a video, photo, etc., and if it’s a video, turn the sound on and listen to what it is that you have going on? You have to deliver quality content in order to capture and keep their attention.
So I think the one of the main reasons Facebook Ads don’t work honestly is because people just don’t know how to work them. Maybe the title of this episode is a little bit deceiving, because Facebook Ads actually do work. And I know that they work because I use Facebook Ads. I use Instagram ads. Last year I ran and a campaign only to Bruno Mars fans. (I’m a hip hop artist. I’m a rapper, not an R&B or pop singer.) But with the whole Silk Sonic thing that he has going on[with Anderson .Paak], I have a song that I made [on] my first album that’s called Baby. It’s a hip-hop-meets-Motown track. I wear this custom made Temptations suit, with old-school glasses and microphone and white boots — all that stuff! I cut four different clips [of the performance], and just two of those videos alone got over nearly 500,000 views! I think somewhere around 467,000 views, [over] 10,000 reactions, close to 200 shares, all types of comments, etc. Because I knew exactly who I was targeting and I knew how to run those ads. And you can do the same thing!
ACTION ITEM
The action item for this episode is: I want you to simply educate yourself on Facebook Ads.
I want you to to remove all the horror stories and all the negative stuff that people have said that Facebook Ads don’t work, and I want you to educate yourself because this is your music business. You have to educate yourself.
There are simple ways that you can do that. One of them is just go to the Facebook website and learn about Ad structure. Learn about targeting, and about the how the system wants you to do these things so that you can be successful. Facebook wants you to be successful running ads, because when you’re successful, that keeps more people on their platform. You pay them more money and, ideally, you also get what it is that you were after — whether that’s emails or views or engagement or whatever it is. So go to the Facebook website, educate yourself on ads, ad structure targeting, etc.
And if you want to put all of this right into action with your music [with quality music you (have) ready to go], right now I am offering my course Fanbase Growth Accelerator for only $7.
Access Fanbase Growth Accelerator today for just $7!
In Fanbase Growth Accelerator, I walk you through and show you exactly how to do this. It’s the exact process that I’ve used. You’ll be using your own music to reach new fans and to and grow your music [with], I won’t say cheap — but inexpensive — Facebook Ads. And it is it is possible. Like I said, I know because I do it. So if you want to join Fanbase Growth Accelerator, you can do that today for only $7.
And the reason I’ve lowered the price to only $7 is because you’ll also have the opportunity to get ongoing monthly coaching for only $7 a month. So instead of offering the course for a higher price, and then just kind of leaving it at that, I’ve lowered the price to only $7 [to be able to offer] ongoing monthly coaching, community with a private Facebook group, and all that. I want to make that affordable and make that reasonable for artists to be able to do so. You obviously do not have to do either one. You don’t have to be in Fanbase Growth Accelerator to join the coaching. You don’t have to join coaching, if you [just want] join Fanbase Growth Accelerator — it’s just an option. It’s going to be $7 for the course or $7 monthly either way, regardless of which way you choose. Go to: courses.bizmindedmusic.com. I’ll leave a link in the show notes or in the description — wherever you are listening to this episode.
Start Gaining Real Fans Today for JUST $7 Bucks: https://bizmindedmusicschool.thinkific.com/courses/fanbase-growth-accelerator
If you have any questions or any topics that you’d like to possibly have covered on the show, you can send an email to: Questions@IndieMusicianSecrets.com Don’t forget to rate and review this episode. I would greatly appreciate five stars! That would help us to get to continue to get pushed up to the top. And as always, please, please, please share the podcast with anyone that you think this would be beneficial for. So with that, go educate yourself on Facebook Ads [and] join Fanbase Growth Accelerator. Hopefully we’ll see you in the program. God bless and I’ll see you when I see you, peace!
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