ReverbNation’s New Promotional System Takes Guesswork Out of Facebook Advertising
August 29, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
In a phone interview this week, TMV’s Laura G Thorne spoke with ReverbNation’s Chief Operating Officer Jed Carlson regarding the launch of their new “Promote It” turnkey advertising system, targeted toward artists, labels venues:
As D2F marketing and social media mature and the technology that drives their development becomes more sophisticated, a rapidly growing array of products are now available to collect, disseminate and inform music marketers of every change in fan sentiment, loyalty and behaviour. This avalanche of information can easily produce a blowback effect resulting in overwhelm and inertia.
“Promote It,” launched on August 24 by ReverbNation, takes Facebook’s existing advertising model to the next level by offering an easy-to-use, quick and low-budget solution for artists, labels and venues. Its simplicity will be an attraction for many – particularly musicians, who wish to get on with (or back to) playing music – while others may be intrigued by the company’s stated ability to “optimise” ad content during a live campaign based upon ad performance.
What the Promote It system focuses on are “outcomes”, not just a mere increase in the number of fans, likes or shares. Promote It’s reporting allows its customers to see how its ads are driving plays, fan interactions (such as email signups, typically offered in exchange for a free download) and friend-to-friend recommendations, as well as impressions and clicks. These outcomes support the artist, label or venue’s objectives, whether increased awareness, engagement or sales.
ReverbNation’s Jed Carlson uses a farming analogy to describe the music marketing process, starting with the need to plant (reach new fans); grow (nurture fans via tools such as email newsletters, tweeting etc) and finally, to harvest, or collect revenue through sales, whether of music, merchandise or tickets. The question then becomes one of strategy, which will vary depending upon the artist, genre and phase of career; a developing band, known by few, will have different goals perhaps to that of an established act with many loyal and motivated fans.
The Promote It system offers advertisers the ability to promote a song, artist, venue or release. In the case of a song, users choose five similar-sounding artists, and the Promote It algorithm then “combines geo and demo data with fans’ likes and interests to target a potential fan”. The advertiser can provide the text, or they can opt to let Promote It generate the copy, which is based upon the success of previous ads shown to fans with similar characteristics (and is continually optimised throughout).
When a Facebook user clicks on the ad, he or she is taken to a customised landing page identical in look and feel to the ad itself. As the campaign progresses, data is provided showing how each of the five artists selected is “performing” in comparison to each other. Finally, advertisers have the ability to contact and connect via Facebook with the new fans acquired as a result of their ads to follow up with a personal message or other activity.
As those who have worked with Facebook ads will know, creating an effective Facebook campaign doesn’t just happen by accident, and a fair amount of planning and knowledge is involved. To some extent, the process is one of trial and error, and requires ongoing attention. It is likely that a significant percentage of musicians who run ads on Facebook will welcome the opportunity to turn over the process to Promote It, and will be relieved that they can cross one more marketing chore off of their already lengthy to-do list.
With an entry-level price of $25 per ad, Promote It is an affordable option for artists who want to put a toe in the water and experiment with paid online promotion. How this compares to the cost of a Facebook ad campaign in terms of cost-per-click or impression may be difficult to measure directly given the number of variables involved; the quality of fan and fan activity generated by a precisely targeted campaign is likely to be higher, and to offer better value in the long run. As Promote It increases its reach in coming months its effectiveness in comparison with Facebook will become easier to determine.
What this means too for ReverbNation in a marketplace serviced by a growing number of artist-oriented promotional tools will be interesting to follow as well. Many of these products – be they Topspin, Buzzdeck, Musicmetric, Next Big Sound, Bandcamp or ReverbNation – have overlapping functions or are now aggregating with each other, so it becomes a bit of an exercise to determine which offers the best fit for your particular situation. In that regard, ReverbNation’s Carlson describes ReverbNation as “a one-stop shop with all the promo tools that an artist needs to take advantage of the internet…we look at every artist as a small business”.
Further, while ReverbNation, Bandcamp and others are still focused on Facebook integration, Google Plus is rapidly gaining traction and is poised to throw another unpredictable element into the mix. ReverbNation is currently evaluating the impact that Google Plus may have on its customer base going forward, stating that no conclusions have yet been drawn.
During the testing phase, Reverb Nation has run “over 18,000 campaigns” on a beta version of the product since April. PROMOTE IT is now available to “all artists, labels, and venues with free accounts on ReverbNation.”
on Aug 28 2011. Filed under featured.
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