YouTube advertising could be just what your business needs to reach a new audience.
We’ve all seen those lovely little skippable ads on YouTube. But perhaps you’ve come to this page because you’re considering putting your business on there too.
The good news is, it’s not just easily achievable, it’s also surprisingly affordable.
We’ve compiled this information page to help you navigate the murky waters of online platform advertising to enable you to make an informed decision about whether YouTube advertising is right for your business. You may be pleasantly surprised about how a YouTube video can enhance your marketing campaign.
An increasing number of viewers are now watching YouTube via their smart TV. This provides advertisers with an ideal opportunity to replicate what they are currently showing on TV in their YouTube advertising campaign.
The perception of a TV advert is that it is a fairly safe bet, often believed to be trustworthy and reliable. If you see a business advertising on TV, you generally think they’re doing pretty well.
By extending that campaign to YouTube, it is a brilliant way for smaller, more local businesses to propel themselves forward.
YouTube Targeting Methods
YouTube advertising offers a variety of targeting methods which gives the advertiser more control over who sees their campaign. They can custom build a target audience, whether that’s by age, postcode or one of the other options available.
Let’s take a look at some of the segmentation options. Hopefully this will get you thinking about who you want to reach.
Age Targeting
As people age, their needs change. Targeting a certain age group, such as 18-24 or the over 65’s means your product or service is reaching only those who fall within a desired age bracket.
Mobility aids, stair lifts, and healthcare products for the elderly, won’t see much success if their YouTube adverts are pitched to a younger demographic. It’s about matching your product to the purchaser and age is a classic way of segmenting the market.
Geographical Targeting
This is a particularly effective tool for local or regional advertisers. Let’s say you run a takeaway business. Perhaps you have decided that, after some research, you want to target younger men 18-25 who game online and live within a three-mile radius of your delivery area.
A YouTube advert allows you to reach out to that particular group. It’s the modern equivalent of pushing a menu through a door, only this time, it is specifically aimed at your intended audience, meaning less wastage.
Postcode targeting
Postcode targeting makes reasonable assumptions about consumers based on where they live and more indirectly, what they earn. If you are marketing premium products, such as luxury cars, then you might direct your advert towards an affluent SW1 London postcode. There is a greater chance of this being a success as opposed to targeting a postcode where house prices are much lower.
Similarly, if your business involves selling mid-range family cars, you should consider targeting postal codes which have high density family housing and a particular level of income.
A YouTube advert allows you to be strategic as you can target specific post codes. Google has recently begun to target by affluence, as in line with what we have covered, post codes provide an insight into the way people live.
For example, a homeowner living in a £100,000 house is likely to make quite different purchasing decisions to a homeowner living in a £1,000,000 property.
In the Market Targeting
Big Brother is, quite literally, watching.
Because YouTube is owned by Google – the biggest ad company in the world, it’s no surprise that Google knows exactly what people are searching for.
You’ve done it yourself – a simple search for a weekend break and suddenly, all of the adverts you see are offering you more hotels, chalets, and lodges than you can shake a stick at!
With Google knowing what users are searching for and what they’re purchasing, YouTube advertisers can actively target customers, based on what they’re ‘in the market for’. There really is no more specific way to target and even better – you are safe in the knowledge that those potential customers are already actively interested in your product.
It’s akin to a warm sales lead, in that you’re already halfway there.
Bespoke Targeting – Build Your Own
We tend to see bespoke targeting as a good thing and primarily it is. There’s nothing more satisfying than reaching the right people at the right time as this increases the likelihood that they will engage with your offering.
There is a wealth of options available to marketers, allowing them to custom build their own plan.
But beware! The key here is balance.
Making your group too small can have an adverse effect. It’s a fine line between fine tuning your customer base and avoiding alienating prospective customers. Essentially you need to make sure you have enough customers to reach out too.
People’s Interests
YouTube has become a good source of information for those with interests and hobbies in a particular field. Viewers are looking at short online videos for all sorts of reasons whether that’s improving their golf swing, building their own raised flower bed, or learning how to apply false eyelashes.
Whatever their interests are, it makes sense to run an advert on or around those videos. YouTube works well here, because generally, people aren’t likely to click away from something they’re interested in. A gardener watching a gardening themed video is likely to be more receptive to an advert for a gardening product. This is because it plays on their existing interests.
Keywords / Search Phrases
If you identify that YouTube viewers are searching for brow pencils, brow lamination or eyebrow grooming, then it suggests that the ideal spot to place your YouTube advert would be on a beauty video linked to those searches.
A grooming tutorial or a brow lamination explainer video might be a good start. Those who search are already in your ballpark.
Specific YouTube Channel Targeting
There are plenty of YouTube channels around. They each have different themes and genres, and are a great way to target a specific group of people.
For example, crafting is a fairly niche market and appeals to a certain type of consumer. As such, where better to place an advert for craft supplies than on that channel? Those subscribers are already in the zone of watching something they enjoy, and are therefore more likely to purchase your product.
Does YouTube Advertising Offer Flexibility?
YouTube advertising offers an alternative way of promoting your brand compared to TV, as it allows advertisers to control when their advert is aired. For example, there is usually an increase in online shopping on a Sunday evening. During this time consumers are relaxing at home and are casually surfing the internet. This means they are in the right frame of mind to make a purchase.
A YouTube campaign can be tailored to air on specific days of the week.
Remember Blue Monday at Yo Sushi? Meerkat Movies on Tuesday or Wednesday?
The marketing supports the timing of the offer which maximises its effectiveness. It may be tailored to a certain region in line with that which is an ideal solution for local businesses. This flexibility is incredibly valuable as it permits change quickly and easily as and when required.
What is the Value of YouTube Advertising?
Like any form of advertising, you need to be confident that utilising YouTube can yield results for your business.
As this is something you’re going to be investing in as part of your broadcast marketing, it needs to be a worthwhile tactic.
With that said, let’s explore the effectiveness of YouTube advertising and most importantly, the cost.
Can I See If My YouTube Advert Is Effective?
As there are so many targeting options available to advertisers it can be easier to see how people are interacting with the YouTube videos on the platform.
We have the technology to monitor the view rate and also to determine how many viewers are watching the full advert. The advert is then given a view rate figure, expressed as a percentage.
What Is The Cost Of Producing An Advert For YouTube?
The good news is you can make an advert starting from as little as £750. Once the advert is created, TVA will work with you to determine how best to use your budget. We would recommend starting with a low spend initially to test the effectiveness of the campaign.
At TVA we can set an amount of how much money you want to pay per click, which can be as low as 2p per view. Surprisingly, TV can work out even cheaper at 0.5p per view, but with a YouTube advert, you are paying for the benefit of a more specifically targeted campaign.
Is YouTube Advertising Cost Effective?
YouTube is well known for adverts which are skippable which is not actually a bad thing.
Here’s why…
Let’s say 50% of people watch your advert and 50% of people skip your advert.
Well here’s a little-known fact…
You only pay for your advertising if a viewer watches the full 30 second advert.
That’s right.
If they skip it before this time then you incur zero costs. Of course, you want them to watch it in full, but even if they see a slice of it, you’ve increased your brand visibility. That seed was planted and even better, it was all free!
There is no minimum budget either which gives the advertiser more control. You are responsible for setting the daily spend which allows you to decide how it is allocated.
Does The Creative Process Differ Between A Tv Advert and A YouTube Advert?
Because YouTube adverts are skippable, it’s probably a good idea to tailor your creative accordingly. This includes front loading as much of the message as you can at the start of the ad to grab your audience immediately.
Even if it’s your business name or logo, getting your message across as soon as possible is of paramount importance when making a YouTube advert. If the viewer then still chooses to skip, at least some of the ad has been watched. If nothing else, this increases brand awareness which adds value either way.
Of course, it comes back to balance.
If a viewer is continually skipping ads, then they may never get as far down the purchasing line as you would want. It’s all about what success looks like for you. If your goal is to generate brand awareness, over sales, then there is value in even just a fraction of your advert being watched. In this scenario, all is not lost because the full advert didn’t play in full.
To get the best engagement we’d recommend having a series of ads that all help direct the viewer to taking action, or moving them down the funnel as they’d say at a digital agency.
Are YouTube Adverts Measurable?
There are tracking options on YouTube ads similar to those you’d see on other digital advert platforms. The main difference though is video content can often have a brand effect.
So seeing the advert multiple times will make it more liley for someone to respond. This may make you think your earlier ads didn’t work but actually thats like going out on the drink and blaming the last pint for getting you drunk! The ads work together as a whole!
It’s difficult to attribute sales directly to an advert seen on YouTube. Broadly speaking, if you have previously had no media content on YouTube, and you have seen a rise in sales since placing an ad, then it’s probable that the advert is driving those sales.
Let’s say you are spending £50 a day on your YouTube advertising. Would you need to generate a certain number of transactions to recoup that spend? Or is your goal centered more on creating awareness, launching a product, or boosting an ongoing TV campaign?
Success is measured according to what your goals are.
At TVA, we can help you ascertain what you want to get out of the YouTube advert, by determining what success looks like for your business. Take a look at some examples of how we have helped previous clients achieve their goals!
Why Choose YouTube Advertising?
Like your very best friend, Facebook knows a lot about you!
Facebook collates all of the data it collects from your likes, your comments, your friendship groups, and so on. They are able to run a targeted campaign to 50 people and then seek out a further 50 similar people, going on to target them.
Facebook targets based mainly upon who is buying the product and it’s no surprise that it works fairly well.
As of yet, YouTube doesn’t do this.
Despite being able to define segments quite specifically, there is no option to direct a YouTube advert at a group of people who have previously bought into something.
The benefit comes, when an advert airing on YouTube is also being shown on TV around the same time. The TV sets the tone for the campaign and YouTube seeks to echo what is being communicated via their video platform.
The two working together in unison make for a beautiful marketing mix.
We spoke a little earlier about TV being seen as trustworthy and reliable. By combining a TV advert and a YouTube advert, it gives the perception of a stable and flourishing business. This goes above and beyond a business which promotes itself via Facebook.
YouTube Advertising Limitations
YouTube advertising does, of course, have its limitations.
In fact, that’s it, in a nutshell – it can be fairly limited in its reach if you become too hyper targeted for your audience.
With this in mind, we would suggest that running a YouTube advert alongside a TV advert is your best bet for a broader campaign strategy. In addition, with the introduction of catch up and Plus 1 channels, you can enjoy extended coverage helping you to reach more people.
Secondly, YouTube advertising can be seen as being less effective than some other mediums, because the viewer does not always respond to the advert exactly at the moment they have watched it. If you are selling new cars, it’s a fairly calculated purchasing decision. It would be unlikely that a buyer will purchase the car after seeing one short advert.
However, if a potential buyer also sees that advert, or a variation of the advert running on TV, they are possibly reassured by that safety that TV presence brings.
Conclusion: YouTube Advertising: The Essential Part of Your Marketing Mix
YouTube advertising and TV advertising can be a match made in heaven when you use it as part of the marketing mix.
At TVA, we’d love to talk you through your different options and see what’s right for your business.
Don’t skip past us – we’re just a call or a click away!