And there you have it: everything you need to know to start creating a highly effective YouTube video advertising campaign. It’s a lot to take in but once you get stuck in, you’ll find that it’s easy and actually quite fun to learn on the job.
So where you do you go from here? After creating your account, the best thing to do is to try creating a simple video that sells a product by using people on Fiverr to create a whiteboard animation, or by making something in Excel. You can then set this up as a simple In-Stream advert and link it to a sales page selling your own information product or an affiliate product. This will very quickly teach you the basics of YouTube advertising and you’ll be able to learn what works and how to get set up.
From here, you can then go about building your YouTube channel by adding more content, setting up your page and trying out different advanced targeting options etc.
Over time, you’ll find that you grow and you’re able to increase traffic to your channel and drive more conversions and profit.
And as you do, keep in mind these tips to help you get even more from your efforts:
Consistent Branding
Keep your branding consistent across your videos and across your social media and website. Key to this is creating a great logo and again, it’s worth commissioning someone to do this if you’re unsure of your own skills in that department!
Make Your Videos Discoverable
You can set your adverts to be unlisted to prevent them showing up in searches but it’s not really the best move. It makes much more sense to let people discover your content and that way you can be seen by even more people!
Watch Your Metrics!
Keeping an eye on your metrics is the number one way to see what’s working and what’s not. Watch your analytics closely and tweak your videos and targeting for the best possible outcome.
Match Your Strategy to Your Brand
Don’t create a brand and then try to market it – create a product with a vision for how you’ll market it right at the start. This means researching niches, thinking about your current contacts and generally coming up with a synergistic plan.
And Your Video to Your Strategy
Likewise, make sure that your video is right for its intended purpose. Decide which type of YouTube ad you’ll be making before you create the video. This is important as you’ll need your video to be the right length for it to be selectable for certain types of advertising campaign.
Watch the Competition
Watching the competition closely is a great way to get an idea for what works and for the rhythm of good video ads.
Build Your Channel
Don’t think of your YouTube ads and your channel as separate entities – build them up together at the same time and one will support the other. Apart from anything else, having only 100 subscribers somewhat undermines your point when you’re talking about your amazing internet marketing skills!
YouTube Advertising Cheat Sheet
YouTube advertising is an incredible tool that any marketer can use to reach a broad audience, to increase engagement and to sell products.
Strangely enough though, YouTube is also a platform that a large number of marketers avoid. The reason for this is that they assume that creating a video must be much harder and much more expensive than using other forms of marketing. In reality though, neither of these things are true.
In the full ebook, we’ve gone over all the different steps that it takes to set up a YouTube advertising campaign and to start profiting from it. Admittedly, it was a lot to take on board though – so let’s narrow it all down here to show just how simple and straight forward it can be…
Types of YouTube Advert
Overlay: These are text and image adverts that show on-top of the feature video and that cost you every time someone clicks on one.
Display: These are text and images adverts that show next to the ‘feature video’ or above it. Again, these are ‘CPC’ – cost per click.
In-Stream: These videos play at the start of YouTube videos (whereas some others can be elected to appear during the middle of a video). These videos can normally be skipped after the first 5 seconds and when that happens, you don’t get charged. In fact, you only get charged if someone watches to the end or for 30 seconds (whichever comes first). This is one of the key things that makes YouTube advertising so great for ROI. You can though opt not to make your video skippable. Google calls this ‘TrueView’ and the payment model is called ‘CPV’ or ‘Cost Per View’.
Generally, the best practice for these videos is to keep them somewhat short at around 15-30 seconds. This makes them more likely to be watched through to the end and more likely to get clicked! If someone clicks on your ad, of course this counts as a view and you get charged.
The best bit here is that you can turn your video into a link so that when people click it, they get sent to your website.
In-Search: In-search adverts appear as thumbnails alongside organic results. Clicking these thumbnails then plays the video or takes the viewer to your channel page. You can’t link them to external pages but you can do this through annotations. Note though that you need to ‘associate’ your web page first.
How Bidding Works
The amount you pay ‘per view’ or ‘per click’ is going to be dependent on the amount you choose to ‘bid’. You set the bidding amount which determines which videos ‘win’ when multiple ads are competing for the same slot. You’ll pay the minimum necessary to beat the next highest bid (with some variation based on the quality score).
You can also set a maximum budget which ensures you won’t pay more than you are able to over a given period. Once your budget runs out, the ads stop showing.
Targeting
Finally, there are multiple ways you can target your ads to specific content. These include:
- Targeting by content category
- Targeting by user behaviour (what they have previously watched)
- Targeting specific videos
- Targeting by remarketing – users who have previously engaged with your content
And that, in a nut-shell, is an introduction to all the powerful tools that YouTube advertising affords you!
YouTube-Advertising-Mind-Map
YouTube Advertising Resource Sheet
Advertising on YouTube is a fantastic way to gain exposure to a massive audience without breaking the bank. It elevates your brand to a new level and lets you engage with viewers in a way no other platform can offer.
But to be successful, you need to have the right strategy and you need to have the right tools. This resource sheet will set you on your way by providing you with more information and resources to jumpstart your progress.
Information
YouTube Statistics
https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html
In case you’re still on the fence, this page will show you the incredible statistics YouTube boasts in terms of viewership and growth.
TrueView Ad Definition
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/TrueView-Ad
Google does like to make its various marketing tools muddled and overly complex! This is a handy definition that talks you through TrueView ads and the different types of video ad available.
Creating YouTube Adverts
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2288959/how-to-create-youtube-video-ad-campaigns-for-direct-marketing
This article from Search Engine Watch shows you how to create a YouTube video ad campaign for direct marketing. This useful resource goes over the different types of video ad and shows how each relates to direct advertising and sales.
A Step-by-Step Checklist
http://singlegrain.com/digital-marketing-strategy/step-step-checklist-successful-youtube-ad-campaign/
This is another great resource that provides a step-by-step countdown of steps and options when creating your YouTube ads. Some of the information here is a little dated so be sure to cross reference with the book.
Remarketing
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2545661?hl=en-GB
One of the most powerful tools we discussed in the book was remarketing. This is the official resource from Google that explains how it works and how to set it up.
Are Shorter Videos Cheaper
http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/how-long-should-a-youtube-video-ad-be-actual-data-regression-analysis/
We also mentioned in the full book how studies suggest that shorter videos may be cheaper. This is the research we were alluding to.
Quality Score
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454010?hl=en-GB
This is another official resource from Google, explaining the nature of their ‘quality score’.
Tools
Movie Maker
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/movie-maker
This is a free video editor for Windows. Very useful for creating ads freely – though it isn’t very powerful either.
YouTube Editor
https://www.youtube.com/editor
Another free, easy editor is the one that comes with YouTube itself.
Adobe Creative Cloud
http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html
For more advanced editing and higher production values though, we recommend this tool for creating beautiful videos.
Video Maker FX
http://videomakerfx.com/
If you choose to go the other way and avoid using a camera at all, Video Maker FX is an interesting option designed specifically for marketers.
Easy Sketch Pro
http://easysketchpro.com/
Another great tool is Easy Sketch Pro which you can use to make animations for your videos.
PowerPoint
And don’t forget that PowerPoint can be used to turn a slideshow into a video – then you just have to add narration!
YouTube Analytics
http://www.youtube.com/analytics
Also very important is YouTube analytics which you can use to check the performance of your videos and thereby to tweak the various variables and ensure they’re performing optimally.
Fiverr
http://www.fiverr.com
Fiverr is a website where you can hire people to do nearly anything for five dollars upwards. This is a great place to get logo designs, music and even video openers to cheaply give your videos some more sheen and quality.
