Most effective way of marketing and promoting your movie ?

I'm currently blogging about this very thing: http://katiechronicles.blogspot.com/

I've found that facebook ads will get more views to your post or page, but not necessarily more page likes. I was able to target a specific audience with facebook ads: in a certain location, age group, with related interests. But I didn't see much in the way of return. Facebook was eager to report to me on how many people saw my ad, but nothing significant seemed to happen as a result of them seeing it. I think most people skip over ads on Facebook.

I'm currently studying google analytics for my web page to see what kind of google ad campaign I should run.

here is a blog which is a very comprehensive case study of the release and self distribution of feature film Landmine Goes Click take a look

There are some very useful links in this topic thanks for sharing!

ktdamien said:

I've found that facebook ads will get more views to your post or page, but not necessarily more page likes. I was able to target a specific audience with facebook ads: in a certain location, age group, with related interests. But I didn't see much in the way of return. Facebook was eager to report to me on how many people saw my ad, but nothing significant seemed to happen as a result of them seeing it. I think most people skip over ads on Facebook.

I'm currently studying google analytics for my web page to see what kind of google ad campaign I should run.

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I don't trust facebook for advertising anymore. Veritasium did a nice expose on their practices, which range from simple worthlessness to downright corruption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag

I'm not saying what does work. But just wanted to say something I've tried continually with no luck and that's paid advertisements through YouTube. Highly inconsistent and the money doesn't go far.
I've had a lot of luck with Facebook ads but now that they limit it so not all of your "likers" see those posts, most of those likes are useless.

I've done films solely by myself and films that involved 100+ people. The one with 100+ people did significantly better solely because, with more people involved, more people are invested in it, and more people share it.

the best advice I can give you is to start before you even start your movie. As both a filmmaker myself and someone who keeps an eye on the online indie world... no one knows who you are. People watch Hollywood because they think they know the people in the movie. they're celebrities.

The most useful thing you can do for your own film is to take an internet on a journey with you through the creation of it. Upload vlogs, and behind the scenes footage as you go. tweet. build online relationships... then by the time the film actually comes out you will have this audience that feels like they know you, and they were there to experience the journey of making the film. Then those people will want to show their friends, and you can use this home grown audience you've created to leverage press for your film which in turn will grow the audience even further...

logically this continues on until you achieve a fame greater than kanye west, and the people look to you as the one true god.

additional tips are as you said.

make the title thought provoking.
make the cover pull you in.
Start a conversation with the trailer. Don't reveal too much, but leave the audience with questions to the point they won't sleep at night.
and lastly and above all, please make a good movie (or at least charmingly bad) or literally everything above will make getting an audience for your next film more difficult.

ktdamien said:

I'm currently studying google analytics for my web page to see what kind of google ad campaign I should run.

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I got certified in Google Analytics last year (the official Google Exam for ad agencies). That's useful, but it just helps you see what pages of your website are working or not. I suppose you could use this to prep for ad campaigns, but getting traffic to your site is a different thing altogether.

AdWords, on the other hand (the ad campaign stuff) is difficult and useless much of the time, especially now that the AdRank stuff isn't based purely on how much you pay. I was going to get certified in that too, but heard so much bad stuff that I just stopped, since it doesn't matter.

Facebook ads also seem to be a bad deal, and that's not just because of what's been posted in this thread.

Clever use of social media, word of mouth, affiliate referrals, building an email list, blogging about your movie and good SEO on your site are better.

Word of mouth is the only guaranteed option for an indie with no established base. Your trailer won't get to anyone if no one hears about it.

As someone above said, the projects he was on with 100+ people did better.

The focus of your strategy should be making sure that your products and services meet customer needs and satisfaction as well as the movie you are promoting should surely get the attention of the audience. I used facebook as a marketing tool because I can interact with customers easily. Well, just make the most of your facebook business page and see how effective it is

I can't tell you what is most effective. All I can tell you is my strategy for my next feature.

The way I see it, since I don't have money to invest in advertising, I need to invest time. Lots of it. When all is said and done, I probably will have invested more time in guerrilla advertising than in the making of the film. I'm attacking this on many fronts.

First of all, there's the screenplay. I'm definitely targeting a handful of niche audiences. My hope, of course, is that not only will this gain our film entry into select film festivals, but maybe some of the people who attend those festivals will spread word-of-mouth.

So the entire story, from top-to-bottom, is intended to reach audiences who don't frequently have movies made about them. This is requiring a lot of research on my part, because I am not a member of any of those niche markets and the film would be a complete failure should it feel inauthentic to any of them.

I'm also working on a youtube series and website that I hope will get me some eyeballs. I haven't put anything of substance online yet, simply because there are so many things I'm juggling right now. I don't know, maybe I'm taking on too much, I guess we'll find out.

I guess my main point is that a tiny-budget filmmaker can't rely on traditional marketing. I think we all need to figure out something innovative and unique, maybe something that hasn't been done before. What exactly that means would be different for each one of us.

I think we should play to our strengths. What are YOU good at? How can you use those particular talents to create buzz for your film? Get creative. Doing something that hasn't been done before. That's what I'm doing, anyway. Though I'm yet to really share much online, I've been obsessing over this for the last year. Is this strategy going to work? Only one way to find out.

SkyCopeland said:

Word of mouth is the only guaranteed option for an indie with no established base. Your trailer won't get to anyone if no one hears about it.

As someone above said, the projects he was on with 100+ people did better.

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I agree with you! No matter how well you advertise your movie or film, if the people who watched already did not like it, I think you wont be able to market it to the highest. Good luck