The music industry is in a time of total metamorphosis. New marketing paradigms are emerging with dizzying speed and the independent musician sometimes struggles to keep up. If you are a musician, you need to know how to promote your music today. One of the most compelling methods is using Facebook ads.

Starting Line

If you are an independent musician searching for how to promote your music, a great starting place is creating a Facebook presence. The site has become such a monster of social media that it is unwise to ignore them in your music marketing strategy. With over 800 million users worldwide, it represents what may be the largest pan-national connected group of people the world has ever seen.

The place to begin is a Facebook artist page. These differ from personal Facebook pages and are critical to this strategy. Once your page is established and you have over 25 likes, you can also get a custom Facebook URL that puts your chosen name right after the Facebook address. If you have not yet done this, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to set up your URL.

Moving Up

To be effective in your Facebook music strategy you must be consistent in using your artist page. If you know how to promote your music, you will be sure that these basics are in place:

• Setup and maintain a Facebook artist page
• Be active on the page and post daily or multiple times per day
• Have music and/or merchandise available for sale online
• Have sample tracks of your best tunes to be listened to online
• Develop and post content such as videos, photos and posts with which your fans can interact

With all of this in place, you will be able to move to the next level of how to promote your music. You will have lots of competition so be prepared to be consistent in above things as you start.

The Facebook Ad Advantage

Get your own ad started here: http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/. Facebook offers unique tools to help you target your ads. With an ad, you will be able to learn about your audience and gain new likes for your page.

A Facebook ad helps to promote your music in very specific ways:

• An ad can drive traffic to your artist page
• It can increase the number of likes you are getting
• You can advertise offers linked outside your artist page
• You can target your ad to your user demographic

Although you want everyone in the world to hear your music, you must know how to promote your music. An effective ad campaign will target those who are most likely to buy from your band. Target your ad by such things as location, age, interests and more. You can use Facebook Insights to view the demographics of your fan base. If you are new to Facebook Insights, see http://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=insights to learn how to use this valuable resource.

Out of My Pocket

Facebook can be cost effective if you pay attention to your budget. You can start small, say $1 to $10 dollars a day and gauge the response. You can run a Cost Per Click (CPC) or a Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM) campaign. The CPC campaign is the best place to start for a newcomer. Read the bidding info provided by Facebook and make sure you bid realistically.

Results

Track the results from you campaign to know how to construct future campaigns. Facebook ads will help you move your music forward.