Client Success: Building a YouTube Following for an Aspiring Musician

Part of the challenge of making it as a musician is connecting with an audience of fans. Without a record deal to build your brand through the label’s marketing efforts, many aspiring musicians must take a grassroots approach to growing a following through live concerts, fan engagement, and developing an online and social following.

YouTube has become a top channel for reaching a large audience and growing a following through a dedicated YouTube channel. Some musicians are even able to monetize their YouTube channel through the video views they generate, creating an additional revenue stream that doubles as a self-directed marketing tool.

When one local aspiring musician reached out to Cox Media, this was exactly the kind of outcome he had in mind.

The Goal

Despite proven credentials and an active career as a performing musician, one local performer believed he was missing out on brand-building and revenue that could be achieved through his YouTube channel. While the musician already had a YouTube presence, his top-performing video had under 6,000 views, and he believed better performance numbers could be achieved.

To maximize the value of a YouTube presence as an artist, Cox Media and the musician identified the following goals to be pursued through a digital marketing strategy:

• Increasing total video views for YouTube content;
• Implementing targeting strategies to deliver videos to an interested, engaged audience;
• Improved monetization of the YouTube channel, delivering revenue to support the musician’s career.

The Solution

Based on these advertising goals, Cox Media recommended a digital engagement strategy that utilized YouTube as a vehicle for telling the musician’s story and distributing his music to an interested audience.

YouTube audiences were targeted using a customized affinity audience targeting users who followed relevant music fan sites and channels. Strategic hashtags and keywords were also used to increase visibility for those YouTube videos among relevant YouTube users.

Cox Media’s experts also recommended skippable ads to enhance the cost-effectiveness of digital ads on YouTube. These ads directed users to the musician’s YouTube channel, where video views could then be used to generate revenue from the YouTube platform.

The Results

After an initial three-month run, Cox Media’s YouTube campaign delivered the following results:

• More than 400,000 ad impressions;
• A total of 853 clicks on YouTube ads leading directly to the musician’s YouTube channel;
• More than 90,000 additional video views for the musician’s top-performing video, which had only 5,000 views at the start of the campaign.

Thanks to this dramatic rise in video views, our ad campaign allowed the musician to monetize his YouTube channel and increase his earning potential in the future through increased channel subscriptions and online visibility. With such strong performance figures for this initial campaign, the musician decided to continue with this YouTube-centric advertising strategy, further building his brand while increasing his long-term YouTube earning potential.

Whether you’re a local musician, an online influencer or a local business seeking greater visibility for your brand, Cox Media’s experts can help you develop a strategy that connects with your target audience and maximizes your advertising ROI.

Ready to turn digital advertising into a source of revenue generation for your brand? Contact us today to get started.