In this piece Anna Hubbel walks us through how to drastically improve your Facebook ad targeting and consequently reach a demographic much more likely to contain prospective fans.
_______________________________
Guest post by Anna Hubbel, staff writer at AdvertiseMint, a Facebook advertising agency
Although great music often speaks for itself, it never hurts to implement marketing strategies to extend your reach to prospective fans. There’s a whole world out there filled with music lovers, and digital advertising is one of the best ways to reach them.
Facebook in particular offers various advertising tools to help you reach music lovers most likely to become your fans. One of those tools is the Audience targeting tool, located at the ad set level when creating Facebook ads from Facebook’s website, Business Manager. From the ad set level, you can specify your target audience by entering the demographics, interest, and behaviors of the people you want to reach.
By improving your Facebook ad targeting to reach potential fans, you open yourself up to a whole new avenue of successful possibilities. Here are the ways you can reach your potential fans using Facebook audience targeting.
Target by Concert Venues
Music lovers who have had a positive experience at a specific concert venue are likely to return to that venue. Additionally, anyone who attends a concert at a given venue is someone who’s obviously interested in music. Under “Locations,” target people who are interested in certain music venues, especially venues where artists with similar music genres to yours have performed. For example, if your music genre is rock, target House of Blues. If you often tour in large, popular venues, target the Hollywood Bowl. When targeting a location, you can adjust the location’s radius. For example, you can choose to target only users who are within 20 miles of the Hollywood Bowl.
You can even target your concert venue. When you’re preparing to put on a concert in a specific venue, you can use the same location targeting tool to reach potential fans residing within that area.
Target by Custom Audiences
If you have an email or contact list of current fans, you can import that data to Ads Manager to create a Custom Audience. Once uploaded to the system, you can target Facebook ads to the people in your Custom Audience list. You can upload your Custom Audience under “Custom Audiences” by clicking “Create New.”
Target by Lookalikes
Once you upload a Custom Audience, you can use it to create a Lookalike Audience. When creating a Lookalike Audience, Facebook will use data from your Custom Audience list to target new users with attributes similar to those on that list. So if you already have a fan following, you can use that information to reach even more like-minded fans.
You can create a Lookalike Audience from the “Audiences” section of Business Manager. From there, you click the “Create Audience” tab and select the “Lookalike Audience” options from the dropdown menu.
Target by Genre
Target prospective fans based on music genre to reach people most likely to be interested in your style of music. To do so, go to the “Audience” section of the ad set creation and type in the genre you want to target in the section called “Detailed Targeting.” This section allows you to refine your targeting to reach a very specific audience; in this case, an audience interested in your genre of music.
Target by Demographics
Demographics is the simplest form of Facebook ad targeting. Target the age and gender of the audience who your music is for. For example, if your music tends to attract male and female teenagers or college students, those are the demographics you want to specify in your targeting, as opposed to people who are 50 years old or older.
Target by Similar Artists
Oftentimes, Facebook users include information about artists they like on their profile pages, which Facebook uses to inform targeting based on interest in a very specific artist. Thanks to that data, you can target people who are interested in artists similar to you. You can do that using Facebook’s interest targeting by typing in the name of the artist. For example, country artist Carrie Underwood might enter “Faith Hill” as an interest to target because both of these artists have similar country music styles.
Target by Pages
Target music pages by typing the name of the page into the box for “Detailed Targeting.” By using this targeting option, you increase your chances of reaching users who are interested in music. But don’t just target by any music page: find pages that match your music genre and style. If you’re a small, local artist or band, look for pages based on location. You can even follow those pages to generate engagement with your own music page.
The more detailed your targeting, the better your chances of reaching the right audience. When creating Facebook ads, never neglect to use Facebook’s targeting tools and the tips mentioned here. Are you ready to meet your new fans?