YouTube has 2.2 billion users and the numbers only keep growing. This platform is also the second-largest search engine and a go-to place to find practically anything. To top it all off, according to Octiive, “every video on YouTube’s list of Most-Viewed Videos has been a music video since 2009”, which means this is the best place for indie artists to distribute their music and not only find but also retain a loyal audience. So how do you go about it? Here are some tips to make your journey easier and more exciting.
On average, YouTube users are on the site for 19 minutes each day. That equates to about 120 hours a year. Additionally, you can be sure that YouTube advertising will give you a big reach (specifically, 32.4% of the population and 51.8% of internet users), since it is the second-largest search engine in the world.
Why do you need to start a YouTube Channel as an artist?
As the largest video-sharing platform in the world, YouTube is a hub for your music, your videos, and any kind of content that can be converted into a conversation with your audience.
Any personality that wants to increase its video marketing efforts must have a YouTube channel. You can host your videos there and share them with interested, relevant viewers by setting one up. About 87% of businesses anticipate seeing a profit from video marketing in 2021.
For you, the artist, YouTube presents a 2 fold strategy. On one end you will need it to market your music and share it to your channels. On the other, by growing your digital profile on YouTube, you become a reference to other creators that want to collaborate with you. Mastering this balance of community engagement and quality content is the best perspective to have when building your channel.
Making your Youtube Channel
Start off by creating a professional-looking channel. This means putting in extra work or getting a designer to design your banner and logo or a professional picture of you.
Joining the YouTube Partner Program is the first step toward monetizing your channel. It allows you to make money by generating income from advertisements. While you concentrate on generating music, YouTube pairs advertisements with your channel and the viewers of your videos. After that, they collect money from advertising and deposit it into your AdSense account.
Official Artist Channels are a kind of channel arrangement that allows you to select what your followers see first. The following are some of the most significant advantages:
- You can find all of your music in one location.
- The top playlist and trailer may both be customized.
- Your ‘official music’ and entire album discography show in auto-generated playlists.
- Fans will be able to subscribe in one spot.
Channel Layout
People’s transitions from one video to the next will be under your control.
It’s important to attract your viewers so they stay on your channel a little longer, thus you should pay attention to this. Customize your channel’s page layout to make it work for your business. Based on the kind of visitor, you can choose from a variety of alternatives to tailor their experience.
To begin, open the Customize Channel page and select the Layout tab from the menu in the top navigation bar. The video spotlight and featured sections are the two unique options that appear when you click this tab.
You can modify your channel’s settings in this section to display different content depending on the subscriber status of the viewer.
The choices are as follows:
- People who haven’t subscribed should be shown a channel trailer.
- Play a special video for devoted viewers
This choice is advantageous because it enables you to provide potential subscribers a high-level overview video about your channel.
Because subscribers already know what your channel is about, they wouldn’t need to view it, therefore you can instead offer these visitors a featured video. It’s up to you which video you choose to highlight; it might be one of your most well-liked videos or just your newest.
Linking to your other social profiles
Make sure to link your social media pages t your video and your channel description, it goes without saying that those should also look professional and part of your design kit.
A lot of times Funneling your audience to your Social Media channels is done in the video as well as in the description. Try and find innovative and friendly Calls to Action that will insight viewers to keep going down the rabbit hole.
As the objective is for viewers to jump from one site to the other and explore your persona, access to your digital portfolio needs to be visible. So put in the time and effort to have quality thumbnails, art, and a content Funnel that makes sense.
Deadlines and timelines — Organize your time correctly
Set up deadlines for yourself to post regularly. This can be a daunting task but coming up with content and posting on time will keep your audience engaged.
As each platform is different you need to figure out the best time to post based on your audience demographics and activity times. You want to make sure that your listener is right there watching your freshly dropped video.
Never rely uniquely on the launch timing, adding a few dollars in advertising your content is always beneficial, especially if you are consistent in delivery.
Learn your SEO —
Search engine optimization is perhaps the most important thing you can do to help like-minded listeners find you more quicker. One of the first places industry experts will look for you online is Google. When people look for your name online, promoters, venue booker, journalists, bloggers, and the media will anticipate finding your video. If not, your name can be lost in the crowd or not have enough traction to be legitimized in their eyes.
On the technical side, SEO will allow for Google crawlers to look through your content and highlight your tags. Don’t overlook the tag words that Youtube asks you to input while setting up your ad. These words will be the ones that describe your video to all those who search.
Networking! Networking! And Networking!
Network with other channels like yours, and network with musicians, indie artists, influencers, and fans. Always give people credit and thank them for reposting or featuring your track.
YouTube is a very social platform and the best thing you can do as an artist is simply take advantage of its opportunities. Commenting, liking and DM’ing people about their channel through Twitter or Instagram has a huge upside, as it demonstrates your commitment to the community aspect of music creation. Even if the other artist won’t be a direct fan, having the respect of another creator often insights support through their channels, something every indie artist needs in throughout their career.
Making a Playlist
A playlist is a terrific method to group related videos and encourage audience members to keep watching. You can arrange your playlists according to a common theme and highlight them on your channel’s home page.
Playlists extend the time that people spend on your channel and watching your content by involving them more deeply. More time spent on your page by visitors will help them comprehend your brand better.
Click the Playlists button in the left-hand menu to get started.
You’ll now notice a button labeled “New Playlist” in the upper-right corner. After clicking there, you can name your new playlist and set the visibility level of the playlist.
You can choose the playlist you just made and add videos right to it by selecting the Content option on the left side of the screen. Playlists are used by a huge number of individuals to find similar and interesting content.
You may increase the prominence of your channel and draw visitors in with a selection of fascinating material by making sure the content you make is engaging and has a follow-through.
Youtube advertising Walkthrough
1. Create a new campaign
Open up your Google Ads manager and select New Campaign. When prompted, I always choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.”For your campaign type, select Video.
2. Select a campaign subtype.
Choose the proper option for your campaign type depending on the objective, format, and ad’s goal. If you’re unsure, a Custom video campaign or a Drive conversions campaign will probably be what you want. You can always modify this at a later time.
3. Choose your bid approach.
There will only be one or two options available to you, depending on the campaign subtype you selected. The bid options in this illustration for a Custom video campaign are Maximum CPV or Target CPM (cost per thousand impressions).
4. Select a network (s)
You should deselect Video partners on the Display network if you don’t like Search partners and Display networks in your Search campaigns. You might not be able to deselect any of these choices with specific campaign subtypes or even with certain bid tactics, so keep that in mind.
5. Pick the content you want to exclude.
Standard inventory will be fine for the majority of advertisers. You can select Limited inventory if you are extremely concerned about placing advertising next to potentially sensitive material. Choose Expanded inventory if you don’t care where your advertisements appear; this will provide you access to a wide range of extra placements, possibly at a reduced price owing to less competition.
6. Add supplementary video
This step in setting up a YouTube campaign is frequently missed. To enhance engagement, don’t forget to include related videos from your channel. If your Google Merchant Center product feed is linked to Google Advertising, make sure to opt-in here so that you can display product cards alongside your video ads. You can discover those hidden under “Additional settings” if you wanted to tinker with the tricky aspects, such as frequency capping or ad scheduling.
7. Decide on your target
Advertisers have access to all of Google Ads’ targeting capabilities with YouTube campaigns. You have access to every audience category as well as a huge selection of contextual choices.
8. Make your advertisement
Make that advertisement now. Keep in mind that a YouTube video must be submitted to YouTube in order to be used for your video advertisement. Do not want your advertisement to appear on your channel. No issue, just change the setting to “Unlisted” rather than “Public.” Enter the YouTube ad’s URL here, and options will then show up based on the subtype of your campaign. In this case, we can build either an in-feed video ad or a skippable in-stream ad (the “regular” sort) (the kind that shows a thumbnail and description)
9. Place a bid.
You can launch once you’ve set your bid.
I would typically begin with a Max CPV bid of $0.05 to $0.10 in this situation.
10. Evaluate your performance
What are the best metrics to choose for your campaign? First, keep in mind whether your goal is conversion, consideration, or awareness. It won’t make sense to judge success based on the conversion rate if the goal of your YouTube campaign is to raise awareness. I typically choose one reach metric (impressions, views, clicks, etc.) and one efficiency metric for every Google Ads campaign (cost per view, view-through rate, click-through rate, etc.) Ask your specialized Google agent about conducting a Brand Lift study if you spend $5–$6k each month on YouTube advertisements.
Private YouTube Channels
Want to establish a channel for yourself and a small group of individuals?
The best choice might be a private channel. The amount of persons who can access your content through private channels is naturally restricted. As your fan base will grow, it is wise to have these types of niche products for your most dedicated, as you can leverage it as a privilege to those who want to dedicate more fandom to your cause.
If you wish to censor your material or utilize the channel as a place to store your films, these channels can be useful, especially when sharing unreleased or “secret” projects.
Simply choose Privacy from the menu to get started. You can choose to make the channel private from that screen.
Good luck!