For music artists who want to earn some revenue out of their work (apart from fame and appreciation), YouTube advertising can turn out to be of great benefit. The wide reach of YouTube can help any musician turn his/her talent into money. But, the sad part is, not many are familiar with the components of YouTube advertising.
This blog reflects the need for YouTube marketing for music artists when it comes to reaching a greater audience.
Why YouTube Advertising?
Here are some fascinating facts about YouTube that can help in the growth of a musician:
• YouTube has over two billion monthly active users and more than thirty million daily active users
• It is the second most visited site of the world
• 44% of all internet users visit YouTube
• Millennials prefer this platform to any TV network in the proportion of 2:1
And, the top most visited site on the Internet, Google is the owner of YouTube. Thus, being a music artist, if you want to expand your fan base, then what can be of better option but signing up for YouTube music video promotion?
How to get started with YouTube promotion?
YouTube promotion is divided into two branches – organic promotion and paid promotion. To make the most impact, you must avail of the services of both the branches. Because, in most of the cases, organic or free promotion fails to cast any significant impact, but paid promotion always brings in positive results.
Thus, before getting started with YouTube promotion, you must determine the branch of promotion through which you want to proceed.
1. Organic YouTube Video Promotion:
Organic YouTube promotion is beneficial to those who want to draw the attention of the audience without throwing any money at it. In place of money, you have to put in all your effort and work hard towards achieving the goals.
Here is how to do it:
i) Create a Professional YouTube Channel:
Everything looks good with professional stores and websites – a well-designed website easily keeps its visitors engaged.
In this entertainment industry, it is very important to give your profile a stylish and dynamic look. Such is the case with your YouTube channel. You must always make your YouTube channel look professional to attract the target audience.
Here are some tips that you can follow to make your YouTube channel look professional:
• Well-designed banner: Find a friend or sign up for a company/freelancer that can help you with the creation of a well-designed banner for your YouTube. The banner should be relevant to the type of content your make.
• Attractive profile logo: The profile logo of your channel represents the content of your channel. And, thus, you must ensure that the logo reflects your personality.
• Social media linking: As a music artist, you must always link your social media profiles and official website (if any) with your YouTube channel. This helps the audiences in finding you across various platforms.
ii) Use Engaging Thumbnails:
Every YouTube gets to choose a thumbnail for his/her videos. You must always customize your video’s thumbnail to make it interesting and exciting so that it pushes the viewers to watch the videos. The dimensions should be 1280x720x640 pixels.
iii) Upload on a Regular Basis:
Consistency is important when it comes to earning fame through YouTube music videos. You do not have to upload your video twice or thrice a week, you can maintain a decent growth in the viewership of your videos by uploading once in two weeks. The point is do not lose sight of the audience.
iv) Post at the Right Moments
Just like prime time TV shows, your videos will reach the maximum number of audiences at peak hours. If you post your video at midnight, it will never catch the attention of the audience. During the weekdays, people tend to watch YouTube videos at the end of their work. So, try uploading your videos between noon and evening. And, on weekends, try to upload the videos between 9-11 am or in the afternoon.
v) Make Use of SEO
Making use of Search Engine Optimization is one of the most effective ways of making the audiences find you on search engine platforms like Google or YouTube. Always conduct keyword research before creating your video’s title and ensure to use the most famous keyword in the first half of your video’s title. Also, the keyword must be relevant to the content of the video to be uploaded.
Keep a track of what your target audiences are searching for online. Put those terms on the title and description of the videos. Thus, whenever an individual puts that keyword on the search tab, your video will appear in the results.
vi) Follow the Trends
To keep things exciting and interesting, you must always follow the ongoing trends on social media platforms. Following trends and creating content on that trend can make you a famous YouTube music star overnight.
vii) Build Your Network
To grow a YouTube music artist, you must build a network by collaborating with other music artists. Comment on their videos, share their work, encourage them on social media platforms – this will help you in building a network with them. Soon, they will be sharing your work with their audiences and the reach of your YouTube content will widen. This will help both of you grow and earn fame at the same time.
viii) Keep a Track of Your Analytics
Every YouTuber must analyze the components of his/her channel through the analytics section of the platform. You can click your profile picture, go to Creator Studio, select the analytics menu, and then visit the report.
With the help of Google Analytics, you will be able to view the report through bars, pies, charts – whatever you prefer. Through YouTube Analytics you will be able to gain information on watch time, traffic source, audience demographics, audience retention, playback locations, subscriber rate, social media shares, and many more.
2. Paid YouTube Video Promotion
YouTube Ads bring in more viewers and subscribers to YouTube channels compared to organic promotion.
Well, there are various kinds of paid YouTube video Ads -
Kinds of Paid YouTube Video Ads
i) True View Ads
True View ads are the most abundant ones that let you skip these in 5 seconds. These ads are used by many YouTube’s to advertise their content.
True View ads are affordable and offer a great Return on Investment (RoI). TrueView ads charge the advertiser only if the ad is played for 30 seconds or longer or if the viewer has clicked on the site link. If the viewer doesn’t want to see the ad then they can simply skip it after five seconds, and for such cases, you won’t be charged.
Another fascinating thing about such ads is that it works on the search history algorithm of Google – people who search things relevant to your content or kind of music, are most likely to come across your True View ad. This will make you easily reach the target audience.
ii) Non-Skippable Ads
Non-skippable ads often turn out to be annoying for the viewer. Also, one has to out-spend his/her competitors by bidding for non-skippable ads. Thus, for independent music artists, it is better to stay away from these ads.
iii) Bumper Ads
These ads are similar to non-skippable ones, as here too, you have to place your bid. However, these are less annoying compared to the non-skippable ads as these are six-seconds long and appear at the tail end of the videos.
Well, apart from these video ads, you can also choose paid no-videos like display ads, overlay ads, and sponsored ads to make the video ads more interactive.
iv) Display Ads
Such ads pop up in the suggestion list of the viewers. These ads can be managed in Google Ads and hooked up with a display network for extensive reach.
v) Overlay Ads
These appear at the bottom of the YouTube videos and are provided with the ‘call to action’ feature on them, which allows the viewers to go to the advertiser’s channel or website.
vi) Sponsored Ads
Such ads appear when audiences are watching your videos. Unless the viewer clicks on the ad, it won’t expand.
YouTube Advertising for Musicians
Each and every aspiring musician must promote his/her YouTube videos to catch the attention of the target audience. No matter how great your music is, people won’t be able to see you, unless and until you appear on their feed.
Also, no matter what kind of services you sign up for, unless the audiences find the content engaging, they won’t stay with you. Thus, it is important for you to focus on your musical work and let the YouTube video promotional services providing companies do the work of marketing your music videos to the target audience and beyond.
