Visual contents will continue to dominate the marketing arena for the foreseeable future. And of course, YouTube tops the list of online video sharing platforms. Since it’s introduction in 2005, this video sharing/social media site offers brands to spark engagement with the growing global audience in the most incredible way.
With more than one billion users, who spend millions of hours per day viewing videos, YouTube is the second most ( second only to Google) popular search engine globally and just about every type of business can benefit from this channel. YouTube video content has become the promotional tactic with the best return on investment.
The transformation of YouTube as the most lethal marketing tool–
When Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim created this video-sharing website way back in 2005, they had no idea that their creation could revolutionize the sector of online marketing. The initial idea was to give a platform to the people where they can upload and share their videos, watch other’s videos and add comments to videos. Since it’s emergence, there was no ebb in YouTube’s stardom and popularity and it has become one of the most effective online marketing tools for the businesses of all shape and size.
YouTube content represents a smart and entertaining way to capture the attention of your target audience through bite-sized how-to’s or long-form tutorials, explainer videos or webinars. Rather than reading out a lengthy and often complex sales letter, most potential customers prefer to watch an informative video of your company’s products and services. Creating an informative, relevant and evergreen YouTube video means you could enjoy a constant stream of promotion. If your business isn’t leveraging the power of YouTube content promotion, you’re missing out big time.
Make use of Google AdWords to boost your YouTube views-
Google bought YouTube in 2006 and integrated it with their other services and that is the primary reason YouTube accounts are linked to Google Plus and Gmail. Now businesses can utilize Google’s advertising wing AdWords to enhance their YouTube views and reap full benefits of their marketing efforts. Utilizing Google AdWords to boost YouTube activity may sound overwhelming but if you follow a few specific guidelines the entire process will become quite painless.
What would be your first attempt?
The very first thing you need to do is to link your YouTube channel to your AdWords account. Here’s how to link your YouTube Channel and AdWords account:
- Sign in to your YouTube channel.
- Click your channel icon or name in the upper right corner of the page.
- Click Creator Studio.
- Click Channel on the left, then click Advanced.
- Under “AdWords account linking,” click Link an AdWords account.
- Follow the instructions, and then click Finish.
- After approval, the YouTube channel will be linked to the AdWords account.
AdWords YouTube Video Campaign Types-
- Brand awareness/consideration
- Shopping
- Downloads of apps or tools
- Website traffic
Select your bid type–
There are a number of different advertising formats available on YouTube. Advertisers can go for two options-
Option 1- Select one single bid that applies to all of them
Option 2- Opt for the custom route and set a different bid for each format
Customize Your Target Audience With Customer Match-
In AdWords, advertisers can upload a CSV of email addresses to use as a target audience for search ads, Gmail ads and YouTube ads. While running a YouTube ad via AdWords, customize your target audience with customer match.
Utilize the TrueView Shopping Tool for displaying your products and services–
With an AdWords campaign, advertisers can monitor and compare their YouTube video marketing efforts to their other marketing channels. You simply require to connect your Google Merchant center with your YouTube campaigns to start displaying dynamic product ads within the appropriate YouTube videos.
Option 1-Advertisers can set up the ads with destination URL’s that link back to their website
Option 2-They can add annotations with clickable links within their videos to web pages outside of YouTube
TrueView video ads are a new format for reaching and targeting audiences directly on YouTube with video-based content. Advertisers can only use video content in their ads. Four different types of video ad formats are-
- TrueView In-search
- TrueView In-display
- TrueView In-stream
- TrueView In-slate
Zero in on your target audience–
Which group of YouTube users from which location you want to reach is really important. Your videos should be oriented towards serving their requirements. Do a bit of market research based on the product or service that you provide along with the field of interest, demographics and age of your target audience. Business owners can also target specific keywords people type into the YouTube search bar. Their ads only appear when those exact words or phrases get searched on. If you have a mom and pop shop, you could even upload TV commercial style YouTube videos. Just make full use of Google AdWords to get the data of your current audience and from where they are coming to your YouTube channel. Set up your strategy based on these AdWords data.
Final Thoughts-
Posting product or service videos on YouTube is perhaps the easiest way to increase your reach and viewership. Do keep in mind that when making YouTube videos, you should give extra emphasis on the contents your prospective customer/clients are looking for with proper textual description. Your success depends on the delicate synchronization of Google AdWords with YouTube.
Guest article written by:
Salil Panikkaveettil, is a social media marketing specialist and Google AdWords campaign management experts. He likes to share his knowledge with his readers and provide them with the best information on various digital marketing topics. Follow on Twitter & LinkedIn