Facebook Ads

[john]

There are many reasons for using Ads on any platform. There are a bunch of different purposes and campaign types that tie up to that campaign type. However, if you match up the wrong purpose to the wrong campaign; type, or execute the campaign poorly, you are as well burning your money, for all it’s lack of benefits to you.

 

Most platforms provide poor targeting. This makes them only really useful for Brand Awareness advertising, and even then if your targeting isn’t great, even that Brand Awareness isn’t great. With Brand Awareness Ad and overall media saturation level is important. That means it works best if your brand is displayed to them in different places on different platforms, not just in Ads either.. for example in articles and interviews. Brand Awareness Ads are pretty impossible for effective tracking of ROI. They rely on a long tail of audience memory and work best when working in concert with other promotions, letting you achieve a good saturation, and produce a high presence in the audience’s awareness.

 

Facebook does, in my opinion, offer much better audience targeting than Twitter. However, as I said, there are a number of different scenarios to place Ads, Brand Awareness Ads being one of them. Facebook at least allows you to create and manage different campaign types… but it can still be contaminated by your overall existing social reach, depending on your targeting criteria.

 

Without diving into Facebook Ads in detail, for artists, there are a limited number of suitable ways to use Ads. Post boosts are pretty useless, especially if your normal audience is the wrong audience (ie built on follow-for-follow and related tactics).

 

With Facebook you do get access to improved targeting criteria by having a full Ad biz account. 

 

There are so many different issues you can run into that will trash your ROI. That isn’t just Facebook specific. There are a bunch of campaign types, and you need to use the right one, no matter the Ad platform.

 

Of course you also need to execute your campaign well.

 

Pick the wrong campaign type or execute the campaign poorly and your money is gone.

 

That aside, you can do everything right, but you need the right back end for the campaign type to effectively recoup and hopefully get a good ROI.

 

It is entirely possible to do everything right but actually Ads on Facebook was a really bad idea. ROI lost.

 

My point is, at the right place and time, with the right campaign for your need, with the right campaign execution, with the appropriate back end for your campaign and you should get benefit from it…. But it is not guaranteed. Indeed, there are many things that can go wrong, and read that as “there are many ways you can lose your money for little or no gain”, and that really sucks.

 

There are a lot of people advising you to place Ads where it is a major component in their business. That is a difficult one. It is hard to trust their advice. You have to be so careful in making sure that their latest and greatest Facebook strategy is appropriate for your needs.

 

Overall, if anyone suggests large spends from the get go…. Avoid it like the plague.

 

I won’t go into the details of Ad campaign designs here, but I will say to start at a dollar a day budget. You then hone your process using A/B testing so that you evolve your Ad process on a very manageable budget. You only scale when that is breaking even at a minimum, and double Ad spend to $2 a day and so on. Rinse and repeat. That way losses are manageable and quickly your Ads evolve into profit. Obviously you want a better ROI than your money back, but scaling should not scale if your ROI is less than 100%. To do otherwise is a major roll of the dice and should be avoided.

 

In essence, there are a ton of risks in music. Our aim is to manage risk and to maximise gain in everything we do. If the risk is high, find ways to minimise risk or remove it completely.

 

Thoughts?

[john]

2 hours ago, buckoff said:

It is entirely possible to do everything right but actually Ads on Facebook was a really bad idea. ROI lost, Thats what happened , Bunch of gurus that knew nothing FB experts  . 8 years of that , thats why I shut it down

I entirely believe you. There’s a load of poor advice for the simplest of reasons. For example getting you to advertise at scale when it is losing you money. That shouldn’t happen.

 

If you don’t mind me asking, what type of campaign were you running on the FB platform?

 

Brand awareness is often used in music, especially for labels with big budgets. For smaller artists it works with the right targeting, on a limited budget in conjunction with another, more direct retargeting Ads on YouTube and Google plus another non-brand awareness add designed to recoup your entire Ad cost.

 

Losses should be kept minimal during early stages by limiting budget. Your campaign should evolve using A/B tests keeping costs clamped very low until ROI is 1 or above… ie breaking even or better. Only once you are above 1 should you consider increasing budget and careful, controlled scaling. Anything else is just them being utterly reckless with your money.

 

Your experience really sucks. No wonder you are pissed off. Whatever you do in future, keep it close, under your control. As a rule, take no chances. Take calculated risks based on accurate data. You should absolutely know your ROI before substantial money is spent.

 

The trouble for most indies getting advice from music industry types is that most Ad campaigns they use are big budget, high risk, brand awareness campaigns. Internet marketing based marketers use much more accurate data based marketing. Personally, I think a “best from both worlds” approach is the best approach, choosing strategies, tactics and tools because they work. I also put my faith in good design, rigorous testing and accurate data. I always go with the knowledge I cannot afford to lose money. It promotes a good, cautious approach.

[john]

7 hours ago, buckoff said:

i don't like being a asshole , I'm mellow , It was targeted to country music , But I don't think it was targeted enough on areas to hit right , Tried many gurus , They all produced nothing . I gave all the respect , you make me money You''ll make money . Bs , they made money on advice , I got nothing. There's a billion people on FB , So I don't get it  . I'm still pissed 

www.nashvillecalifornia.com   Then I had a idea sell Tshirts with my song titles on them , ton of work setting up a store . Never could get the right SEO , Proabably going agaist Amazon , So that didn't work . All that work on artwork . https://nashvillecalifornia.com/products/. Maybe if I could turn a profit , My wife would not say you suck , Can't blame her WTF

Targeting is often at fault, but, so can the entire concept. There are so many parts on a marketing funnel that need to be tweaked for optimum performance. I generally don’t think ads landing on a store is good, or on low priced items…. Unless your strategy is based on whole of life customer value. In that model you anticipate a small loss on the front end, maybe breaking even, but then repeated sales are possible from that customer with negligible Ad costs. That latter option is only possible if you collect email addresses and have optimised your marketing and sales flows.

 

I asked earlier, do you know what campaign model you were running?

 

Who did you use for email and autoresponder services?

 

Did you ever do direct sales from your website? It looks like it, but your website isn’t responding atm. I’d be interested in following through your ad chain, through purchase and beyond, just for interest.

 

Did you run pipeline sequences? What about onboarding? That is critical for musicians.

[Mahesh]

12 hours ago, john said:

Losses should be kept minimal during early stages by limiting budget. Your campaign should evolve using A/B tests keeping costs clamped very low until ROI is 1 or above… ie breaking even or better. Only once you are above 1 should you consider increasing budget and careful, controlled scaling. Anything else is just them being utterly reckless with your money.

 

THIS! 100%

[john]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:34 PM, buckoff said:

Well thats nice , but I need a new guru , follow that dream is bit tiring 

 

This is a board topic, not just a conversation between you and me. I am sure Mahesh was commenting on what I had said meant to him.

 

I can't advise you about someone to do the work for you right now. We are about to launch courses on how to do these kinds of activities but it is you that would do the work. You will learn a lot by doing this, as everything we do is about empowerment. I understand it isn't for everyone, however, the days of being able to say "here catch" are largely gone, but most definitely not advised. There are far too many sharks in the water. You absolutely need to understand what is going on, even when you engage a 3rd party to do it or you.

 

Later in the year, we do plan to launch PR services as part of RC7 PR, but we aren't ready for making this publicly available yet. When available, artists will be able to apply to be added to the roster of our clients.

 

I have to admit I was shocked upon reading your reply:

On 7/11/2023 at 4:01 PM, buckoff said:

I asked earlier, do you know what campaign model you were running?  I don't know they were gurus running it 

 

Who did you use for email and autoresponder services?  none

 

Did you ever do direct sales from your website? It looks like it, but your website isn’t responding atm. I’d be interested in following through your ad chain, through purchase and beyond, just for interest. None 

 

Did you run pipeline sequences? What about onboarding? That is critical for musicians   I have no idea what that means 

 

I need a new guru that can handle all that . I shut my FB about 2 months , So if I pull out of a sprial I'm in , With the right person to handle it , I'll consider trying again

 

Totally shocking.

 

I am happy to offer what advice I can, and I am not looking for your money. In learning some basics you will be able to engage people with much better instruction and be able to monitor their activities. That automatically puts you in a better situation.

[john]

No need for a bad mood.

 

Yes, shocking. I appreciate this is a very sensitive subject for you, but your lack of understanding of the basic mechanics, says a lot about "the gurus" you were working with. It gets me really annoyed on your behalf.

 

I suspect that you, from the little I know about you, weren't desperate to learn about marketing, etc, but loads of musicians feel that way. Of course, for the less scrupulous, such a lack of knowledge is an open goal they cannot resist (Which is why I talk of empowerment and the absolute need to arm yourself with knowledge of at least the fundamentals of whatever you are engaging 3rd parties to do).

 

Really, even doing it for you as a service I would have expected a marketing professional to make sure you were not wasting your money. The fact that they took your money without you having that stuff in place, never mind understanding it, shows a shocking attitude from the people you trusted to put a campaign in place. If they did know, it was a shocking level of callousness. If they didn't know, it shows a shocking level of lack of professionalism and complete disregard for the well-being of others, and either way they completely failed in their duty to their customer, you.