YouTube Advertising Part 1: Growing Your Customer Base

You’ve got a digital plan in place – display & search. You’re seeing results. Phones are ringing non-stop, customers are pouring in – you can see an ROI! That’s fantastic, but why not expand your digital campaign and grow your business even more with readily available engaging content? A great way to do that is with YouTube advertising. Yes, the video-sharing website used to look up ‘how-to’ tutorials and skateboarding dogs.

YouTube has evolved since its start in 2005 to a much bigger platform connecting consumers to online video content instantly. Video viewing has skyrocketed so much that 78.6% of the internet users in the US spend their time watching videos online. Millennials account for the largest YouTube audience, making that 31.8 million and growing. And it’s being reported that by 2019, 72% of mobile traffic will be online video content!

The wealth of data available on how consumers engage with products and brands through video content is vast and here are some great informative statistics:

• Before making a purchasing decision, 50% of consumers watch online videos on mobile phones to influence their decision (e.g. Watching a product review)
• The probability of a purchase is 85% higher after watching a video
• Consumers will be 46% more likely to search a product or brand following an online video on that particular product or brand

With such compelling statistics on video content, capitalizing on video advertising is essential to growing a brand. YouTube advertising is a great tool to accomplish just that! Here’s how you can advertise on YouTube to reach your target audience.

TRUE-VIEW VIDEO

In-stream Ads: These are the opt-in ads that appear before, during or after a video.

Video Discovery Ads: Video ads appear in places such as the homepage, within YouTube search results and alongside other related videos both on YouTube and Google partner sites.

You only pay for videos completely watched or viewed for at least 30 seconds. A user is required to watch an ad for a minimum of 5 seconds before having the option to skip – so why not engage them within those first few seconds? Remember content is KING! You can define your campaign targeting tactics to have video ads appear on selected channels based on topics or content. (e.g. Travel)

Bumper Ads: These non-skippable ads are no more than 6 seconds long and appear within videos on YouTube and other partner sites.

Bumper ads are best used to increase brand awareness and reach a broader targeted audience using short, yet memorable messaging. A CPM (cost-per-thousand) bidding is used, meaning you only pay per 1,000 views (impressions).

So why YouTube? YouTube offers a unique opportunity to increase brand awareness by capturing the audience though visual stories – whether it’s a 6 second message or a 30 second video. Video advertising is an inexpensive media to reach a broad audience where you only pay per video views.

Now that you know what YouTube has to offer and where you can place your video ads, you have to strategize on how to reach your target audience, but you’ll have to wait for my next blog on some targeting tips and insights. Stay tuned!

–Nidia Verdugo, Media Buyer