Paid promotion on Facebook can be one of the most cost effective forms of advertising for musicians.  But whether it’s using a ‘boosted post’ or a more conventional Facebook advert, a lot of musicians find that their paid Facebook promotions don’t deliver the results they were hoping for.  If you’re one of them, here are the three BIG reasons why that might be.

Your Content Isn’t Good Enough

When paying to show what are essentially ‘strangers’ your stuff on Facebook, that content, needs to stand out.  As someone scrolls through their newsfeed your content needs to attract their attention, it needs to pique their interest, it needs to tug on their heartstrings.  Ideally it should be accompanied by some qualifying text telling the person what they’ll get by consuming that content.  Can you include a quote from a review that might further persuade someone to check you out? Below is a sponsored post that appeared on my News Feed this morning.

I’ve no idea of this band’s musical genre, they’re linking to YouTube and not native Facebook video, there’s no reason AT ALL to check this out.  It’s a waste of money!

You Haven’t Found The Right Audience

The easiest way to find new fans on Facebook is to target your content to the fans of more famous musicians who are musically similar to you.  The trouble is, you can’t just choose one artist’s fans and spend all your marketing budget on that audience without running a variety of tests.  Experiment posting your best content to different audiences (comprising of different artists) to see which audience responds best. Then direct more of your budget to that audience.

You’ll need to ‘fine tune’ your targeted audience on Facebook to make sure you’re reaching fans of the right musicians.

They’re Not Ready Yet

Just because someone has seen your content, that doesn’t mean that person will automatically run out and buy a t-shirt or come to a gig.  Consuming content is the first part of a ‘fan journey’.

I’ve seen it described in marketing terms as follows: “Know – Like – Trust”.  So, a Facebook ad or boost is designed to generate awareness and attention.  Once you have that attention (know), you then have to follow it up regularly with great content that engages that audience to build a relationship (like).  Once you’ve done then and only then will they trust you enough to spend money to come to a gig, buy a t-shirt, buy some music etc.

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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