This yr, I made two large selections associated to my music advertising company:

1. I finished providing press companies.

I wrote about this right here, however the upshot is that after five-plus years of serving to artists get coated in blogs, I simply bought form of burned out. I haven’t run a PR marketing campaign in six or seven months, and I don’t miss it.

2. I began providing Meta adverts administration for Spotify promotion.

I’d been doing this for a handful of purchasers over the few years prior, however 2023 was the primary yr I began actively in search of new artists.

My roster remains to be fairly small, however I’m at present managing round 2-3k in month-to-month advert spend for purchasers, with the aim to get into the vary of 10k monthly within the near-ish future. You possibly can learn extra concerning the service right here (and apply to work with me, when you’re so inclined).

I’ve been very pleased with each selections.

Shoot, if all my decisions labored out in addition to these two, I’d be a GameStop millionaire and I wouldn’t have wasted ten hours watching Season 3 of Outer Banks. However you possibly can’t win ’em all.

Anyway, for the needs of this publish, I’d prefer to share a number of the issues I’ve realized because of that second determination (to develop the Meta promoting aspect of my company).

I’m undoubtedly nonetheless studying these things. However I’ve run extra advert campaigns for artists this yr than I’d run in any yr prior, and I’ve come away seeing issues a bit of in a different way than I did seven or eight months in the past.

In gentle of that, listed below are three hopefully-practical ideas.

1. Easy stuff works.

I began out making Meta adverts rather more difficult than they wanted to be.

I’d attempt three to 5 advert units, all directed towards totally different curiosity targets. I’d run three to 5 totally different adverts in every advert set. Taken collectively, this gave me wherever from 9 to 25 totally different combos of adverts / targets, lots of which ran at an indie-level expenditure of round $10 per day.

Then I’d make issues worse by aggressively optimizing (i.e., shutting down “poorly performing” adverts to introduce new variants, altering my curiosity targets, and many others.) after just a few days of knowledge.

This made me really feel form of good. It additionally made for lots of labor. However the issue was that it didn’t truly work all that properly.

Right here’s the factor: If you happen to’re spending $10 per day, you actually can’t know which adverts and targets are working properly after a few days. Or perhaps a week, actually. You’ll have assumptions, however you simply received’t have sufficient information to attract vital conclusions. That’s very true when you’re already stretching your funds throughout a bunch of various adverts and advert units.

So, over the previous two or three months, I’ve been paring issues again.

The small print are a bit of technical, however the gist is that I’ve been making use of Charley Tichenor’s 3:2:2 framework to my campaigns. It’s meant for e-commerce, however the ideas work for music advertising, too

Usually, this strategy means:

• Operating one or two campaigns at a time, every with just one advert set.
• Operating one dynamic advert inside of every marketing campaign, utilizing three movies, two major headlines, and two major texts.
• Doing minimal curiosity focusing on and permitting Fb’s algorithm to seek out the perfect matches in your adverts.

⬆️ That’s a really high-level synopsis. If you happen to’re fascinated by drilling down, right here’s a video the place Charlie walks by the strategy.

To be trustworthy, I discover the man’s instructing type barely obnoxious; one thing about his supply makes me really feel like he’s indignant about how silly I’m.

(But in addition actually each single marketing campaign I’ve run along with his technique has dominated my very own makes an attempt at optimization… so I assume the tone is justified.)

The takeaway: Don’t overcomplicate issues. Typically the easy stuff works finest.

2. The visuals are very, crucial.

This has at all times been true. However while you’re utilizing a broad-target strategy like the three:2:2 technique, it’s much more true, as a result of your adverts are doing the heavy lifting in your focusing on.

In order that they’ve bought to be eye-catching – for the precise eyes, particularly.

I often attempt three or 4 various things, relying on the belongings that the artist has at their disposal:

• Stay efficiency movies
• Music movies
• Inventory footage (however once more, it needs to be eye-catching)
• Artist photographs with movement results

Just about the entire advert gurus I comply with declare that music movies or dwell efficiency movies work finest. In my very own expertise, I’ve discovered that’s the case more often than not – however I’ve additionally run a few of my all-time finest campaigns with random inventory footage or artist photographs, too.

So I don’t assume you essentially want a video together with your face in it. Once more, I believe the primary factor is that no matter you go together with has to a) catch eyes and b) enchantment to the precise viewers.

And once I say the primary factor, I imply the primary factor. Like, by way of impression on advert marketing campaign efficiency, the visuals are in all probability extra vital than the precise high quality of your music. Unhappy, however true.

(Though clearly in case your music sucks, individuals aren’t going to hearken to it ever once more and your entire advert spend can be nugatory.)

(You and I each know your music is nice, although.)

3. Advertisements to playlists are (often) cheaper.

I wrote just a few weeks in the past about my experiment with constructing a playlist community. It’s been a little bit of a wild trip (I bought attacked with bots!!), however total it’s been a reasonably strong success.

And I’ve had success operating comparable campaigns for purchasers, too.

I’m not solely certain why it’s cheaper to get streams and followers on a playlist than it’s to get streams and followers in your personal music. However my hunch is that it has to do with a) how individuals devour music and b) the identify recognition you possibly can entry with playlists.

Mainly, while you run adverts to a playlist, quite than asking individuals to stream a brand new observe from an artist they’ve by no means heard of, you’re pitching them a vibe or a style: “Songs for roadtrips,” or “Emo hip-hop,” or “Instrumental jazz.” Get your focusing on proper, and also you’re exhibiting your adverts to people who find themselves already into the type of factor you’re providing.

You then stack the record with big-name artists that followers of the style will acknowledge, in order that when individuals see the record they already know they’ll in all probability just like the music.

In consequence, each the advert click on and the comply with are simpler sells.

The takeaway: I believe each artist who runs Meta adverts ought to take into account constructing not less than one genre-relevant playlist utilizing this methodology.

And when you’re any individual in a reasonably area of interest style (i.e., experimental ambient music, or nu-jazz, or industrial post-rock), I believe this could in all probability be your go-to Spotify technique.

Okay, this publish is getting too lengthy.

I needed to make this one sensible; studying it again, I could have simply made it complicated. Sorry.

Idk. In truth, these things is a bit of complicated. There’s plenty of jargon, and the Enterprise Suite backend of Meta usually makes me really feel like a centenarian making an attempt to determine the entire laptop factor. However I additionally wish to emphasize that, given a few hours and entry to YouTube, completely anybody can learn to run Meta adverts – and most artists ought to, as a result of they actually do work.

Relatedly, when you’ve bought any questions on Meta (Fb) adverts, let me know. I nonetheless don’t take into account myself an professional, however I do play one on this weblog publish, and I’d be joyful to present you my two cents.

That’s it for this one. As at all times, right here’s wishing you good luck.