Barbara Mandrell Improved Paid Social ROAS by 20% While Reintroducing an Iconic Artist to Digital Audiences

After more than two decades in retirement, country music icon Barbara Mandrell was preparing for a new chapter online. With a newly launched website and social presence, a remixed single, new merchandise, and a vinyl release on the horizon, the goal was to reconnect with longtime fans while introducing Barbara to entirely new audiences.

Bluum built a paid social strategy designed to support merchandise and music sales while learning which audiences and creative could drive scalable demand. As campaign data accumulated, Bluum refined targeting, cut underperforming audiences, and introduced new creative, ultimately improving ROAS by approximately 20% from June to July and driving a 79.8% week-over-week increase during a key optimization period.

79.8% Week-Over-Week ROAS Growth 🔥 20% Month-Over-Month ROAS Improvement 🔥 1.78x ROAS From Top Cold Audience 🔥

The Challenge

Barbara Mandrell wasn't simply launching another ecommerce campaign. After retiring in 1997, very little had been done with her digital presence for years, meaning the team was effectively starting from the ground up with a new website, social channels, and email list.

At the same time, a remix of "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" had just been released, new merchandise was launching, and a vinyl collection was headed to Cracker Barrel. The broader goal was to create new fan bases for an iconic artist while turning renewed attention into measurable music and merchandise sales.

The Pain Points

With limited recent digital history to learn from, Bluum couldn't simply replicate a proven acquisition strategy. The early campaigns needed to generate sales while simultaneously uncovering which audiences, messages, and creative would resonate with both longtime Barbara Mandrell fans and entirely new audiences.

Rebuilding a Digital Audience
Barbara had been retired since 1997, and her digital ecosystem was essentially starting from scratch. There wasn't an established modern acquisition engine or robust email audience to immediately activate.

Reaching Beyond Existing Fans
The opportunity wasn't limited to reconnecting with longtime country music fans. The team specifically wanted to create new fan bases for iconic artists, making audience discovery and prospecting an important part of the strategy.

Driving Demand During a Pre-Sale
The vinyl release created a defined promotional window, with the team focused on driving pre-orders through BarbaraMandrell.com ahead of its July 10 retail release.

Finding the Right Creative and Audience Mix
With little recent campaign history available, Bluum needed to quickly determine which audience segments and creative formats could generate the strongest response, then shift resources toward the combinations showing the greatest potential.

The Huumans
Behind The Work

Great results don’t come from systems alone, they come from the people behind them.

Each Bluum partnership is backed by a cross-functional team that blends strategy, design, and leadership oversight to move fast and think smart.

Every win starts with the people who make it happen.
Here’s the team that brought this one to life.

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Account Lead

Ally Michelle

Ally served as the main point of contact and project quarterback. She guided communication, managed timelines, and made sure every piece of the partnership stayed on track and on brand.

Lead Designer

B. Bernhard

B. shaped the visual direction of the work by translating goals and audience insights into creative that captured attention and drove action.

Executive Sponsor

Austin Spikes

Austin stayed close to the partnership from start to finish, providing executive oversight, helping remove roadblocks, and keeping the work aligned with the client’s bigger business goals.

The Results

As campaign data accumulated, Bluum used performance insights to continuously refine the account. Rather than continuing to invest evenly across audiences and creative, the team reduced spend on underperforming segments and concentrated resources around the areas demonstrating stronger returns.

79.8% Week-Over-Week ROAS Growth
After cutting underperforming audiences, refreshing creative, and modifying targeting, weekly ROAS increased 79.8%. During the same optimization period, individual days reached returns above 2x and 4x ROAS.

20% Month-Over-Month ROAS Improvement
Overall ROAS improved approximately 20% from June to July, demonstrating that campaign efficiency continued to strengthen as Bluum accumulated data and refined the strategy.

1.78x ROAS From a Cold Audience
One of the strongest early signals came from completely cold prospecting audiences. Within that strategy, the Classic Country segment achieved a 1.78x ROAS, demonstrating that Barbara's ecommerce potential could extend beyond existing followers and remarketing audiences.

Cold Prospecting Outperformed Remarketing
The broader cold-audience campaign generated a 1.10x ROAS and outperformed bottom-of-funnel remarketing, giving Bluum a meaningful opportunity to continue expanding Barbara's audience rather than relying solely on existing fans.

The Strategy

Bluum approached the launch as both a revenue opportunity and an audience-learning period. With Barbara's digital presence being rebuilt after decades away from the spotlight, the campaigns needed to uncover who the modern Barbara Mandrell customer was while supporting immediate merchandise and music initiatives.

Bluum tested prospecting audiences based on New Country Artists, Classic Country Artists, and lookalikes modeled from purchasers. Rather than relying entirely on Barbara's existing following, the strategy introduced her merchandise to consumers whose broader interests indicated an affinity for the brand and music.

Early results showed that cold audiences could outperform bottom-of-funnel remarketing. Bluum used those findings to shift the strategy toward the top of the funnel, where there was greater opportunity to scale while continuing to refine individual audience segments.

Bluum tested multiple creative approaches, including merchandise-focused carousels, apparel-focused carousels, and static new-arrival ads. Featured-product carousel creative emerged as the strongest purchase driver, giving the team additional direction for future campaign development.

As the campaigns matured, Bluum reduced investment in underperforming audiences, paused weaker ads, introduced new creative, and modified targeting based on actual purchase behavior. Those changes contributed to a 79.8% week-over-week increase in ROAS during a key July optimization period.

Beyond immediate merchandise sales, Bluum identified opportunities to build a larger owned audience through lead generation and pre-sale email capture. The goal was to create an audience that could be remarketed to across channels for future music, merchandise, and promotional launches, aligning with the broader goal of developing new fan bases around Barbara's catalog.

“Barbara was such an interesting opportunity because we weren't just marketing merchandise. We were helping reintroduce an iconic artist to a modern digital audience. The early campaigns gave us the data we needed to understand who was responding, and from there we could refine the strategy around the audiences and creative showing the strongest potential.”

Robert Filhart, Morris Higham Management @ Barbara Mandrell Estate

Cue
Bluum

Marketing an iconic name doesn't mean relying on nostalgia.

For Barbara Mandrell, the opportunity was to understand how an established artist could connect with today's digital audiences. By testing new prospecting audiences, creative formats, and campaign strategies, Bluum uncovered demand beyond Barbara's existing fan base and used those learnings to steadily improve campaign efficiency.

Within weeks, ROAS improved 79.8% week-over-week during a key optimization period, followed by an approximately 20% improvement from June to July. More importantly, cold audiences proved capable of outperforming remarketing, creating a foundation for reaching a new generation of fans while continuing to monetize the loyalty Barbara had built throughout her career.

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“Barbara was such an interesting opportunity because we weren't just marketing merchandise. We were helping reintroduce an iconic artist to a modern digital audience. The early campaigns gave us the data we needed to understand who was responding, and from there we could refine the strategy around the audiences and creative showing the strongest potential.”

Robert Filhart, Morris Higham Management @ Barbara Mandrell Estate

“Barbara was such an interesting opportunity because we weren't just marketing merchandise. We were helping reintroduce an iconic artist to a modern digital audience. The early campaigns gave us the data we needed to understand who was responding, and from there we could refine the strategy around the audiences and creative showing the strongest potential.”

Robert Filhart, Morris Higham Management @ Barbara Mandrell Estate

Creative That Converts

Bluum tested multiple merchandise-focused creative formats, including featured-product carousels, apparel carousels, and static New Arrivals ads. The creative helped bridge Barbara’s established legacy with a modern ecommerce experience, giving both longtime fans and new audiences a compelling reason to engage with the brand.