Hey everyone,
Does anyone here have experience with running ads for plugins on social media? Notably Instagram, Facebook and YouTube?
Data such average Cost-per-click is readily available online, but given the plugin market is niche, I am wondering if the data is similar for it as well.
Also curious if people have thoughts on the effectiveness of digital ads in general.
After personally running ads for a while then stopping, i can say without a doubt they increase traffic to your site or whatever, but they dont always increase downloads.
I ran ads on Meta and Instagram for about 3 months and during the time the amount of user sessions on my shopify store skyrocketed, but not so much the sales or downloads (probably because of my lack of marketing skills)
Ironically i’ve had better experiences with marketing when other people end up doing it for me, things like blogs and forums seem to work very well in the audio industry, especially with free plugins. No matter what something is, if its free, people will get it.
Some examples would be my first plugin that got 2k downloads for some random reason i still dont understand, but at the same time other paid things that i’ve made have barely crossed 50 downloads.
At the end of the day, picking your target market and advertising directly is not going to happen on instagram or facebook, but in audio, its a lot more likely to work on sites like KVR, theAudioPluginGuy and other music based forums. I do also suggest looking into discord as a means for promotion, theres a lot of music servers that you might be able to promote in!
best of luck and hope to hear some good results soon!
We’ve been running Facebook/IG ads for a while now. They get views and clicks, but whether or not they increase sales or not is still very difficult to say. You also have to be careful with targeting, and vigilant about reviewing performance regularly. On several occasions we’ve ended up wasting money serving ads to what look like bot farms in some random country, and Meta are completely indifferent to this problem.
That’s also a great point, i think the best option for ads is choosing a platform that groups your niche altogether (KVRAudio is a great example), then the effect bots have is much less significant. Only downside being ads on Sites like KVR cost a lot more than meta
If you do try this, try to use a store integration that can track conversions through Facebook pixel. I can track impressions, clicks, and conversions from my ads which helps me know what specific ads people are responding to.
Yep, that’s I think one of the keys. You need to integrate the tracking pixel into your site and track at least some events that show that people are interested, then configure ads to optimize for those conversions. I didn’t manage to track FastSpring sales properly yet, but in my case I optimize for people clicking demo videos and downloading the trial. FB can then target people similar to those who have shown interest.
If you don’t do this, all FB knows in order to optimize your ads is if people clicked the link. So if you get lots of clicks from ad farms or stupid people who just click everything, it will basically show your ads to more click farms and stupid people who just click everything. Ever since I properly configured pixel tracking, cost per click went up, but the visitors I get are much more likely to show interest and in the end make a purchase.
I have Meta optimise using ROAS (return on ad spend) and don’t worry too much about CPC (cost per click). Allowing the ads to optimise on that value is really where you need to get to and a tight store integration will make that fairly easy.
That said, simply installing Facebook Pixel on the site allows it to know who is visiting meaning the remarketing engine can then get to work showing your ads to people that are going to be interested in your products if you set up the ads audience to use it. It takes a little while for the systems to build up this knowledge of course so don’t expect results right away.
Same goes for Google adwords/merchant, tracking with tag manager via the store etc.
I’ve dabbled in running ads for plugins on Instagram and Facebook, and I can share a bit about my experience. One of the advantages I’ve found with these platforms is the incredible targeting options. You can narrow your audience to particular demographics and interests, which is crucial for niche markets like plugins. This can help you reach potential customers genuinely interested in your product. Additionally, the ability to track and analyze campaign performance in real time is a big plus. You can quickly adjust your strategy if something’s not working, optimizing your ad spend.
But when it comes to getting the edge, Adspy has been a game-changer. It’s a fantastic tool that helped me to develop deep into my competition. I could see exactly what ad campaigns my competitors run on social media platforms. This insight is invaluable as it lets me refine my strategies, create more compelling ads, and stay ahead in your niche market.
After about 8 months of experience with trying to sell plugins i’ve made, My best little bits of advice to add onto this thread is the following.
Best of luck!
