Wavo Blog: This series shares information that’s most relevant to music marketers around the globe.

Context

Effective marketing strategies play a crucial role in driving success in the music industry, especially when it comes to merchandise sales. In the streaming era, artist merchandise is a key way for supporters to demonstrate their fandom and contribute directly to revenues for artists. This is especially relevant in light of Billboard's recent decision to allow select merch bundles (now called ‘Fan Packs’) to count towards charting and album sales.

This blog post explores the concept of utilizing pixels in this context and discusses their significance within a number of use cases.

Understanding Pixels and Their Role in Marketing ROAS:

In the context of online advertising and marketing, pixels are snippets of code embedded on web pages that track user behavior on proprietary web pages. Implementing pixels is necessary anytime marketers want to track actions off of social platforms. Pixels are needed whenever music marketers seek to attribute conversions for purchases on a website, access Landing Page View metrics, or build Website Retargeting Audiences.

For example, let's consider a music marketer who wants to demonstrate how purchases on their web store are driven by marketing. By placing a pixel on the relevant page, they can measure the effectiveness of their social ad campaigns in driving results off-platform, and make data informed optimizations on those social campaigns in an effort to maximize ROAS.

Maximizing Merch Bundles for Chart Performance:

Billboard's decision to count merch bundles towards charting and album sales has also opened (or re-opened) avenues for music industry marketing professionals to contribute directly to charting success. By strategically leveraging merch bundles in marketing campaigns, artists can enhance their ROAS and boost their artist’s chart performance in the process.

For example, let's look at how Taylor Swift used physical album bundles to maximize her sales and charting performance. During the release of her album "Midnights," she offered exclusive merchandise bundles that not only boosted her chart position but also created a strong connection with her fans. That makes it all the more important to use pixels, which maximize the value of your merch marketing, supporting both revenue and charting success. 

Leveraging Pixels to Build Valuable Retargeting Audiences:

Pixel data allows you to build audiences of users who have passed from social media to your webpage, and pixel data allows you to view whether users made purchases or abandoned before buying. Marketers can retarget those who abandoned purchases with customized ads, encouraging them to return and complete their purchase. If they have completed their purchase, marketers can add them into quality, qualified audiences that can be applied to future marketing success (say, for when a tour is announced), resulting in optimized advertising spend and maximized Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) in future endeavors.

At Wavo, we always ensure we’re building artist-centric first party retargeting audiences with every campaign we run. These audiences make music marketing more effective over time, allowing for marketers to build off the success of their last campaign in their next campaign.

Optimizing Artist Web Store Landing Pages for ROAS:

To drive higher ROAS, artist web store landing pages must be carefully designed and optimized. A visually appealing layout, user-friendly interface, and seamless navigation are key elements that create a positive user experience. Additionally, including a clear call-to-action (CTA) that guides visitors towards making a purchase is essential.

One example of an optimized landing page is Ed Sheeran’s online merchandise store. The page features high-quality product images, a well-organized layout, and a prominent CTA button that encourages visitors to explore and make a purchase. Web stores like these extensively test their landing pages, and that leads to a more refined product. Pixels enable landing page optimization because they allow marketers to test and track the impact that changes to landing pages have on customer behaviour.

Key Takeaways

In the evolving landscape of the music industry, marketing professionals must stay ahead of the curve to maximize ROAS and chart performance. By harnessing the power of pixels on artist web store landing pages and understanding how they can drive targeted marketing campaigns, professionals can achieve greater success. Billboard's recent allowance of merch bundles towards charting and album sales provides an exciting opportunity for music industry marketers to amplify their efforts.

By integrating pixels, optimizing web store landing pages, and leveraging merch bundles, marketing professionals can navigate the ever-changing music industry landscape and thrive in their endeavors. Real-world examples, such as Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, showcase the effectiveness of these strategies in driving higher ROAS and chart performance. By adopting these tactics and continuously analyzing data, music industry marketing professionals can stay ahead of the competition and achieve their goals.

Written by Megan Hilario, Merchandise Account Manager at Wavo

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