Beginner’s Guide To Launching Social Media Ads

If you're trying to market an upcoming release or tour via social media, and your carefully crafted posts seem to be going unnoticed, don't give up hope! Here we look at how you can make paid social media ads work for you and your band.

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Guest post by Dana Tom of EventbriteAre your social media posts falling into the abyss?There’s no guarantee that your witty posts are reaching your own followers — much less new people on social media. The News Feed is a crowded place. On top of that, most social networks actively de-emphasize organic brand posts in favor of user-generated content.To stand out and expand your reach, it’s worth investing money in paid social media advertising. Here are three simple steps to get started.1. Identify your target audienceUnlike a TV spot during the Super Bowl, social media is extremely precise. In fact, you can measure exactly how much traffic each impression drives and pay only when people land on your listing (called “pay per click”).Narrow who you target — by interests, age, gender, and behavior — based on your attendee profile. After one week of testing different social networks and targets, redirect your budget to the ads driving the highest results to ensure no dollar is wasted.As you learn more about your core attendees, identify the people on Facebook and Twitter who share similar profiles or behaviors and pay to target them (called “lookalike targeting”). This is one effective way to reach like-minded people most likely to attend your event and expand the number of people in your targeted segment.If you use Eventbrite, our integrations with Boostable and ToneDen — tools for automated Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter advertising — make it easy to promote your event and target the people most likely to attend. 2. Experiment with your contentDuring your first few weeks of running paid ads, experiment with different forms of content (including images and videos) on each social network, and take note of what works where. You might find that your Facebook followers crave more substance than what your 140-word character limit on Twitter allows.Replicate the posts with the highest engagement, and you’ll start to see the results.Don’t know what content to test? Check out The Anatomy of an Ideal Event Ad.3. Use real-time analytics to prioritize your social marketing

Now, it’s time to get scientific about social, especially if you decide to invest in advertising. Every organizer dreams of driving more ticket sales at a lower cost. And you can! With the right data, you can quantify your impact on each social network to ensure every dollar is being spent wisely.Between social media and your ticketing platform’s analytics, you can track exactly who is seeing, engaging, and buying. Determine where your ticket buyers are coming from (Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) by applying unique tracking pixels to your event listing. Then double down on the social networks driving the most sales.For an even more holistic look at your online promotion, use Google Universal Analytics to track the full path people take to reach your ticketing page.Advance your paid ads knowledgeAfter you’ve learned what you need to run an ad on social media, it’s time to up your expertise before spending more. Read How to Master Facebook Advertising and Sell More for all you need to know to optimize your spend on the most common advertising platform for events.Dana Tom is a Product Marketing Manager, who strives to write about Eventbrite’s coolest products using as few em dashes as possible. She firmly believes two things in life: Spam is a national treasure and Star Wars’ Han Solo shot first.