Using Facebook Ads To Promote Your Band

TThe Death Knell has long been sounded for the conventional music industry. In the early 21st century the introduction of music file sharing with services like Napster sent the music industry big-wigs into crisis mode as they desperately tried to cling to their traditional stranglehold on music distribution and sales. Almost overnight fans of bands and music were treated to information overload, and musicians the world over held their collective breath waiting for a useful resolution to the idea that “music is for the world” had gone berserk.

These days the presence and existence of stolen music is not as much of an issue, with services like Rhapsody and Spotify putting the practice of torrenting and music theft partially out to pasture, the environment for free flowing music to once again thrive (this time legally) has been firmly established. Additionally, there are new and untapped opportunities for independent artists to gain control of their music and distribution like never before.

Image credit: cbhdesign on Flickr

Recently, Social Media Juggernaut Facebook expanded its pay per click ad system to include a link to privately owned third party website landing pages for website and business promotion. And (not surprisingly) bands and independent artists have taken advantage of this new feature and ad system with relative Gusto. Facebook’s simple but effective PPC platform makes it possible to target your ads so they are only seen by possible fans who share like minded interests.

For Example, if you are interested in promoting a release from a German industrial act, you can set the parameters of your campaign filter so that your ad will only appear on the pages of people with keywords similar to that musical genre. What’s more, you can target your ad geographicallyso that you can promote your release by the region and demographic where it is bound to get the best bang for your buck. Ideally (in this situation) you would set an age and demographic filter to specifically target people of a certain age and geographic bracket who would already be fans of your musical genre.

Facebook’s notorious data mining system that they have compiled about their users since the launch of the social media behemoth may now potentially serve as one of the most game changing digital advertising tools that everyone from a major label band, to an independent musician, to a music marketing websites to a wedding dj can potentially use to target their exact audience. What’s even more interesting is the ability to filter ads so they only appear on the pages of people who are “friends” of “friends” thereby increasing the odds that a “click” will turn into a “like” exponentially.

Increasing the odds that a “click” will turn into a “sale” is the name of game in PPC advertising. Lowering your Cost per acquisition, while increasing the probability that your ads are showing up in the right place (to the right potential customer) is one of the most defining principles of paid search. And with 250,000,000 million active and highly engaging users, Facebook is a great starting point when considering where to launch a social media campaign to take control of your musical career.

Ryan Michael Farrell is a former Professional Drummer for the international punk rock band Guttermouth and is currently working for Wpromote as a digital advertising and search engine optimization professional. Visit his blog at Rumstreet to learn more.