When discussing the creation of promo materials, the focus is usually on the conceptual and visual components, often leaving the audio accompaniment to follow trends. However, a promo material is not just an idea plus a picture. The audio track affects conversion just as much. Therefore, while you can leave it to trends, it’s far from the most effective work scheme — unless you’re dealing with Shorts or Reels, where trendiness directly impacts ranking. Below, we will explain how audio affects our perception of promo materials and how to use this in creating effective ads.
Music in Advertising
To better understand the essence of the matter, let’s take a step back and highlight the main functions of music in advertising. This may seem unnecessary to some, as advertising is broader than affiliate marketing promo materials. But let’s be honest — few of us can boast the skills of a composer, psychologist, and marketer all in one. If you want to “just understand what music to use in promo materials”, skip to the section “Music by Niches.”
If your goal is to deeply understand the musical aspect of promo materials development, you could break it down to a scheme like: “for this promo, use this meter, with this timbre, in this rhythm.” But since we are not at a composers’ convention, let’s focus on the goals of the audio track in classical marketing:
- Audience Segmentation. Surprising, isn’t it? Music and segmentation. Nevertheless, a well-chosen audio track can significantly influence the specific part of the audience you need. The most common example is rhythmic music for younger audiences and smooth music for older people. Can this be used in affiliate marketing? Yes, it can help improve the quality of traffic when targeting a broad audience.
- Switching attention and provoking emotions can and should be used in affiliate marketing. If the audio track you choose can distract the user from routine problems and evoke emotional engagement with the topic, half the conversion is yours. However, you need to consider the placement and adapt to it, as a significant portion of video promos is shown in places where users are already distracted from their routine, such as social networks.
- Semantic structuring. Placing appropriate music or sounds in the right spots — can highlight key points effectively, especially when it harmonizes with the visual content. In many advertising campaigns, music has become a crucial element of success. While this may be less common in affiliate marketing, emphasizing key points with the audio track is both possible and necessary.
- Brand recall. This is likely self-explanatory, but let’s clarify. Think of “Holidays are coming” or any other catchy brand jingle — this is what we’re talking about. However, this is only effective when combined with visual content that evokes the desired emotion. While regular affiliate may not need to focus on brand recall, using music that is already associated with a brand can be beneficial.
- Image-building music. This is not necessary for affiliates. In brief, having music from a well-known artist in an ad implies a collaboration between the musician and the company, which increases trust. While this is more of a feature for large companies rather than individual webmasters, if you’re promoting an offer from a well-known brand, it might be worth considering.
So, having covered the purposes of music in traditional advertising, let’s move on to its use in affiliate marketing.
Music in Affiliate Marketing
From everything discussed earlier, for everyday tasks, we can focus on semantic structuring, as well as attention switching and emotional provocation. Other uses, though useful, are too situational. Okay, we’ve identified what suits us — what to do next? The next step is to “try on” these strategies for our promos and test them. It’s best to start with attention switching and emotional provocation — users will get the meanings on the landing page. However, if the promo doesn’t provoke a response, the potential lead won’t even reach the landing page.
What music should you use to evoke certain emotions? As always, there is no universal answer. Below, we will also discuss which music best matches different niches, but for now, let’s focus on the following points:
- Your emotion is not the same as the target audience’s emotion — if you are not a “natural” consumer of the promoted product, your emotions will differ. Just compare the reaction of a casino player to music with someone who has never played to the same music from the same promo material.
- Music complements the promo, not the other way around — don’t get too hung up on the idea that a specific type of music is needed for a particular offer. The audio track should complement the promo material, emphasizing the semantic messages and stimulating the conveyed emotion.
- National mentality affects music perception — according to research from the University of California, Berkeley, the same sounds can evoke different emotions among people from different cultures.
Therefore, if you want to create the perfect audio track for your promo, you’ll need to study music from a mathematical perspective. Or you could hire a composer. If you want to understand how to improve the audio track of a promo material without delving into the theory, check out the interactive map of music’s impact on emotions from the University of California, Berkeley. Emotions are listed as percentages at the top, and you can switch between cultures in the bottom right corner.
Music by Niches
Phew, we’ve finished with the theory, let’s move on to the “Cash” button. I mean “Music.” But first, let’s emphasize once again — the music should complement the promo material, not the other way around. This is important!
So, depending on the niche, it makes sense to use the following genres:
Gambling
Jazz, lounge, funk. These genres are most likely to evoke a lively and playful mood in the user. Additionally, they all energize the listener — and it’s energy that those prone to gambling are looking for.
Betting
Rock, jazz, and classical music. Although betting and gambling are similar, the primary target audience for betting is slightly different. Therefore, it’s advisable to use more technically complex genres of music than in gambling. However, this advice is particularly relevant if the target audience is 35 and older. For a younger audience, the genres listed above for gambling might also work.
Nutra (Beauty)
Pop, EDM, R’n’B, and soft tunes. This largely depends on the target audience, the specifics of the offer, and the brand’s positioning. For a target audience of 30-35 and older, pop or something softer is preferable. For a younger audience, EDM or even R’n’B might be appropriate. Additionally, find a comparable “classic cosmetics” music and “adapt” the audio from that advertisement.
Nutra (Health)
Calm instrumental music. However, again, it depends on the promo approach. For example, if you are playing on contrast and first show the client’s pain, using calm and measured music would be inappropriate. But when demonstrating the product and its effects, calm music works well. It will create an association with the sense of peace that the solution to the lead’s problem brings.
Finance
Pop, classical, motivational tracks. Again, it depends on the promo approach. If you are playing on contrast, the audio for “life problems” should be different — either depressive or escalating like a kettle’s whistle. For the product itself, something calm and moderately rhythmic works best.
Crypto
EDM, industrial, synthetic music. This is also highly situational, but since cryptocurrency is often associated with something futuristic, these genres are usually a good fit.
Dating
Situational. You might think of something like “erotic lounge music for elevators,” but definitely not! The audio should complement your promo. Inappropriate moans, sighs, and musical erotics will only repel users. And yes, dating is not just about chat apps for lonely guys. For women, and especially for LGBTQ+ audiences, the approach is entirely different.
Apps
Generally, you could use similar genres as in cryptocurrency. However, apps vary. For example, if the app is related to gambling, there’s no point in adding futuristic elements. Choose music that matches what’s happening on the screen.
E-commerce
Here, there is no universality by default — the variety of offers is too great.
We want to emphasize once again that the above are just general recommendations and should not be taken as a dogma.
Overall, if you are not ready to dive into studying music theory and analyzing how it correlates with psychology — treat music in promos as just another element of A/B testing.
If adding it improves conversions — great! If not — try something else. One can talk at length about which combinations of thirds to mix for a WOW effect. But numbers are the best metric. Sometimes the impact of music can be unpredictable — even to the point of demonstrating promos to a different target audience.
Conclusion
The audio track impacts conversion rates much more than it might seem, and simply using trendy music is not always a good idea. We are not urging you to blindly follow the advice from this material — consider it as guidelines. Look at the numbers, experiment, test, and may profit be with you!
