Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

We’ve been waiting to quote Don Quixote for as long as we could. Here we are, the first blog post of 2023, and we are shooting our shot. We are doing so of course, intentionally and with good reason, as diversification seems to be a foreign language when it comes to online advertising in music.

Music Artists Are Early Adopters

As long as the world keeps spinning, we’re going to experience cycles. Creators are among the savviest marketers and earliest adopters on the planet and tend to identify and join trends early.

Whether it’s the latest viral dance challenge or social media network, if it’s buzzing, chances are music artists are on it and promoting their art.

The Field Is Getting More Less Crowded

The internet seems to be expanding exponentially. New platforms emerge (hi BeReal 🙋🏻‍♂️) and disappear (bye Clubhouse ✌️) on an ever more accelerated basis. It can become daunting, or flat out impossible, to be everywhere at the same time.

The story looks much different, however, when looking at platforms with serious advertising integrations.

For Search Ads, Google and Bing are your options. For short form video content, TikTok, Meta’s Instagram, and Snapchat share 90%+ of music ad revenue, and long form video content pretty much only lives on Google’s YouTube

Why Betting On The Winning Horse Is Bad

A recent Financial Times article titled “TikTok undercuts social media rivals with cheap ads in battle for growth” featuring data from VaynerMedia caught our eye recently.

TikTok has become a very cheap place to advertise, in terms of CPM.

At the same time, TikTok is the most buzzing platform, sitting at #5 of most used social media apps in 2022, according to Social App Report.

Given the data as outlined, one might jump to the conclusion that advertising on TikTok is best. Not so fast. The data we’re seeing, suggests that that is a bad idea. Diversification always wins.

Let’s look at the full picture.

TikTok is exceptionally good at keeping fans in their ecosystem. On the other hand, their ad platform and ad capabilities are the youngest, which also means least developed and tested.

While we've seen exceptional performance for ad campaigns promoting content on the platform, when it comes to ad campaigns directing fans off the platform, e.g. to Spotify, merch, or tickets, the data is a mixed bag, and oftentimes more established platforms, such as Facebook, deliver more conversions for an artist’s buck.

What Platform Works Best To Advertise?

This is the portion where we don’t shy away from a shameless plug. But first, to address the question in the headline head-on: it depends.

There are many different variables at play, which makes it impossible to provide one answer. Advertising objective, type of artist, content, demo, time of year, etc. all play a role in influencing ad buys.

The good news, there is software like b00st.com alongside the top 1% of advertising agency partners that craft budget recommendations and allocations based on science, rather than gut feeling.

At b00st.com, we go one step further, and make it mandatory to let software, algos, and experts guide where a campaign budget is best allocated, and make changes in real time, to optimize every detail.

"Set it and forget it” does not exist in our world. Data is reported in real-time, so changes can be implemented and executed in real-time, even at midnight on a Sunday, thanks to API access.

In the online advertising space, it is essential to diversify ad spend across multiple platforms in order to maximize ROI and reach. By betting on one platform alone, advertisers risk missing out on potential opportunities that could be more successful elsewhere. Therefore, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each platform is key when deciding where to invest the budget.

Fun Corner

1. The full quote as featured in “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

   “It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.”

2. If you are ever wondering if your ad agency partner is in the top 1%, ask who is monitoring and optimizing your ad spend on Saturday at 3am.

In Case You Are Looking For Ads

If you are interested in giving our autonomous ad experience a try, head over to b00st.com and press the signup/sign-in button.