A Tiered Strategy Drives Revenue Growth for the Louisville Orchestra

A Tiered Campaign Strategy Built for Scale

Rather than running isolated, full-funnel campaigns for each performance, we structured the Louisville Orchestra’s advertising into three tiers based on audience intent and position in the marketing funnel.

Audiences moved between tiers based on engagement, allowing campaigns to stay relevant while reducing overlap and inefficiencies.

Tier 3

Tier 3 focused on broad awareness, introducing new audiences to the orchestra and maintaining visibility throughout the season. This tier delivered nearly 2.4 million annual impressions, creating a consistent foundation for growth.

Tier 2

Tier 2 highlighted concert bundles, giving audiences multiple entry points into the season. These campaigns drove a strong average monthly ROI of 403%, balancing discovery with conversion.

Tier 1

Tier 1 campaigns focused on individual concerts, targeting high-intent users closest to purchase. These efforts delivered an average monthly ROI of 830%, capturing demand efficiently at the bottom of the funnel.

Built for Flexibility, Not Set-It-and-Forget-It

Budgets were established at the start of the season, creating a stable framework for Tier 3 and Tier 2 efforts. Tier 1 campaigns remained flexible.

When a concert sold well, we reduced or eliminated Tier 1 spend and allowed bundled campaigns to carry performance. When a concert needed more support, we increased budget or extended campaign duration.

This approach allowed the Louisville Orchestra to respond to real-time sales trends without disrupting the overall strategy.

Stronger Engagement at Every Stage

As the strategy matured, performance improved across every major metric.

Impressions increased 48% year over year, reinforcing consistent visibility while feeding lower-funnel campaigns with new audience pools.

Some dropoff in efficiency metrics is typically expected when upper-funnel metrics like impressions increase significantly. However, click-through rate also increased year over year (by 75%), driven by stronger alignment between messaging and audience intent. Optimizing creative was a significant component of the strategy, as well—there was a focus on more audience-focused content that meets people where they are in their journey with the orchestra. 

Even in the most lower-funnel metrics, the increased scale did not come at the expense of efficiency: cost per acquisition remained steady at approximately $45 year over year.

The Impact

By aligning campaigns to audience intent and structuring efforts across tiers, the Louisville Orchestra saw measurable gains across the board.

Year over year, purchases increased 38%, while revenue grew 81% year over year. More critically: ROI improved by 100 percentage points, reflecting an overall more economical structure.

The tiered strategy created a system that could support both high-volume programming and shifting performance needs without overcomplicating execution.

The Takeaway

For organizations managing large, complex seasons, structure matters. A tiered approach keeps campaigns organized, reduces audience overlap, and allows for smarter budget allocation over time.

If you’re looking to scale your marketing while maintaining efficiency, Capacity can help. Our Digital Advertising services are designed to support your organization’s growth with strategies that adapt to your audience and your goals.