Why smart marketers use YouTube TrueView ads

Ask ten marketeers where they spend their money online and nine times out of ten you’ll hear: search engine marketing.

After which the conversation will go directly towards Google Adwords or Facebook. I rarely hear anyone talk about YouTube. A shame.

Because YouTube offers a variety of things in terms of targeting, costs, and branding that can be valuable additions to your marketing strategy. In this blog I’ll tell you why.

Three hundred hours of video uploads, thousands per hour, tens of thousands every day…you recognise the standard story that’s often told about YouTube.

Add to that the tons of cat videos and makeup tutorials which everyone goes on about. And then there’s the discussion over pre-roll commercials that you’re constantly skipping.

It was the last one that scared me off TrueView ads the most – until we took a closer look.

Size doesn’t matter

It doesn’t really matter all that much how big an advertiser is. Where A-brand B2C marketers may be looking for volume, as a smaller brand you can concentrate on extreme targeting, and in that way avoid the cat vids.

You can filter on demographics, interests, earlier interactions, placing, subject and search terms. And all the filters can be combined too.

Actually, you just have to be big enough to make a video clip.

So, in this way, even the new Yoga centre round the corner can get themselves noticed by folks in the neighbourhood; an online accounting system can use targeting aimed at small businesses or at those looking for a new accounting system.

And, if you’re a start-up with a new product for kite surfers, then with the right targeting you can get yourself in front of the videos where your audience is surfing along with the pros.

Make sure that you target extremely well

Consider that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. The search engine doesn’t just know which videos you like, but can make a good guess at what your interests are.

I watch a lot of tutorials about music production myself. YouTube recognised that within a couple of seconds and began to serve me ads to match. Sometimes there were videos of more than two minutes.

The penny began to drop only after watching the pre-roll of Masterclass with the dance producer Deadmau5 in the lead.

This clip already had more than 10 thousand likes. That is 0.1% of the total views. More than 1600 reactions. Those are numbers that even the biggest advertisers dream of.

Your remarketing will never be the same again

Are you already busy with online advertising, or are you planning to start? Then you’ll want to go to the ‘audience’ section of Adwords once your video is live.

Advertising on YouTube also improves your ability to find your clients. For instance you’ll be able to create a new campaign based on how your viewers interacted with the last ones.

Did they watch the pre-roll for longer than 30 seconds? Liked it? Commented or shared? Then you can add these viewers to a brand new list. A list of people who already know your brand.

Consequently you can use that list throughout Google. Increase your bids with this target group, reach them with banners, gmail ads, or new videos.

Every euro spent on someone who already knows your brand is money better spent than on someone who doesn’t. A simple little trick, with which you earn the cost of the video right back.

These are the possibilities

For total clarity, we’re talking about TrueView ads on YouTube here. In regards to other forms, I’ll talk about that in another blog.

The most important difference is that you can skip a TrueView ad. That sounds bad perhaps, but it’s actually very handy.

As an advertiser you won’t be charged when viewers skip your ad. You only have to pay if the viewer has seen 30 seconds or more of your video (unless the video is shorter than that of course) or when they interact with your ad.

To work. These are the possibilities:

1 – InStream

The InStream format is largely known by the denominators pre- and mid-rolls. The ads can be skipped after 5 seconds and show before or during a video.

In addition you get a free banner from YouTube with each video, which shows next to it. So, if someone clicks on the banner, that has cost you nothing.

In fact you don’t even have to design the banner, YouTube makes a composite from your channel where the clicks are free. But if you should take the design further yourself, then you have a good chance that the ads work even better.

What about the ads that you can’t skip? YouTube is going to completely remove them from circulation in 2018.

2 – Shopping ads

Google likes to combine its systems. Does your product lend itself to Google Merchant? In that case TrueView ads are even better.

The products that you show in your video are added as clickable elements next to, within or under it. Different advertisers have talked about a 60% cost reduction together with 40% higher conversion. And, these advertisers have used the exact same video for all InStream variants.

3 – Video Discovery Ads

The third TrueView format is Video Discovery. And the name gives most of it away.

Discovery ads are placed amongst organic results in YouTube on multiple places. They show up in the search results, next to related videos and on the YouTube homepage.

The videos are displayed as a thumbnail just like the other formats. An advertiser is only billed if someone clicks on their thumbnail.

Have we given you a taste for it?

So, you can take things in many different directions with YouTube, which means as an advertiser it doesn’t really matter how deep your pockets are. I think that the best chances are for companies that have to deal with niche markets.

That said we’re running various sorts of campaigns ourselves. Above all, what stands out for us is that the cost per click is, on average, lower than that of the more obvious paid marketing channels.

Also, the fact that viewers can skip ads we see more as a help than a hinderance. Some marketers in fact swear by formats that cleverly play with the skip function.

If you’re able to tell your story, and then the viewer clicks on skip, they have still seen you again and yet it didn’t cost you anything. Of course it is possible to exaggerate these things, as in the video pre-roll below. 🙂