This interview is with Chuck Olsen, Founder, RCKSTR Media.
Chuck, as a Founder in the music industry with roots in audio engineering and media buying, how do you describe the niche you serve today and the value you create with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) advertising?
I serve any business looking to grow through paid social ads with a strategy tailored specifically to their goals. In particular, RCKSTR mainly works with eCommerce brands seeking to expand their presence on paid social platforms.
What path took you from hip hop production and studio work to leading high-conversion Meta campaigns, highlighting the pivotal lesson that shaped your playbook?
I had a desire to figure out how to promote. While producing, I had trouble marketing myself and figuring out how to get placements. As I progressed, I learned how to market music and artists. I became familiar with Facebook ads and various other strategies, which led to people coming to me for campaigns. This would only snowball as time went on, and with every step I took, I went deeper into how to make campaigns truly resonate, and eventually, how to build a brand that sells.
After over $41 million in ad spend I’ve been fortunate enough to activate, the core lesson I’ve learned is that your results reflect what you optimize for. Where you put your focus is everything, especially in the campaign planning process. If you chase quick wins, you don’t build for the long term and risk overreacting to near-term results. If you try to look polished, you risk appearing inauthentic and not resonating with your audience. If you rush to get into ads without a sound product at its core, along with the necessary social proof, ads will not save you.
Your foundation is everything. Put the majority of your focus here before you do anything else.
To ground us in your approach, when you inherit a Meta Ads account, what is your first-14-day audit to ensure you aren’t “optimizing to a broken link”?
We start by building a media plan that is specific to the client’s brand and goals. Within this, we conduct product and competitor research, audit their current setup and results, and develop the best path for scaling creative concepts and extracting the most value from winners possible. We have a number of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and resources for our clients to ensure they start in the best possible position. Alignment on the approach, defining realistic success, and ensuring that all parties are on the same page is key to a successful plan.
Extending that foundation to offline outcomes, for artists, venues, or music brands with in-person revenue, what is your playbook for wiring POS and CRM data into Meta’s Offline Events to maximize match rates and prove incremental sales?
We integrate in-person events with offline event sets through API integrations and format that data for the best chance of a successful match back on Meta. Creating custom conversions around the event type and timing allows us to attribute back to the campaigns to show incremental impact.
With tracking locked in, how do you structure Facebook and Instagram campaigns for high-conversion outcomes in the music space—from objectives to audience segmentation—to balance scale with efficiency?
Using your top-performing organic content is key for artists running ads to their music. If you’re growing your SMS/email lists, excluding your currently opted-in audience is vital for ensuring you’re only getting new sign-ups. We have found success using forever pre-saves with this approach to grow lists, especially leading up to tours.
Shifting to creative, drawing on your audio engineering and production background, what is your method for testing and iterating Reels/Stories creative—leveraging sound design and AI-assisted copy ideation—to lift thumb‑stop rate and conversion?
Each creative has three parts: 1) Hook, 2) Body, 3) Payoff/CTA. When you segment this way, you have three areas you can mix, match, and test for a scalable variety of creative.
Once you have an idea of hooks that achieve the best thumb stop rate, you can focus on which bodies and CTAs convert best. You can leverage AI to assist with scripting these.
To keep winners winning, which performance metrics and decision thresholds do you rely on across Meta Ads Manager and GA4 to separate true lift from noise during signal loss?
We look at the relationships between CPM, CPC, CTR, Cost Per Conversion, and CVR to inform what is performing or underperforming relative to the account. We have found it best to use only real data as your benchmark. Having a goal of where you want to be is great, but for optimizing, you should only compare against your own real baseline data.
For content-led acquisition, how do you use Meta to drive “quality site visitor” traffic that boosts organic SEO while feeding retargeting with higher-intent audiences?
Optimizing for quality site visitors starts with your creative messaging and offer. The earlier you can qualify or disqualify someone, the cleaner the signal will be downstream.
For SEO, focusing on high-intent searches and creating content around these will drive higher quality traffic.
Looking ahead, what emerging change in Meta or Instagram advertising will most impact music marketers, with one concrete step readers can take this week to prepare?
The diversity of your creative matters more than ever with Andromeda. But more importantly, being able to communicate exactly what makes you or your song different is everything for stopping the scroll and driving intent.