With the rise of streaming platforms and social media, music advertising has become an increasingly important tool for promoting artists and their music. To make the most of your music ads in 2023, here are some tips to optimize your campaigns:
Know Your Audience: One of the most critical steps in optimizing your music ads is understanding your target audience. You need to identify the demographics, interests, and behaviours of your audience and tailor your messaging and targeting accordingly.
Choose the Right Platform: With so many advertising platforms available, it’s essential to choose the ones that align with your target audience. For example, if your audience is primarily Gen-Z, TikTok might be a better platform than Facebook.
Use Engaging Creative: Your ad creative is what will catch the attention of your audience. Make sure it’s visually appealing, reflects your brand, and has a clear call-to-action. Consider using video ads, as they tend to be more engaging than static images.
Utilize Data and Analytics: Use data and analytics to track the performance of your ads. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to optimize your campaigns.
Test and Experiment: Don’t be afraid to test different ad formats, targeting options, and creative. Experimentation is key to finding what works best for your brand and audience.
Leverage Influencers: Influencer marketing can be an effective way to reach your target audience and promote your music. Consider partnering with influencers who align with your brand and have a significant following in your target demographic.
Focus on Branding: Music advertising isn’t just about promoting a single song or album. It’s also about building your brand and creating a strong, recognizable image. Make sure your ads reflect your brand’s values and messaging.
By following these tips, you can optimize your music ads in 2023 and reach a wider audience with your music. Keep experimenting, tracking your results, and refining your campaigns, and you’ll be well on your way to success.
TikTok is a social media video sharing platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance. It’s an app that has taken the world by storm and has been downloaded 2 billion times through various app stores. According to Omnicore Agency stats of TikTok, there are over 800 million active users with an average of 1 billion views per day. The average user spends 46 minutes on TikTok a day, which is highly likely that the average number has risen for UK nationals in the most recent lockdown, because what else have you got to do?
The Tiktok algorithm on 3 main things, this includes user interaction, video information and the device settings. The User interaction refers to the individual like-ability of another users account, therefore the more you engage with a particular account’s content the more you will see from them. Video information refers to the hashtags used to categorise the type of content, so the more you like a video with the hashtag ‘music playlist’, the more content you will get on your feed with similar/same hashtags. Finally your device/account settings refers to the location and language preference, this optimises the user experience of the app.
So why should you promote your music on it?
TikTok has become the easiest platform to go viral on, the algorithm allows your content to be viewed by such a vast audience in a small space of time. It isn’t like Facebook or Instagram, where the only posts that are shown to users are the the accounts who already have a huge following and user engagement. TikTok shows all videos regardless.
It is easy to interact with your following/fans directly through commenting and/or creating a complete separate comment reply video. Direct user interaction will create lifelong super-fan’s, and will encourage them to come to your shows after the Pandemic has exited the door.
41% of it’s user’s are between 16-24, this is the audience that you will most likely seek as a new artist, as these are the people that are most likely to stream your music on alternate platforms.
TikTok is available in 150 different markets, with a total of 75 different languages. Meaning your music can be viewed around the globe by… many, many people.
Creating your own 15-60 second video’s allows users to not only hear your music, but also understand who you are as a person. You can add personal charm, love, and humour to everything you do, to build that rapport, trust and intimacy with your following.
Earning money which is probably one of the most important factors of a struggling musician. Enables you to earn money through your TikTok content. Live streams allows you to receive donations from your users. Promote your merchandise on your platforms. Direct people to your various streaming accounts. If you become a frequent and consistent content creator, TikTok has made a creator fund which pays and incentivises it’s users to keep creating content.
A&R Music managers are using TikTok to find new talent before anyone else does, TikTok will get you noticed.
If these points aren’t enough to convince you, then I don’t know what will. TikTok is highly likely to take over platforms like Facebook and Instagram this year. You should jump in and start already.
There is a common myth within the music industry that you need a management team in order to get your music out there. This is far from the truth. In this digital era artists have so many platforms at their disposal that they can work with to maximise their fanbase. You could have strangers singing away at your songs in no time. As long as they are good of course.
CREATE YOUR BRAND
You’ve seen it done by (the most dreaded word) influencers, you’ve seen it done by your favourite musicians, you’ve seen it done by Jojo Siwa. Without a solid brand and understanding who you are, well simply…you are no-one.
What do I mean by build your brand? Well… Who are you? What do you stand for? What represents who you are? What makes you memorable from the other 7 billion people on this planet?
According the founder of Spotify Daniel Ek approximately 40,000 songs are uploaded onto the platform every day. There is so much competition and talent now available at your fingertips. You MUST do something to stand out.
Create your logo – Keep it simple, Keep it clear, Keep it precise. This will help fans identify you. The imagery has to represent who you are. Don’t have a unicorn logo if you hate unicorns. Look into colour meanings and the feelings it conjures. Heavy metal band with a calm baby blue or mild green colours attract harmony and tranquility. Which from my experience their is too much head-banging involved for those sorts of colours. Lastly on this point, make sure to be consistent across all online platforms; keep it the same.
Create a music brand strategy – I say music brand strategy because a corporate brand strategy shouldn’t be used for your heart wrenching songs. Create posts of what you’re working on, write a blog of your projects, promote your gigs, do some live streaming with fans, recreate your songs with household objects like Nina Nesbitt on TikTok.
Collaborate! – Have you met some other musicians along your journey that you liked the sound of? Do they fit your music genre and image? I don’t mean messaging Beyonce on instagram. I mean other small an upcoming bands/artists. Well then, reach out and make a song together. Do a live stream of your jam session. Double the platforms, double the fanbase. This is a great way to to gain some new followers, plus its fun!
Don’t forget to be true to yourself, nobody likes a fake Jane.
2. MAKE GREAT MUSIC
You might be thinking “Uh, yeah…duhhh!” But just take a moment to think back to when you were in school and the amount of bands that were created, and where they are now? Yeah, exactly.
Make a song that stands out. There are so many songs nowadays that sound the same. I am a frequent listener of discover weekly on spotify, I listen to the first 5 seconds then skip to 1 minute in and usually I have decided within 10 seconds if I like it or if it grabs my attention. 9 times out 10 I skip it.
Make something unique, exciting and memorable. Again, who are you and what do you stand for? Portray that in your music.
Content is King!
3. LIVE GIGS
I know live gigs seem to be the thing of the past during these pandemic apocalyptic times, but when we do manage to peak out the window and don’t see Covid-19 winking back at us; book some gigs. You don’t need a booking agent for this either.
In the beginning, play at your local pub, school fair, small live music venues, your brothers birthday or your grandad’s wedding anniversary. Anyone that you can convince to give you even the slightest chance to play, take it. The chances are, there are going to be people there that you have never seen you before, people that can actually like your music, people that can build your fanbase.
Make sure to put on an impressive show, there is nothing worse when an artist has no stage presence or they are too shy to move. Your body language and your energy are contagious. If you’re boring, the audience will be too.
Once you get comfortable with playing and performing live, look into switching up the areas you play in. Play in neighbouring towns, or in a completely new county. Switching up venues and locations attracts different types of people who might be interested in your music.
Oh and don’t forget to introduce yourself at the gigs. The amount of times I’ve been to gigs where opening acts have been such a great vibe and then they don’t say who they are or where we can find their music is shocking. It’s like thanks for teasing us, now bye, see you never.
4. MONTHLY FAN CLUB – PATREON
Patreon is an innovative platform created for artists to start to generate some income. Once your following has reached into it’s hundred’s if not thousands. You can start to offer them a monthly subscription to get monthly exclusive video’s, interviews, tracks that are only available to subscribers.
This platform can be a real life saver for new and upcoming artists because you can get decent money with the right amount of followers.
It also means that you don’t have to conform to the masses, because the people that have subscribed are already there because they like your music.
What a fantastic way to build a true meaningful connection with your audience and make some money.
5. SCHEDULING
Build yourself a schedule. There is a reason we have rota’s at work and timetables at school. Without them everything is a mess. You need to make sure that you allocate yourselves time for each of the tasks above. Whether it’s your brand strategy, or the day of the week you need to post content or that Sunday night Instagram Live you promised your fans that you would do every week. Allocate a day and a time and stick to it. Having a schedule not only simplifies and organises your mind. But it will also create loyal fans. The more you keep your promises, the more they will tune in to your content. Allocate a time for rehearsals, the more you play together the stronger the connection between the band the better the atmosphere for the audience. This is probably one of the easiest steps out of all the 5, and probably the first step to accomplishing the other 4.
LadyMusicBiz101 