Youtube Advertising
Youtube. She has been with us for so long. It doesn't matter if you are 35 right now, or 15 – a significant part of the current younger generations has grown up with Youtube as their main source for music, short movies for every genre, trailers, funny compilations, books, tutorials, best of’s – it’s all on there. Even though suggestive content sources like Spotify have gained a substantial global audience over the years. Its user-numbers are still no match for the most popular media content provider in the world; Youtube.
Besides its obvious volume in video content (for pretty much every interest), the Youtube community is also considered powerful. At this very moment, hundreds – if not thousands – of people are arguing and ‘fighting’ in the comment section of particular content. It’s even known that influencers hired by governments are splashing their opinion around in the Youtube comment sections. Based on its sheer volume Youtube is viewed upon by many marketers as one of the 3 leading pillars of internet activity; that would be Google, Facebook, and Youtube.
New days are arriving and while advertising on Youtube was already evident for big brands, medium-sized and smaller brands/product owners are finding their way to Youtube as well. Around 5-6 advertising formats can be served before, on, in, during or around Youtube content. The most obvious format being - of course – the video format. Youtube describes it’s advertising options as follows: Display Ads, Overlay Ads, Skippable Video Ads, Non-Skippable Video Ads, Bumper Ads and Sponsored Cards.
Recently, Youtube has also allowed its advertiser to serve ads – in Youtube – based on previous Google searches. You could say some technical aspects/functions of Youtube and Google have merged, offering an ever stronger marketing tool.
Then there is the Targeting. Offering a wide selection of targeting variables Youtube – technically speaking – has similar attributes/functions compared to a normal Demand Side Platform. It has a huge amount of reach and tools to target a specific audience within that reach; all based on the single product that Youtube is. Youtube offers targeting on Demographics; for example; age and gender. But also certain interests can be targeted based on past activity of users. Video Remarketing offers a similar tool that has some trades of traditional retargeting. Also, Youtube offers to target based on placement, topics, and even keywords.
Costs; Cost Per Mille (CPM) or Cost Per View (CPV) is higher than the linear serving of video’s using thousands of video publishers (which a good DSP can offer). However; its effects (or conversions) are usually and on average – higher than normal video advertising achieves. Hence the higher pricing is – in most cases – justified.
Do you need a video to do Youtube Advertising? No; several ad formats Youtube can serve can be static images or just text. It is – however – recommended to serve an actual video when advertising on Youtube. Why? Because hundreds of campaigns have taught us that – in comparison to budget spend – video ads have the highest ROI (although there are exceptions). This creates a problem for small business owners. Simply put most of them don’t have the resources or knowledge to produce a cheap but professional appearing video. Luckily the internet is here to help. Google for ‘Cheap Video Production’ or ‘Low-cost tutorial video’ and you will find plenty of vendors who are able to produce a professional video (in most cases being an animation). Secondarily; honest appearing video’s – made by a business owner him/herself (for example showing the workplace or store) – usually are appreciated by the right audience and also have a positive ROI.
In any case; low fee specialists are here to help. You have found one.