Table of Contents
As an entrepreneur, you know how important a strong online presence is these days. Before a potential customer chooses your product or service, he or she will run a quick online search for your brand. Now what are they looking for exactly? A few core things…
- Google Business Profile
- Ratings and reviews on Yelp, Trustpilot, and, of course, Google
- Your website and social media accounts
- Videos!
That’s right! Before they become paying customers, they’re going to search for your product or service on YouTube. Why? This is the easiest way to hear and see what others think of your brand. Are there reviews? Unboxing videos? Testimonials? Do you have tutorials or walkthroughs of your own product on your own YouTube channel? Does your brand even have a YouTube channel?
As marketers (and all business owners must be to succeed) we tend to focus on SEO from Google, but that’s short-sighted. After all, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so don’t ignore it!
First, let’s consider your presence and why you must make sure your brand is presented well.
The Importance of a Strong Presence
At this point, I am sure that there is a touch of skepticism in you, saying that YouTube is not all that important because it is only a video search engine. Well, that was true years ago, but these days, YouTube is far beyond a mere video search platform.
In fact, here are just a few reasons you should be paying attention to YouTube:
- YouTube alone is significantly larger than Yahoo, Bing, TikTok, and LinkedIn… Combined.
- On average, for every 2 searches on the internet, there is 1 search that is on YouTube. So we’re talking 50% of the searches, any search, is done on YouTube.
- YouTube can attract more adults aged 18-35 living in the US than any other cable network in the market.
Let's Break Down A YouTube Video
We’ll start with a rhetorical question. When is the last time you took time off your busy schedule and logged in to YouTube to watch a few minutes of video that was poorly produced, boring and won’t help you achieve anything?
Well, no need to answer that one. Nobody has time for that!
People visit YouTube for only a few reasons, and they are simple:
- They are faced with a specific problem, and they need to find a quick answer to it.
- They are looking to pass time and enjoy a few entertaining videos of raccoons playing the piano or whatever tickles their fancy.
Now, you’re a business, so you should always seek to offer the first option: a solution to a problem. What exactly can your service or product or expertise offer? What problems can you solve?
As a rule, you should steer clear of self-promotional videos. However, there is an exception for when you are aiming for a pre-rollout advertising situation, but we’ll cover that later in the article.
Your bread and butter should always be answers to specific problems or videos that are beneficial to the watchers in that they will walk away having gained some bit of information.
If you are looking to launch a video marketing campaign on this YouTube platform, then there are just but 3 essential steps that you need to be aware of.
- Launching a Platform
- Creating and Producing the right Video Content
- Extensive YouTube SEO followed by Marketing
Launching a Platform
Let us begin with the first steps. You need to develop your platform with some strategic planning. This means that you need to come up with a strategy that is so sound, you’ll have no problem putting a significant amount of your marketing funds behind it. This may sound rather daunting and formidable, and it can be, but it’s also very important.
The chief components of a successful video marketing strategy are as follows:
- Identifying the key objectives of your campaign
- Identifying the right target audience
- Identifying the most appropriate type of video that you will produce
- Identifying your Key Objectives
This is probably self-explanatory, but for the sake of exhaustively covering all aspects, we’re going to cover this area as well. In most aspects of life, if you don’t have a clear objective, you likely don’t know exactly where you want to go. Which means, if you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll never get there.
A chief component of planning is setting up goals that are SMART. This means that your goals need to be specific and significant. They also need to be measurable, so you can track your progress. Your goals need to be agreed upon; ensure that all the stakeholders of the strategy have agreed on the objectives to ensure that they commit themselves to ensuring that it is achieved. They also need to be realistic or attainable. So don’t set an objective that’s impossible to achieve, like getting 3 billion views in one night. Your goals also need to be time bound; set a goal that is supposed to be achieved over a specific period of time.
As an example (and for instructional purposes only), let’s consider a company such as Global Ace Consultancy that may be looking at making a YouTube video. Perhaps these are their objectives:
- Create an additional 2000 visitors to the company website with 5 months of specific video marketing.
- Create an additional revenue stream of approximately $1,500 for every month within the first 6 months of the video marketing campaign.
- Double the overall number of clients within the first six months of video marketing.
Identifying your Target Audience
The rapid shift of consumer behavior to the various online platforms means it’s even more important for you to identify the right target audiences for your marketing campaign. There is however an upside to this shift as it has become easier for you to gain knowledge about your potential client base.
Today, we can go well beyond basic information such as rudimentary demographics and location. You can now get a better understanding of the types of sites they prefer, the content that they are interested in, and much more. Clearly defining this target audience for your market can aid you in custom fitting content such as social media posts, photos, paid adverts, and videos. It can also help you identify the marketing methods that will have the most positive impact on your business with the highest return on ad spend (ROAS).
Targeting the right audience is certainly beneficial in ensuring that you get the most out of your marketing dollars. In identifying the right target audience, you need to look into the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Just like a journalist!
WHO
Who are the current customers?
It is important to know who constitutes your current customer base. Given that they have already purchased from you in the past, you can make use of this information to get a better insight that will aid you in identifying the constitution of your core target audience. Here you can reach out to them via social media, email, or even within the store using a simple survey that will gather information concerning their interests, demographics, and their needs. You can also capitalize on this opportunity to find out what the customers love most about your business and the products that they like the most.
Who do you want to purchase your products?
You also need to identify the audiences that you intend to target to aid you in the expansion of your customer base. However, it is vital that you are realistic in considering who will purchase your products. For instance, if the current customer base of your high-end boutique shop is majorly comprised of college students and teens that are fashion conscious, then it would be realistic to consider expanding your customer base to young professional women.
However, it would be far-fetched to consider moms that are budget conscious.
Who are you currently marketing to?
If the focus of your targeted online marketing is a specific demographic that you are interested in, then ensure that you keep track of the results to see the performance of your efforts. For example, you may begin by tracking phone calls just to get an insight as to how well your marketing is doing. If you get a positive result, continue to focus on these groups. If, however, they are not working, consider solutions to these problems and tweak your message as well as strategy. Another positive that may come from monitoring your results is that you may reveal an audience that you had not been exclusively targeting. For instance, if your search advertising is resulting in more conversations over the phone than via desktop, then you may need to consider your mobile presence by designing an optimized mobile landing site to create a smart mobile experience for your mobile customers.
WHAT
What is the background of your customers?
This is arguably one of the most important questions that you should ask yourself when you are defining your target audience. If you can identify attributes such as age, gender, education level, hobbies, geographic location, income level, interests, family status, and much more than it will help you in determining the kind of online advertising that you need to make use of in order to reach the right customers for your business.
What do they purchase?
Try to seek to know whether your customers purchase more of a certain item or are interested in one service. If you can identify the products that are your bestsellers, you will in a better position to not only make smarter inventory choices, but also in tailoring your message to reach as many customers who are interested in these items. Additionally, by closely monitoring review sites and social media, you can always keep abreast of what the customer’s think of your service; if it is good then you can maintain the standards, and it is not then you get a chance to change.
WHEN
When are your products bought?
Try and identify whether your customers purchase your products at a specific time during the year, or whether they are purchasing throughout the year. By understanding the seasonality or the frequency of your business, you can be able to create messages that will target the customers during the right time in the cycle. For instance, a plumber is often sought out whenever the need arises, therefore optimizing search ads and content for his plumbing services may be of help in targeting consumers that are looking for an on the spot purchasing decision. However, a customer that is looking to purchase a new car has a higher likelihood of researching on dealers, vehicles, reviews, and offers on several different sites for a stretched duration of time. Ergo, it is vital that you take the length of time of your normal buying cycle into account.
When do the customers currently interact with your brand?
Ensuring that you target the right audience is not only crucial for gaining new sales, but also for developing your online brand. For example, by monitoring the times when the fans interact with your posts on social media, you can be in a better position of planning a schedule of when to post some content to get the optimum visibility as well as engagement. Here, let us imagine that your brand gets more traction on Fridays as compared to Mondays, then you should take advantage of this knowledge to post content that is engaging or promotions and special offers for the followers and fans when they are most likely to see the content.
WHERE
Where are your customers located?
Defining the exact location of your current customers can be of significant help in terms of concentrating your target marketing efforts. By making use of geographic targeting in display and search advertising, you can be able to create lead that are optimized through displaying your message only to audience that are in your service area. For instance, if you are a Dentist in your local town, then there is a very low likelihood that you are going to receive a client from a different State or country through your adverts. Therefore, in order to target the right consumers for your products, you need to make use of the appropriate keywords, such as location-specific phases, within your content in order to improve the overall chance of them showing up when the customers such for businesses similar to yours in the directories or search engines.
Where did your customers find you online?
A very easy and effective way of identifying your target audience is in finding out where your customers presently first found out about your business. Whether it is from the local directories, search engines, social media, word of mouth, or online reviews, by knowing where they first found out about your business can aid you in planning where to concentrate your targeting efforts.
WHY
Why do they purchase?
Ideally, many of the purchases can be grouped into two: needs and wants. By understanding your key products and services as well as the reasons why customers choose to purchase them can offer you with further insight into your target audience and the process, they go through in finding your business. For example, a customer that is seeking the services of a plumber will have considerably different expectations as well as a journey compared to another customer that is looking for a spa. Ergo, in understanding the why behind the purchase, you are in a better position of determining the most probable path of purchase.
Why do customers purchase from your competitors?
With the highly competitive markets today, customers are often spoiled for choice when it comes to purchasing. Therefore, there are numerous reasons as to why customers may opt to buy their goods from your competitors. It may be the case that your competitors have a superior customer service, they are more engaging with their customers or their followers and fans online, offer appealing discounts, have a better reputation, or their content is better optimized such that the customers can find them easily when they search. Therefore, if you can clearly understand why they prefer to buy from your competitors and not from you, may aid you in tailoring your approach for you to reach them and convert them to being your customers.
Answering all these questions is quite crucial in identifying the target audience for your customers. Studies have shown that the average consumers will make use of more than 10 sources of information before they decide on purchasing a product. This makes it even more critical that you need to identify your target audience to build a marketing plan that can reach your desired target audience where they are most likely to see it and engage with it.
Identify The Right Content
There are very many different types of videos on YouTube that are available. Honestly, you can find almost anything on YouTube. Here are some of the most popular kinds of videos that you are likely to encounter:
Educational Videos
These are basically recordings or videos of public sessions that are conducted in lectures or auditoriums, or sometimes an individual just standing and talking may suffice. As an example, he may be standing illustrating his content with a white board or other visual materials. It is important to note that sometimes this tactic may be a tad bit consuming with respect to time, however it is quite cheap to produce in comparison to other kinds of videos.
Webinars
These are most often PowerPoint Presentations with a few graphics accompanied by a voice-over on it. These are also very popular, and they are quite easy and fast to produce. In terms of cost, they are very cheap and effective provided you have the basic skills required. Of course, you can also use a recording of a live webinar instead.
Tutorials
These can be defined as videos that are elaborate and dynamic in structure. These videos can either be animated or they can clearly show the process that one must take to perform a certain task. For instance, how to repair a car. Characteristically, these types of videos are time-consuming and often expensive.
The third kind of video is what you should probably consider producing. Admittedly, they are both costly and a tad bit difficult to produce, which may put you off. However, these elaborate tutorials are generally the most appreciated kinds of videos online. With these characteristics, it has the highest potential of generating traffic as well as exposure to your site.
However, just because it is the most appreciated does not necessarily mean it is the best fit for your business. Once you have understood your target audience, you will be in a better position of understanding the kind of video that they are most likely to respond well to, and then you can make use of the above information and capitalize on it.
Deciding on the right kind of video for you to produce will help you significantly when it comes to making your budget. It is important to remember that as you are creating your budget; your objectives should always be a key concern. You would not be realistic if you were expecting that your videos would drive a seven-figure revenue stream whilst working with a three figure budget.
Producing the Right Video Content
This is where the exciting action begins, when you finally get to produce the videos to post on YouTube. Likewise, as the excitement begins, so does the rise in cost of video marketing.
Much like the planning stage, there are three different stages that one must go through in order to produce an appropriate video content. These are as follows:
- Buying the right kind of equipment
- Identifying video topics
- Filming the video
Buying the Right Types of Equipment
Regardless of the type of video marketing that you are considering, you cannot escape some form of investment for it. Here, you will most certainly be required to spend on the purchase of some equipment. This is particularly the case for some kinds of videos, as they are more sensitive to quality.
Let us take a scenario that the hypothetical company that we had earlier discussed is deciding to make use of in-depth tutorials. This will be quite appropriate for their desired target audience, as they have thoroughly researched online and made findings that there are many individuals that are very interested in Do It Yourself Headlights replacement videos, or something like that.
Global Aces Consultancy will be faced with a choice of spending some significant amount of money on several items:
A quality professional video camera. This will probably set them back a high 3 figure or mid four figures. Quality videos are important, so our fictitious company can’t avoid this cost.
A standard tripod. This would as well set them back low three figures.
A quality video editing software. There are several free online software that are free to use, but these often have restrictions and most often than not will have watermarks on them. Again, this will set them back mid three figures.
A standard wireless microphone. These are not very expensive and will go for about three figures.
Lighting equipment. A good video must have quality lighting, lest you have dark spots in the video which tend to be frustrating to watch. The cost of this will vary from mid-two figures to high three figures.
At this point, it’s important to remind you that video marketing may not be the most cost-effective kind of marketing that you can think of. In fact, there are several cases where the marketing campaign can go belly up and run losses. Therefore, before you hop on this bandwagon, you might need to take time to ensure that you have the necessary funds as well as the time to invest in this kind of project.
Finding Appropriate Topics for Videos
Making videos is very reliant on creativity and innovation. If your agenda is to be prolific in terms of producing videos, then you should not be surprised that you will likely run out of ideas quite fast. This is especially the case if you are dealing with a niche product, such as the replacement of gaskets or windows. Let us be honest, there are only so many ways in which you can make a video about the topics before they start to recycle.
Should you find yourself stuck in the same type of predicament, there are a number of avenues that you can explore that will help you in generating new ideas for your videos.
Recycle a blog post that you posted a long time ago.
You can locate one of your first blog posts and do your best to rework it such that you come up with a tutorial or appropriate video. For instance, if you have in the past worked in extensive guides on how to do things such as web hosting, you can now endeavor to make a video from this.
“Borrow” an idea from a competitor.
This may sound like some under handed tactics and probably even illegal, however, you should know that it is not actually against the law to do so. After all, there is nothing that is new under the sun. But it would be wise to mention that this does not mean that you should steal the actual video that was posted by your competitor. Now that would be illegal! What we are suggesting that you can review what the competitor is posting and with this you can be able to see what is currently trending in the market and then find out the topics that would best resonate with your audience thus resulting in more traffic.
Once you have done this, you are only required to come up with a better video and market it in a more efficient manner as compared to the competitor.
Use Ubersuggest to come up with a comprehensive list of keywords.
This tool is quite effective and comes highly recommended. An apt comparison would be Google Instant that is hopped up on steroids. What you get from Uber Suggest is a tool that is web-based and allows you to insert a specific key word, and it will instantly churn out hundreds of new keywords that you can use. This is the ultimate tool if you need to brainstorm on keywords.
Consult your audience and give them what they want.
There is no better way of coming up with topics for new videos than to ask the people who want to watch them. Your audience can provide you with an invaluable source of video topics whenever you feel like you are in a rut for new ideas by simply asking them. Come up with a survey which can easily be created with the help of free tools such as Survey Monkey and then consult some of your previous customers and request them to participate in the survey.
It is not always the case that you will be lost for ideas for a video topic, there are some niches such as WordPress how to and conversion rate optimization, where there will always be an overabundance of ideas for videos. Your brain will be literally buzzing with ideas for videos.
If you find yourself in such a case where you have an oversupply of ideas for your video, then it would be wise to remember that you need to clearly vet the profitability and feasibility of each idea.
What this means is that while there are many ideas for video topics, not all of them will be worth the effort and cost. If you perceive that the chances for you to make any money on the ideas are slim or not existent entirely, or if the traffic that could be generated from the given topic is not justifiable, then there is absolutely no reason why It is not always the case that you will be lost for ideas for a video topic, there are some niches such as WordPress how to and conversion rate optimization, where there will always be an overabundance of ideas for videos. Your brain will be buzzing with ideas for videos.
If you find yourself in such a case where you have an oversupply of ideas for your video, then it would be wise to remember that you need to clearly vet the profitability and feasibility of every idea.
What this means is that while there are many ideas for video topics, not all of them will be worth the effort and cost. If you perceive that the chances for you to make any money on the ideas are slim or not existent entirely, or if the traffic that could be generated from the given topic is not justifiable, then there is absolutely no reason why you need to invest up to four figures in creating such a video.
It is a waste of resources that would eventually earn you nothing. Do not waste your time on it!
Shooting of the Video
When you watch a video on YouTube, it is very easy not to appreciate the kind of effort that goes into making such a video. There are a lot of behind the scenes activities that are undertaken so that a successful and engaging video can be filmed.
To begin with, you absolutely need to have a script. This should not be just another slipshod script; it should be a good script that is capable of meeting your objectives. Failure to which, you run the risk of sounding like a complete idiot in front of all your viewers and the potential customers who will view your video.
Secondly, you are going to need an appropriate location where you are going to shoot your video. If you are shooting a video about fixing doors, then there is a high likelihood that location will not be a major issue. All that you will need is a room that is well lit and a door that needs fixing, which is something that can be simulated easily (all you would require is a door and an ample amount of force exerted with a shoulder and voilà! You have a door that needs fixing for your video). However, if you were shooting a video for a Motor company then you may run into some bit of trouble as you would require a road that does not have traffic and is nice enough for your set-up.
Finally, one of the most crucial things that you need to factor in when you are producing your video is that it needs to be engaging! Make sure you enunciate your words – the viewers should be able to hear you without any difficulty.
Remember, if you are making the video then you are communicating and communication is a performance art. So, you need to make sure you entertain your audience.
Do not hesitate to throw in a joke or two, provided they are appropriate and in good taste. Admittedly, when you are making a video about fixing a door or a radiator fan it is a rather somber affair and there is not much room for jokes, however, there is always going to be a chance where you can throw in a witty one-liner to ensure that your audience is engaged and stimulated.
There is also another factor that you should always take into consideration when you are making the video, the length of the video. Let us be honest, there are very few people who are willing to sit through a 50-minute monster video on how to fix a door! There are only so few hours in a day, and with the limited attention span of people in this digital age, this is not practical. Admittedly, there it is not possible to find a length that suits all video content, a pseudo sweet spot for length of videos. However, according to the findings of research that was conducted on several social media sites, it was noted most people would prefer a YouTube video that is less than 5 minutes; somewhere between a low four minutes and a high three minutes would be just right.
Many analysts online conclude that a shorter video is always better. It is not beneficial to go overboard on the length of videos. Furthermore, a short video is often cheaper than a long video.
There is another vital aspect to shooting a video that you need to consider, and that is the thumbnail to your video. Here, you have just but a couple of options. The first of which would be to create a custom thumbnail of your own choosing, and the other alternative would be to upload the video as it is and let YouTube pick out a random millisecond or two from your video to select as your thumbnail.
The smart option here would be to go with the former option, given that you are going to rely on this thumbnail to attract your customers. The ideal thumbnail is one that has the following attributes:
The thumbnail should be branded. This means that it should have your unique logo in the bottom left corner. The aim of this is to improve the overall visibility of the video.
The thumbnail needs to be able to describe the topic of the video. Just by looking at it, a potential watcher needs to be able to have a slight clue as to what the video is about
The thumbnail should be attractive such that it causes the watchers to want to click on it.
The trait that you want to dedicate a significant amount of time on, is the last one: causing people to want to click.
Let us take the example that you are making a video that is like a PowerPoint in style, then for a thumbnail you need to make a screenshot of the slide that contains the most helpful and informative content. By doing this, you will be able to let the viewer know that they are going to get some useful information even before they watch the video, and this will cause them to click on the video.
YouTube SEO
Awesome! You have successfully come up with a video marketing plan for the next three months. This is an excellent and engaging video that spans 3 minutes and 50 seconds filled with very captivating content, and you have successfully uploaded the video to YouTube.
Then what next?
You patiently wait for the views counter to start ticking away. At first nothing happens, but you tell yourself it has only been 15 minutes so wait a little longer. 15 minutes turn into hours which turn into a day then days and still you have nothing to show for all your hard work except a dismal 10 views (and this is including yourself, your friends, and every member of the production team watching it from separate computers). At this point, you are almost concluding that YouTube videos are not for you and the whole endeavor was a complete waste of time.
Hold on for a minute! There might be a simple reason as to why your video is performing dismally, and it seems no one is interested in watching it. Could it be that you have completely forgotten about the marketing aspect of making the video?
Of Course, it is!
It is important that you learn this concept early on, lest you get frustrated with online video marketing. Regardless of how captivating the content of your video is or how much you think it is beneficial to people, if people are unable to find your video, there is no way they are going to watch it, nor will you be able to make money off it. Therefore, you need to market your video and the first step of this process is through optimizing your video such that it gets higher rankings as compared to other videos in the SERPs.
Even though Google purchased YouTube a while back, the search engine for the video site still maintains its own unique algorithm. The implication of this is that whatever might be suitable for the SERPs on Google might not necessarily be suitable for YouTube.
The good news here is that the basic concepts are still the same, therefore you do not need to learn any new skills to be able to pull this one-off. These concepts encompass the following: ensure that you engage your visitors, and make sure that your video is very relevant to your basic keywords. The four key stones for YouTube SEO are:
- The relevancy of videos
- The relevancy of your channel
- The View Count
- The View ratings and engagement
Relevancy of Videos
It is almost goes without saying that there is no way a YouTube spider can watch a video that you have posted and make a conclusion that the video is not relevant to a particular keyword (however, it would be quite exciting if it were able to do so).
Instead of watching your video, YouTube spiders perform a ranking of your video on the basis of what they are able to read, this being the description of the video and its title.
These are like the meta descriptions and the headlines that are found in Google. All you need to do is to insert your keywords and your secondary keywords, and then tag your video in a manner that is appropriate.
Here is an example of a description and title that are optimized for our hypothetical company Global Aces Consultancy:
How to Replace a Leaky Faucet in 5 Minutes
The following is a step-by-step video guide that will show you how to replace a leaky faucet (primary keyword) – know how to replace the faucet in five minutes. Equipment necessary: wrench, pliers, replacement faucet (these will now constitute the secondary keywords or the LSI).
Here the keywords were incorporated into the description of the video as well as the title. The impact of this is that now the spider will be able to know that the video that has been uploaded is relevant to the keyword “how to replace a leaky faucet”.
Relevancy of the Channel
If you have any background information about SEO, then you will understand by simply just optimizing one solitary blog will not suffice! Your entire website is required to be in good terms with Google for the keywords that are related for you to have any sort of traffic directed your way.
This is the same concept that applies for channel relevancy.
You need to make use of your channel description to compose a concise description that is rich in keywords and clearly gives information about who you are and what it is that you do.
For instance:
Global Aces Consultancy (keyword) is a hardware supplier (another keyword) that is well known and very respectable that is dedicated to making the process of replacing household fittings such as faucets, windows and doors a painless and affordable endeavor. We have been supplying household fitting to over 3000 customers for over 20 years.
It is also quite crucial that you append a link to your website. The reason for this is that the link in your channel description is often designed as a follow. Also, you will get a helpful, no charge included backlink from a PR-9 website.
You should further ensure that your YouTube channel is only producing videos that have a relation to exclusively one niche – if you are thinking of uploading a video on bicycles on our Global Aces Consultancy channel… don’t do it!
View Count
This area creates a conundrum much like the chicken and the egg one.
Conventionally, one of the ways that YouTube videos are ranked is through view counts. However, it is very difficult for you to get views without already having a high ranking in SERPs.
A possible solution here is to market your videos extensively on social media, emails, blogs, and anything platform that you have at your disposal.
Video Ratings
It is completely unacceptable if all your viewers are abandoning your videos 5 seconds after clicking on it. It is also very disheartening if a negligible percentage of your viewers are taking the time to leave a comment on your videos. Also, if your dislike to like ratio numbers read something like 50-50, then this is quite bad.
Now, should viewers not engage with your video, then the YouTube spiders will automatically assume that your video does not have the necessary quality and often this is the case.
Also, having a high video view count, probably in five figures, is pointless if over half of those people are rushing down to leave negative comments or disliking your video.
One of the easiest ways that you can ensure there is an increase in the overall level of engagement in your videos in the form of shares, subscriptions, votes, and comments is by simply requesting your visitors to do so. At the end of the video, simply ask them to engage in whatever manner that you prefer.
YouTube Advertising
There are several pre-roll ad options that are available to YouTube advertisers, such as:
In stream: these are those ads that come before, during or after a video.
In-search: these are those ads that pop up on the search page
In-display: these are those ads that pop up next to the YouTube videos. Generally, the instream ads have been found to be the most engaging of all the above ads, the other two have been noted to result in banner blindness.
However, after the introduction of TrueView users have the option of skipping an ad after 5 seconds of watching it. The Advertisers will only pay for the ad if the users watch the ad for 30 seconds, or the whole ad if it is shorter than 30 seconds.
An interesting fact is that the pre-roll ads are quite effective, as over 30 per cent of YouTube users watch these ads. They also have a relatively high engagement, much higher than of those viewers who are forced to watch these ads in between the video.
Your video being very engaging, notwithstanding, the overall success with pre-roll advertising is dependent on several different factors. When you are developing a YouTube advertising campaign, it is important that you consider the following things:
- The kind of ad that is best suited for your niche
- Advertising via mobile
- Always make it engaging enough to make users watch past 30 seconds
Video Marketing
There is no argument that YouTube is the titan of video marketing, it is worth considering that there are other networks that can host your video as well. These include Vimeo, Viddler, Bunny.net, Daily Motion, among many others.
These sites can put up impressive figures in terms of views in every month. Networks such as Daily Motion can put up views of hundreds of millions in every month. If you aggregate these figures with those of the other networks, then you have numbers that are too high to ignore.
However, at this point you may be thinking of the cumbersome task of signing up to all the different sites and distributing the videos individually to each network, and this may be a tad bit off-putting.
However, thanks to an entrepreneur somewhere, you have One Load that can do that for you.
OneLoad is a site that allows you to upload a video one time, and it will distribute it to a whopping 18 different video networks at the same time. You may be required to part with some few dollars in the form of subscription fees, but it is a worthwhile investment. There is of course the free plan that has limited features.
In Conclusion
Video marketing is certainly not an easy, cheap and simple method of advertising; however, it does work otherwise the countless scores of businesses would not be doing it. While there are numerous ways that video advertising can be done online and through the internet, YouTube has revolutionized the way videos are shared and adverts made. Savvy users keen on making their presence or that of their products felt tap into the capability of YouTube.
