Want To “Borrow” Another Band’s Fans? ReverbNation Enables Facebook Fan Targeting

ReverbNation has added a new update to their PROMOTE IT product – a platform that simplifies and adds a layer of analytics to Facebook advertising for artists, labels and promoters. Before, bands were able to target music fans that have listed similar artists as a “like” or “interest,” but now they can also target fans who have recently listened to them on Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Deezer, or MySpace.

To be clear, ReverbNation is not able to target the ads to show up only at the very instant that the fan is playing the music on one of those services (although that can happen), but they are targeting fans who have listened to those artists “recently” as defined by Facebook's Open Graph Action (OGA) methodology.

Specifically, this tech works with these three existing PROMOTE IT campaigns:

1. Promote a Song: The new targeting shows ads to people who have recently listened to a similar artist on one of the five sites mentioned above, driving them to a landing page where the fan has played a song by the new artist and prompted to download the song in exchange for a like and potentially a share or their email address.

2. Promote a Facebook Page: Same as above, but a click sends people to a Facebook page of the artist's choosing.

3. Promote a Show: Same as above, but it targets only fans that live near the upcoming concert being promoted. It directs them to a landing page that allows them to play music from all the artists on the show bill and prompts them to RSVP and buy tickets (or get them for free if the artist or venue is doing a limited ticket give-away).

This new feature is live right now in ReverbNation's PROMOTE IT product, and this targeting technology has been added to all existing PROMOTE IT campaigns, which any artist can access for $25 per campaign (ReverbNation’s minimum). Artists need not pay anything additional, or check any new boxes — it comes standard.

There is a huge advantage to this “strike while the iron is hot” approach to fan targeting, and the idea is becoming much more prevalent now as more and more platforms and service providers are beginning to offer similar types data – all with the goal of creating a “welcomed knock on the door” for fans when it comes to receiving marketing messaging. For ReverbNation, there could be no better time to recommend one artist when the fan is engaging with (or has recently engaged with) a similar one.