Artist Content vs. Music Videos: Which Video Type Drives More ThruPlays on FB/IG?

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Wavo Labs: This series shares the results of our music marketing experiments and how they inform artist media strategy.

What We Tested

Good creative is key to digital marketing success. According to Nielsen, creative is the main driver of sales impact in a campaign (47%), with targeting at just 9% and brand at 15%. 

That’s why at Wavo we regularly run case studies to develop music industry-specific creative recommendations for clients. Previously, we compared the ad performance between music video and visualizer creatives, with the former outperforming the latter across nearly all metrics. You can read all about that here. 

We ran a similar test here, this time comparing music video creative against artist content, which refers to informal creatives that feature an artist speaking or doing an activity. The case study included US campaigns on Facebook and Instagram with a Video Views objective designed to drive ThruPlays, a 15-second view.

The Results

Overall, we found that artist content creatives outperformed music video creatives.

  • Compared to music videos, artist content has a 19.5% lower CPV due to higher view rates (up 23%) and less expensive CPMs (down 13%). 

  • Creatives with artist content drive 12.6% more engagements, which include comments, shares, and likes. 

  • Artist content also features a 15% longer average play time compared to music video creatives. 

  • Naturally, artist content with widely recognizable acts generated more impressions, views and engagement compared to content featuring new or rising acts.

The Takeaway

We recommend that music marketers prioritize artist content over music video creatives on Facebook and Instagram. If this video type is not available, music videos creatives will prove more effective than visualizers.

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