People Prefer Video Content
More people than ever go online for entertainment, information, and education. They often prefer video content because it saves them time and can be for more entertaining than other mediums. The majority of Internet traffic is video and a huge portion of that is via YouTube. So, it only makes sense for advertisers to meet their audiences where they spend their time with Video Advertising. YouTube has continued to win the hearts of the users by offering on-demand content that is convenient and fresh.
Video advertising should be part of your marketing campaign because it is inexpensive, highly targeted, and customizable based on the user data YouTube generates. Employing TrueView advertising allows you to set the budget that works for you and test and modify your ads in nearly real time. This allows you to optimise your spending, and target your audience better than just about any other marketing channel.
Why YouTube’s TrueView Should be a Key Component in Your Advertising Mix
Buyers and millennials, in particular, prefer YouTube ads because they have the option to opt-out and love having that degree of control over their content exposure. Furthermore, YouTube has more than 1 billion users, and Google reaches 90% of web users via their Display Network of over 2 million websites. This network provides you with precise ways to reach your audience with very measurable results.
Video advertising allows for immense precision when it comes to ideal audience targeting. The technical interface of TrueView is friendly enough but what you really need to do to bring it to full potential is mine the data it generates and constantly fine-tune your campaign to better pitch to your audience.
There are three types of video advertising available:
• In-stream – they appear before, during or after video content and allow interactions by the viewer, including the option to skip the ad. You only pay if the viewer sees 30 sec or more, or if the ad is shorter than 30 sec the whole ad.
• In-search (discovery) – appear in search results based on keywords and are played only if the viewer clicks on them. You only pay if they click on the ad.
• In-display (discovery) – appear and are labeled as ads next to other videos on the watch page and you only pay if the viewer clicks to play them.
Reach people where ever they are, on all devices.
In-stream allows the user to skip the ad after 5 seconds and if they do you do not pay for it. This helps you target and pay for views from people that show interest. In-search video ads show in search results and similarly, you pay only for interested individuals that click on them. The same goes for in-display ads. This makes for a more targeted and cost efficient advertising compared to broader approaches.
Harness the Power of Precision
Targeting is more precise because the viewer has the option to navigate away. That means when they choose to watch, they are likely a member of your ideal audience. Depending on your specific needs you can use the ads that are best suited for your audience. Which is the first step towards customization and getting the most out of your video campaign. Best results come after you test and optimise with continuous vigilance.
You have two sets of metrics that you can monitor, one focuses on engagement the other on brand interest. Using those metrics you can adjust your ads in nearly real-time. You can also modify based on geo-targeting, network, and choice of device, so you can tell your story to an even more highly targeted segment. You can test and improve, using variations of your ads and graphic elements so you can optimise your branding campaign and get top engagement and ROI.
Engagement Metrics
• Views
• Clicks
• Engagements
• Unique Cookies
• Earned Views
• Earned Subscribers
• Playlist Additions
• Likes
• Shares
YouTube advertisers that know the inner workings of the platform get the best results. Your engagement metrics are only one way to customise your campaign. You can use them to segment your audience for more targeted branding.
Using TrueView to Boost Your Branding
TrueView allows you to optimise your ad engagement and test your branding elements within a week and tailor them to your users. This magnifies the effectiveness of your video ads offering top quality resonating content. Your brand metrics allow you to further adjust that content and optimise it for best results. Aim for resonating, entertaining, and shareable.
Brand Metrics
• Awareness
• Perception
• Audience Interest
Using Google’s Brand Lift solution you can gather and analyse data on how your users interact with your video. Your fast access to action metrics allows you to test your creative elements, optimise targeting and focus on the metrics that matter most to your business. Like the brand interest metric that measures your success by the increase in your organic search.
This allows you to promote your brand to an audience that it most resonates with using:
• Demographic
• Interests
• Affinity Audiences
• In-market
• Remarketing
• Placement
• Topics
• Keywords
These criteria make your campaign precise and powerful and allow you to increase your CTR and ROI via better targeting.
What Makes TrueView Powerful and Cost Effective
Creating custom filters gets you closer to your ideal buyer audience and helps you optimise your budget. TrueView has powerful modification tools to boost your CTR. Your cost-per-view (CPV) can vary based on:
• Video Ad Length
• Entertainment Value
• Precision of Your Targeting
• Competition
• Dynamics of the Auction Around Your Target Keywords
• Placement
• Target Demographics
In order to get the most out of your campaign at an optimised cost, you should constantly evaluate your CPV and refocus and adjust filters. You should evaluate your key engagement metric – view rate – and measure your other metrics against it, in order to improve CTR efficiency and ROI. Narrowing your targeting can reduce cost and boost CTR. You can exclude topics, improve your bidding and add a call to action to your ad.
Always use the power of data to make informed decisions. This will lead to optimum use of this platform and drive your cost down. Test your CTR’s destination – landing page, sales page or another video to raise awareness. Each modification you make can inch you closer to better results.
How to Use TrueView to Market Products
YouTube has grown into a powerful search engine that people trust to find out about products and how they are used. You can use your TrueView campaign to grab your audience’s attention with interactive video ads that engage them and connect them directly to your products. You can invite them to buy or nurture them with more information bringing them closer to your shopping cart.
These ads gather your inventory data from your Merchant Center and display different products by generating shopping cards on your video. You can include up to six shopping cards on a single video and you can tailor them based on specific criteria. This is another data driven tool that helps you to modify your approach and meet your audience with a perfect pitch.
You can create a list of specific products that you want to appear on your ads or you can create filters for your inventory. You can use data from previous campaigns to put forward the right products and effectively remarket them.
Using TrueView for Remarketing
Remarketing is a powerful approach that is made very easy by the mountains of data from your video ad exposure and interactions. You should extract the essence from that data and make lists of interactions that your viewers undertook on YouTube. You can group them by demographics, interests, and actions they took on your video ad. Those actions can be – liked, disliked, subscribed to your channel.
You can link this data to your AdWords account and design a strategy to approach them again, based on a unifying factor. Your strategy should note on which part of the buyer journey your target segment is and remarket accordingly. You can invite them to a landing page, sales page or to download your app. Your campaign should be tailored to the stage of the marketing funnel your target segment inhabits.
The Key to YouTube Video Advertising
The key to getting the most out of TrueView ads, even with a limited budget, is utmost diligence and consistent optimization. You should understand the inner most workings of video advertising and how you can fit it in your marketing mix in a way that enriches all your channels. It is vital to know your audience and where your YouTube ads fit along its consumer journey. That way you can be more precise and use this powerful tool to its full effect.
