YouTube is the largest online video sharing website, and it’s also the second largest search engine on the web. It’s a no-brainer why so many brands attempt to include the platform in their marketing strategy with Youtube Ads.
However, some specific knowledge and skills are required to build ads that convert on this platform. If you’re interested in YouTube marketing, this article will help you become a master at creating compelling ads that bring excellent ROI, and make the video streaming platform one of your best marketing avenues.
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Benefits of marketing on YouTube
If you’re considering YouTube marketing as a new marketing channel, you should understand the key benefits you’ll get by using this platform.
YouTube brings in a huge amount of traffic and video views every day, making your YouTube Ads highly visible to potential customers.
- 30 million daily visitors
- 68% of users say YouTube ads help them make purchasing decisions
- 5 billion videos are watched every day
The video format allows you to connect with your audience better visually and audibly and that allows you to hook users through stories and emotions. YouTube ads click-through rates have more than doubled since 2020, and the cost to advertise (cost per 1000 impressions) has been divided by two.
How to build effective YouTube ads
YouTube users expect a certain quality in the videos they watch on the platform. It’s very different from TikTok or Instagram where independent creators film content with their phones and upload it to a platform. Therefore, creating visually appealing videos should be the first step in your YouTube marketing strategy.
You can have the best YouTube marketing strategy with fantastic ads, but if you miss the mark with users, your ads will fall flat and will not convert. Here are some important elements to keep in mind when creating ads for YouTube:
- Hook viewers immediately: Grab viewers’ attention as quickly as possible and before they get the option to skip your ad. For example, you could use a familiar face like an influencer, set an intriguing mood, or play a good song that will entice your target audience to keep watching.
Determine what grabs your target audience’s attention and focus on using that at the start of your video. For more details on ads duration and skip options, check out YouTube advertising formats.
- Determine your ad goal: Are you selling a product or trying to boost brand awareness? Adapt your message to your main objective.
If you’re looking for brand awareness, then establish your branding message within 5 seconds of your video starting. However, if you’re selling something and looking for action, then keep branding for later on in the video, or as small portions throughout the video.
- Draw in viewers with story and emotion: To reach your viewers and keep them engaged you must tell a genuine story related to your brand. That way you can hook users with an emotional response. Something that makes them think: “I need that.”
- Have a unique call to action: If your goal is to draw in leads and sales, you need to implement clickable elements on your ad and make them extremely easy and user-friendly. If your analytics show ads are watched but have no conversions, this might be due to an issue with your CTA.
Ultimately, you should be reviewing the implementation of your YouTube marketing strategy continuously. Set up and review the analytics to see how your targets respond to your ads and how well they convert.
Don’t be afraid to run trials for short periods, as long as you stay on-brand and sending out a genuine message to your audience. Try experimenting and A/B testing with different hooks and methods to try to create an emotional response from your viewers.
Growing your Business with YouTube ads: strategies and best practices
Growing your business with YouTube ads can be a tricky process. The requirements for high-quality content can make YouTube ads only accessible with the skill or money to produce ads that convert. Here are some best practices to make the most of the platform:
- Constantly analyze your ad traffic: You need to understand how your audience reacts to your ads and your overall YouTube marketing strategy. With extremely high traffic, you should be able to see within hours if your YouTube ads are effective or not.
What do you do if ads are skipped through quickly and have low conversions. In that case, you need to consider how to build effective YouTube ads that connect with your audience. Take some time to conduct market research and find people, things, songs, and anything else that could effectively catch the attention for your products or services.
- Keep ads short: The faster you can hook and convert a customer, the harder it will be for them to skip your ad. Your ads should be around 15 – 60 seconds; 30-second ads have the highest conversion rates.
- Design your ads with mobile devices in mind: More than half of all YouTube viewers are on a mobile device. Use bright backgrounds, clear text, and tight shots, then test how your videos look on a mobile device vs. a computer screen.
- Target your ads: Your ad should only be shown when it relates to the user’s search history. If a user is searching for bodybuilding tips and you show them your cat toys, they’re more likely to become frustrated and skip as soon as possible. It will also leave a bad impression of your brand, even if they love their cat.
- Test out different types of YouTube ads: Depending on your marketing goals, you may find that some types of YouTube ads work more effectively for your brand than others. Test out all options to see which ads convert better for you; you might be surprised by how viewers respond.
Your best overall Youtube marketing strategy is to test and analyze the data you get back. Implement different types of YouTube ads, different lengths, change the style or message that you’re putting out, and keep analyzing to find the sweet spot.
Need help implementing a YouTube marketing strategy?
We specialize in helping businesses leverage marketing platforms across the web to drive more revenue. If you’re looking to take your YouTube game to the next level, reach out to our team for a quick chat and see how we can help!
