This is the big one, the thing that if you understand can really move the needle for your ads and get you records selling. Understanding how to create effective creative, that is to say, images or videos for your marketing is essential if you are trying to close sales and run an ad that actually works.
So I get a lot of questions about getting set up with ads band there’s a lot to break down. Now I don’t want to get too deep onto this but I want to break down a few core elements that way we can all be aware of some core details going forward.
What I want to break down is the difference between the Business Manager, Ads Manager and Page Manager back ends, some core locations to understand within Ads Manager and finally, the simple fact that social media ads are a much cheaper and more effective way to promote your band than basically anything else.
Business Manager/Ads Manager/Page Manager
This is probably the place I see people getting the most caught up when figuring out how to run ads.
Essentially, Business Manager is the overarching framework behind anything you do where you are giving money to Facebook. This is where you can manage the money behind your FB page and permissions among other things. It is where you need to go to set up payment options. You can access it here: https://business.facebook.com
Ads Manager is a subset of Business Manager. This is where pretty much everything that has to do with this book takes place. It allows you to set up audiences, build ads, and more. You can access it here: https://business.facebook.com/ads/manager
Note that the permissions you set up for Business Manager and Ads Manager have NO bearing on permissions within an individual page. Adding someone to your Business Manager means they can spend money on your account, so be very careful who you are giving access too.
Page Manager rounds out this trifecta. This is just the standard backend for your individual Facebook page that lets you edit posts, look at insights, and all of that good stuff. You can access this from your FB page.
Core Locations Within Ads Manager
Within Ads Manager there are a few core locations you need to know about. To check them out you need to go to the top left corner where you see the 9 dots in a square next to the words ‘Facebook Ads’. From there a panel will open that will let you go to different places within ads manager.
The most important for the purposes of this book are the ones titled Ads Manager and Audiences. The Ads Manager tab is where you actually set up the ads. The Audiences tab is where you can save your audiences. This is important because it’s really useful to not have to rebuild audiences each time you want to use one.
Why Ads Are The Cheapest Form Of Promotion
Then of course I wanted to take a brief moment to address why social media ads are the cheapest and in my eyes the best form of band promotion. It’s simple really. With social media ads, you can get extremely precise in your targeting, and then the algorithms take it another step in really making sure they are serving your ads to the right people. They help get things hyper-targeted.
Beyond that, you can start off testing with as little as $5. What magazine would let you in for that cheap? That’s the beauty of this stuff, if you really take the time to learn it you can be running tests to perfect ads on the super cheap and continually improve your standing with them. What more could a guy want?
Hopefully, this can clear up some of the common questions have about these platforms. I know that they are tricky to deal with and cause a lot of unnecessary (Like spelling unnecessary, what a ridiculously hard to spell word!) headache, but once you start to realize how they work it pays off big time!
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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