YouTube advertising as a growth accelerator 

YouTube is the world’s largest streaming video service and I’m sure all of us have watched videos on YouTube at one time or another but did you know that it’s also a powerful advertising tool? YouTube advertising is definitely worth a look if you are interested in high visibility and cost-effective advertising!

What is YouTube?

YouTube is the most popular streaming video service on the Internet and the world’s second largest search engine, just behind Google. Globally, YouTube has more than 2 billion registered users and videos are watched by people of all ages and demographics.  Can you imagine how many people you could reach with those statistics?  That’s right.  For an advertiser, YouTube is a real goldmine!

Why advertise on YouTube?

YouTube can be a platform with tremendous reach if used effectively.  Realistically though, no matter how interesting the quality of your video content is, it probably won’t get the attention it deserves without advertising.  Some businesses invest a great deal into the production of videos but it’s a wasted investment if they don’t design and implement an advertising strategy as well.

The strengths of YouTube advertising are:

• Wide reach and visibility
• Cost effective
• Effective targeting methods
• Diverse ad formats
• Conveys feeling and emotion well

Due to the large amount of content on YouTube, the possibilities of reach are endless.   With advertising, you can quickly gain wide visibility for your videos.   It is very important to target your advertising to the right audience though so you can achieve your advertising goals as soon efficiently as possible.

There are several ways to target on YouTube:

• Geographical targeting
• Detailed demographics (age, gender, educational background, type of housing, family size, etc.)
• Based on Interests
• Based on purchasing intentions
• Remarketing to website visitors or viewers of your videos
• Similar audience for your website visitors or existing customers
• Target your audience to specific YouTube channels

Invoking feelings and conveying moods is one of the biggest benefits of YouTube advertising.  A large percentage of purchasing is emotional, so it makes sense why advertising is so effective here.  Also, video often engages better than just a static image or text. As the old saying goes, a moving picture speaks more than a thousand words. It doesn’t take much time for video to set the mood and tone of a message, which expedites the process of your branding. With video, you spark interest and guide the customer towards learning about your services or products in no time.

YouTube Advertising - Ad Formats

Video ads are created through the Google Ads Tool, just like any other Google ad.   All of your video ad content should always be publicly available on YouTube through your own company channel.  If you don’t yet have a channel, the first step is to set up a company channel with your ready-made video material.

YouTube offers advertisers a variety of ad formats, and these, combined with very precise targeting, make YouTube a very versatile advertising channel. Although the ad content itself must be found on YouTube, ads may appear more widely on YouTube’s video partner sites and mobile apps, depending on the ad format.

In-stream ads - Skippable

This is the most widely used video ad format on YouTube and we often recommend getting started with these.  Skippable In-Stream ads will appear before, during, or after other videos and the viewer can choose to skip the ad after five seconds.

Non-skippable In-stream Ads

Non-skip In-Stream ads last up to 15 seconds and appear before, during, or after other videos. The difference is that the viewers have to watch the full ad and are not allowed to skip.

Video Discovery Ads

Video Discovery ads contain a thumbnail and text of your video. The size and appearance of the ad may vary depending on where the ad is displayed, but Video Discovery ads always entice users to click on the thumbnail and watch the video. The video will appear in YouTube search results, in addition to YouTube videos related to the topic.  It will also be on the front page of the YouTube mobile site.

Buffer Ads

Buffer ads last up to 6 seconds and appear before, during, or after another video. Viewers can’t skip an ad. Buffer ads are displayed on YouTube videos and on Google video partner sites and applications.

Outstream Ads

What are Outstream ads? They are mobile-only ads that appear on Google video partner sites and applications. While Outstream ads cannot be displayed on YouTube, they are helpful for expanding the coverage of your ads.

Masthead Ads

The YouTube Masthead ad is a 24-hour billboard ad on the YouTube homepage. This ad format can only be enabled by booking through a Google reseller. Masthead is a great way to introduce your brand or services to a large audience at once.

Other Ad Formats

In addition to video ad formats, YouTube can also run display advertising and Google Discovery advertising.

Display advertising is often done with banners and there are several ad slots on YouTube. Discovery Ads, on the other hand, are Google’s native ad format, in which ads appear in conjunction with a video feed as a user searches for new and engaging video content. The Discovery ad actually looks very similar to the ads that appear in the Facebook news feed. There is a choice of both single image ads and carousel ads the same as on Facebook.

What are the costs of YouTube-marketing?

On YouTube, you only pay when there is interest in a video, which means it must be watched for more than 30 seconds or its entirety if less than 30 seconds. Another measurement of interest is if someone interacts or clicks on the video. In YouTube advertising, therefore, you generally pay for views. CPM bidding is used in certain automatic bidding models and in certain ad formats, such as buffer ads. 

Your media budget will depend entirely on how large an audience you want to capture and what your advertising goals are. It’s totally possible to start advertising on YouTube with a small media budget though.  We highly recommend adjusting the budget after some testing has been done to make sure you get the best bang for your buck.

Interested? How do you get started?

YouTube advertising can be complex, so it can be difficult to get started. All advertising requires planning, campaign monitoring, and constant development to get the best results. Kubla’s experts are happy to help you with any questions you may have about YouTube advertising. Please feel free to contact us!

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