The Importance of Music in Advertising & Tips to Choose Ads Music

Music has the power to evoke emotion in people and create an experience. That makes it a strong driver when it comes to advertising and influencing purchasing decisions.

If you think back to an advertisement from your childhood, you are more likely to remember the jingle associated with it. It's easier to remember the words to a song over a passage of text. This is because music has strong links with memory and can be retained longer and more clearly.

Marketers have long known the power of music when sending brand messages. That's why music is not only common in ads, but an important part of advertisements.

However, while music is important in advertisements, the right kind of music holds greater weight than any random song.

Best Types of Music for Advertisements

When it comes to the best type of music for advertisements, the message in the song and the message being conveyed through the ad need to align.

When executed well, an advertisement with the right music can sink deep in people’s memory and influence consumers to purchase products or services. But when the wrong song is chosen, or the brand message isn't clear, it can hurt a brand.

That’s why you need to be aware of the kind of music you and the advertising agency you’re working with use.

But how do you determine and know which music is best for your ads?

Tips for Choosing Music for Ad Creatives

Here’re some key things to keep in mind when considering music for your ad creatives, and top tips for choosing the right music for advertisements:

1. Choose music that evokes emotion

Music inherently has the power to evoke emotion in people. Happy music can make people feel cheerful, while melancholic music can induce sadness. Keeping this in mind, first understand the emotion that your advertisement is trying to convey.

Are you trying to sell sports shoes, where energetic, powerful music would be a good option? Or, are you trying to sell clothes where music that evokes a certain image is likely to be a better choice?

Understand the feeling and vibe that you want your advertisement to create and ensure the music you choose supports that.

2. Choose music that tells a story

Music also has the power to tell a story. But when you're adding a song to your ads, the stories in both should align as much as possible. That's why you'll never hear a sad song in a commercial about fast food or a laugh track in an ad about a hospital.

Think of how music is used in movies and TV shows to create and arouse a given emotion, vibe, and feeling, particularly in horror movies. If you pay careful attention, you can see and learn how music is used to set the desired mood for a story.

In the same way, the music you choose for your advertisements has to relate with the contents of the advertisement to create a desire mood and tell a cohesive story.

3. Choose music that inspires action

Music has the ability to encourage people to do things. Music can inspire action, which is what makes it such a powerful tool for advertisements and marketing. The right song can influence a large audience of potential buyers to take desired action.

Since advertisements are generally Calls to Action, where people are invited to do something or imagine situations, you can leverage that to call people to consider your proposition and purchase or buy your products and services.

4. Choose music that reinforces a sales message

While an advert by itself conveys a brand message and makes known that a product or service is being offered for sale, it may not be enough to win over customers.

Advertisements are usually presented in textual or audio-visual form, and adding music can be the game-changer to convey your message in a powerful, wholesome, and convincing manner. The music in your ad can be the most stimulating component that wins over customers.

Because music connects with people emotionally and can positively arouse the consumer's emotional state as desired, choose music that enriches the key message in your advertisements to reinforce your brand and sales message.

What that means is that the right music in an ad should ideally act as an extra Call to Action, further inspiring and pushing people to pay attention to your message and convert by appealing to them emotionally and not just intellectually.

5. Choose music that develops the brand image

The music used in ads should be selected with the brand image in mind. The reason for this is because people will relate and associate that music with your brand.

If the music you use in your adverts is offensive in some way, it may be translated and perceived that your brand is offensive as well. You don’t want that to happen.

So, even when hiring an advertising agency to create your ad, keep your brand image in mind always, including when picking the song to use in ads.

Make sure music chosen is always appropriate and resonates well with your audience and brand. It’s not just about the particular marketing campaign or product being promoted at the moment. It’s also about bolstering your overall brand image and perception.