Analysis: The Pros of Online Music Advertising

Opportunities In Online Advertising

It’s clear that advertising is going to underpin most new websites, ideas, social networks and music blogs. The recent news that Google has overtaken ITV as the highest earning ad funded publisher marked a watershed in the evolution of the Internet.

And yet, the dark arts of online advertising, particularly for music, are still not fully understood. Although terms like ‘music’, ‘download’ or ‘tour’ can be tagged, does that really help promote an individual artist? Fans rarely search for a label. And they don’t tend to click on something unless they were searching for it in the first place. So why bother?

Well, Million feel there are opportunities there – it’s just a case of figuring it out. Do you tag other similar sounding artists? Tag music genres like ‘Rock or ‘Pop’? Target Lifestyle sites? Music blogs? And if you do, what can you expect in conversion rates or sales?

Google Ad Words

The undisputed leader of online advertising, generating more cash than most countries. To advertise you simply create a Google Ads account then choose your keywords. You can filter to an incredible degree, so geographic, keyword, website or phrase are all possible. Maximum spend or Cost Per Click is defined by you, then away you go.

‘Music’ targetted at UK would cost you an average CPC of £0.04 (4p) . “Free Download” or “NME” would cost you 5p CPC

Facebook Ads

These have replaced ‘Flyers’ as Facebook’s method of reaching their 44m subscribers.
Very usefully, they allow targetted filtering based upon geographic, network, gender or age, so is very useful for artists and labels. The prices are similar to Google and allow for either CPM or CPC. Ads are easy to create and can consist of text or image.

BlogAds

This network targets blogs around the world by delivering ads and widgets that can work easily on WordPress, Blogger, etc.

Many of the world’s most popular music blogs tap in to this network and therefore it’s increasingly seen as an ideal way to build awareness within a highly targetted and desirable ‘tastemaker’ group of music consumers.
There are some pricing bargains to be discovered, since some of the less popular blogs almost giveaway ad space on their page.

AdBrite

This network is offering an alternative to the major ad networks by being flexible, no frills and easy to use. You can target websites by geography, genre or keyword, and offer text, graphic or full page. Sites such as PureVolume use this network and prices on the sites are clear. It only takes 15 minutes to build a very thorough campaign.

It’s clear online advertising is under exploited by the majority of artists, labels, promoters and retailers. This may be because it’s regarded as unproven, complicated or expensive. However, our research would argue against all three. The success of Google, the step-by-step set up guides and the fact costs can be capped back up our view.

We would recommend the music industry carefully consider their online spend and increasing it within their marketing mix.