Hey gigging musicians, it's Jared. And I want to chat paid advertisements to get gigs. So, you know, for many musicians, it takes quite a realization that eventually, you know, you will reach a cap a ceiling, so to speak, of the number and pay of the gigs that you can get in a certain year without being creative about your marketing, which is kind of one of the whole premises behind this whole gig musicians podcast is that we have to do everything we can in our power to gig as much as we can, and advocate for as high pay as we can, which we deserve. So part of the strategy, you know, I have this whole gigging funnels strategy where you're, you're not just showcasing your work, you're leading a potential customer who can book you on a journey through what we call a sales funnel, which is called the funnel because it's wide at the top, meaning the most number of people will experience the beginning of your funnel, and people will get weeded out and filtered through the further down they go, because they don't resonate with your messaging or their it's not the right time for them. And so, that's a whole the whole concept of a gigging funnel. One of the ways to fill the top of the funnel, which can maximize the number of people who book you at the bottom of the funnel, is by paying for advertisements. And so this paid advertisement can come in a variety of forms. You know, in the wedding world, a lot of people pay to be listed on wedding wire, and the not those are directories, that you can pay as a musician and list yourself, which exposes you to all of the brides and grooms who rely on wedding wire.com. To to find their wedding vendors. So that's a good resource for weddings. Now, I am trying to expand my my group's reach, you know, we are listed on all the directories, wedding wire, the knot, etc. But the problem is, you know, you don't get as that's not the complete picture. So, not all brides and grooms in my area, use wedding wire or, or the knot, or even think to click in the category that I exist in, in wedding wire or the knot. You know, even if, say they're looking for live music, say they're looking for a string quartet on wedding wire, they might not necessarily think to go to, you know, ensembles and soloists category like that, simply that's a choice that wedding wire made to call it that instead of string quartet. So if somebody even is looking for a string quartet, but they don't know that string quartets live in soloists and ensembles, they might look in the wedding band category. And unfortunately, on wedding where you have to pay to be listed in multiple categories. And I don't think there are enough people who make that mistake to actually merit paying for a second profile. But that being said, there are still who who might miss out on us, which means I can't solely rely on wedding wire to bring me all of my bookings to bring me all of the traffic at the top of my funnel. So I diversify. I do list in multiple directories. And then there are other ways you can generate traffic, which includes paid ads on Facebook and Google. And so I'll tell you a little bit about a Facebook ad that I'm running right now. And this was inspired by a different String Quartet based out of New York City. And they run Facebook ads. And if you've never run a Facebook ad before, well, there are a couple of things to think about. And but first, I'll tell you some backstory, and why this is effective. So what happens is a bride is a bride and groom, they're in the midst of their wedding planning. And even if they don't go on wedding where, you know, they probably go on social media more so than these websites. So they're scrolling on Facebook, you know, maybe on the couch, having Netflix on in the background, they're scrolling, reading their friends message, and then all of a sudden, they come across an ad with a video of my group, saying a beautiful String Quartet for your wedding available for weddings in the Milwaukee area. They watched the video, and it shows them exactly what they're looking for they you know, they can picture themselves at their wedding with this, this music in the background, this live music. And so they click on that ad, which brings them to a form that asks them a couple questions, including When is your event? What venue Are you getting married at? And what what is your email address? And so that right there is a funnel because 100% of the people that I show the ad to will read the ad or at least see the video it'll interrupt their newsfeed but then Only a certain portion of them will watch the video. So right there, the funnel narrows, and only a certain portion of them will actually watch the video all the way through. Now, a certain percentage of the people who watch the video will click on the ad to get a quote. And then that will open up the form. And then only a certain percentage of those will actually provide the information and click the submit button. But the cool thing is, so I started running this ad earlier this week. And I'm only spending five bucks a day, which some people that might actually sound like a lot, you know, that's a meal, that's a Subway sandwich a$5 footlong a day. But, you know, how much do I make in a given gig, it depends on the gig. But on average, I'm making at least $600 off of a gig. And so if it costs me up to$600, to get one person to book, then I will be breakeven. And so that would be two months, if I don't get one gig in two months from these Facebook ads, then it doesn't pay for itself, I lose money. But the amazing thing is I launched it earlier this week, and I've already gotten one lead. And so a lead is when they give you their email address or contact information. And then I begin my follow up process, I start to reach out to them and paint the picture of what it will look like for us to be at their wedding. And try to get them to sign my contract once again, another funnel, because not everybody who I get their email address will actually book me. But the cool thing is, you know, I've only spent 510 bucks, and I've already gotten a lead. And there are ways once you learn how Facebook ads work, that's when you can start to optimize it and minimize the amount you're spending on each lead. And when you minimize it, that means it'll take fewer people or it'll cost you less to get more bookings. So that is one way and it's a pretty effective way to get bookings is just by spending some money on advertising. The key really there is knowing how to do that. And with Facebook, you know, there are a couple elements that go into that. One of which the one of the most important is the targeting. So when you can target specific people on Facebook, and if you're interested in learning more about targeting, and how to actually set up a Facebook ad, feel free to reach out to me I might do a training on that. So targeting meaning Who are you actually trying to show your ad to? And then the messaging? So the creative part of this, which is what words do I put for the headline? What words do I put in the description of it? And what ad creative meaning what videos do you show to people? And there's a lot of strategy to this. But if you do it right, that is how you optimize what how much you're getting charged per lead. So there's a lot of strategy, a lot of stuff to learn about it. But if you're able to do it that is a viable and sustainable source for your paid gigs. And that's a way that you can build up your business quite quickly. So I hope you got some value out of this. If you're interested in learning more, please reach out leave a comment in the gigging musicians Facebook group that I run, or just shoot me a message. And yeah, if you if you got any value out of this, like this podcast, subscribe to it, and shoot me a message because I I love getting feedback about this. I was actually just at an open mic night, where I introduced myself to somebody for the first time. He's like, oh, you're the guy from the podcast. And he told me that one of the messages, one of the podcasts that I said resonated really well with him. And that kind of feedback keeps me going that that fuels my fire so they can keep, you know sharing my stories and my experiences and sharing the stories of other gigging musicians because what we do is so valuable and it's so worth us uniting together as a community and helping lift each other up. Alright, that's it for today. Hope to see you on the next episode of The gigging musician podcast.