Hi Neil,

Steve here.  60 visitors doesn't sound like a lot to me, which makes me think the targeting on the ad might be off, or simply the messaging in the ad.

I'm not seeing anything obvious on the squeeze page, but perhaps I might be able to pick a few things out if you could provide us with your ad targeting as well.  There may just be a mismatch in the message to market.

Let us know what you can and we're happy to take a look.

Hey Neil,

I suspect the main issue here is targeting but it could be a combination of things. While lookalike audiences tend to convert well, it's not a slam dunk and results are very effected by how large that initial custom audience is. How many people were in that custom audience to begin with? I suspect it was not big enough.

Your cost per click is also fairly high which suggests that the ads are not be performing that well. Do you know what the "relevance score" is? This is the simplest indicator of ad health.

There are also a number of small things that occurred to me as I went through the data you shared. I'll list the thoughts below. They may or may not be on point. But perhaps something will resonate.

1. I think you're on the right track with your ad copy. But I don't know that you're nailing it yet. Your form strikes me as solid, but the actual claim/promise/hook is not that exciting for me. The most meaningful word to me is "gritty". But perhaps you could sell that better by connecting it to the qualities a person is ultimately seeking when they respond to "gritty" lyrics.

2. It looks like you are rotating the headline but keeping the ad copy. In a newsfeed ad the main ad copy is most important. I would be rotating that and sticking with the same headline (at first). For me, the lines about picturing your favorite uncle in my kitchen does not do much for me. 

3. I think the squeeze page headline could use work. "Honest songs with real performance" doesn't immediately do anything for me. For that to connect I have to believe that most songs are in some way dishonest and that most performances are not "real". This is not a conversation already taking place in my head and I think that may be the case for others.

4. The approach I recommend with the main copy on your squeeze page is to tell people who you are in the first paragraph, what your music is like in the second paragraph, what you are giving the visitor in the third paragraph, and what you want them to do next in the fourth paragraph. Right now you are just telling them that you want to give them some free music and email them some more. It doesn't do much to sell me on why I should sign up.

As someone who does like blues music, what I persoanlly like about the genre is that it transports me to another place, sometimes another time, and connects me with many universal human struggles, while fanning the flames of the human spirit rather than leaving me depressed. That may just be me, but if I were to write copy for a blues artist (and I have) I would be digging in those directions.

I hope none of that comes of as critical in any way. I'm just trying to offer you as much feedback as possible.

Hey Neil,

I know what you mean. I find it much harder to write for myself as well. 

One exercise that helps me is to imagine myself at a merch table after a show. I imagine that I need gas money to get to the next gig. Then I imagine someone walking by wearing a T-shirt of the band/artist that is my ideal target audience. I then imagine what I might say to get that person's attention, and I imagine a conversation that might follow that eventually turns into enough affinity for a sale to take place.

It may feel a bit silly, but I actually close my eyes and speak all of this into a microphone. Then I transcribe what I say and distill it into my squeeze page copy, ad copy, and the rest of it. I find that actually envisioning the person you are speaking to, and speaking out loud, really helps me write copy that a real person might connect with, as apposed to writing copy that sounds good but might not necessarily do the job it needs to. Hope that all makes sense.