If you generate ads optimized for your audience more people will see it and engage. That much seems self-evident right? You have to remember – people only care about themselves, they don’t give a shit about you. They consume what they want to consume, not what you want them to consume. Therefore you need to be creating content that benefits them, not the content that benefits you. What this means is that the focus is going to need to be on the quality of the ads that you are putting out. I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about some core mindset things about ads you should understand if you want to dive into this world.
3. People And Marketing Don’t Change
Remember, ultimately people and marketing don’t change. The platforms and tactics do. This tells us three key things. First it tells us that people want content catered specifically to them. Again, they want things that are interesting. Furthermore, everything people buy they are buying because it’s in their best interest. People buy for three reasons, wealth, health, and relationships. People buy music because of the relationship to the community as well as with the artist, you need to act on that. Furthermore, repetition and reminders are truly key for anyone trying to reach the next level of sales. Think about how you buy things, you need to be reminded about the existence of a product, right? You don’t buy right away. In advertising we call this the number of ‘touches’ you need to convert a sale. Why wouldn’t you want to maximize that?
2. My Epiphany
My epiphany with all this came with a band called Tengger Cavalry. We would be able to tell precisely how many people were going to come to a show just based on how good the ad did. Beyond that we found if we needed an extra five people at a show we could toss another twenty bucks into ads and they would magically show up. That got me thinking ‘Maybe there’s something to this after all!’ Then my friends Stefan from Sun Voyager and Jared from Arkaik started to show me some of the hacks that I’m about to show you and I was able to get really good at this whole thing!
1. False Beliefs
Before we get too far down the rabbit hole of this whole thing though I just want to break down some false beliefs. First and foremost social media isn’t just for young people, look at Trump, Jinx Dawson, Rob Halford. I always keep track of the youngest person to tell me they are ‘too old for social media’. That person is 28. It’s ridiculous. Furthermore, ads are not just pissing money away. You might think this because you had a bad experience with some boosted posts, but there’s so much more opportunity than that. Tied into this is the idea that the market is not oversaturated… with good content. You need to be giving people the best that you can provide. After all you can’t overwhelm your fans with content or ads, look at Heavy Psych Sounds with their constant posting of classic bands or Slipknot dominating every headline or KISS selling everything under the sun including invisible guitar strings. (Which I own!) Ultimately – I just want to convince you that ads are not hard, you just need to understand the process – the secret sauce.
I will be digging into the secret sauce in a further article and in some other cool projects coming up, but I just thought this would be a good opportunity to lay out some of the core ideas behind it as we gear up for this whole thing. If you’re at all interested in learning more, please join my newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/001d367a42e9/socialmediaebook
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MATT BACON
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Matt Bacon is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. Having worked with everyone from Glam Rock icon Phil Collen of Def Leppard, to post Black Metal titans Alcest, by way of legendary thrashers Exhorder as well as labels including Prophecy Productions and Ripple Music, he has dedicated his life to helping young bands develop. Having started his own blog at the age of 14 he views his career in artist development as ‘a hobby that got out of hand’. In 2015 he formed Dropout Media in order to better support the artists he loves. We sit here now, years later with countless tours booked, records released and deals signed, and loving every minute of it.
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