Assuming that what works on one platform will work on another is a common digital marketing mistake.
I see it in advertising all the time: someone who gets great search results struggles with social and vice versa.
And then there’s YouTube.
It’s not really a search and it’s not fully social, it’s a platform where you compete against organic content for attention and time.
The same keyword can have a dozen different intents or none at all. And your ad placement is more important than ever.
Dominating YouTube requires a deep understanding of your audience’s challenges and desires, as well as how, when and why they use the platform.
Here are seven important YouTube ad lessons I had to learn the hard (and expensive) way so you hopefully don’t have to.
1. YouTube isn’t really social
Facebook and Instagram spoiled advertisers by letting them show ads, get clicks and make sales. The targeting was effective, greatly condensing the sales cycle.
But I think it’s mostly driven by the consumer’s mood while on those platforms.
You are bored, scrolling and looking to be entertained.
So when you see an ad that catches your eye, you’re likely to go through a checkout process quickly. Maybe immediately or within 24 hours, usually within seven days.
On the other hand, YouTubers are more in Netflix mode or repair mode. You’re watching content or learning how to do things.
And with Shorts, there’s an infinite scrolling component like TikTok. (But even TikTok doesn’t convert as well as Facebook and Instagram.)
With YouTube ads, you’re fueling the funnel and building awareness.
Your ads put your brand on people’s radars, but they’re much less likely to convert right away. It may take some time and require larger budgets.
2. YouTube isn’t completely search either
When people think of YouTube ads, they usually think of the videos that appear before, during, and after content.
There are also text ads that appear above a YouTube search results page, which come from search campaigns that have opted in to target search partners, as well as Discovery and Performance Max campaigns. They are not the focus of this article, but their presence is relevant.
Unlike other paid social channels, YouTube lets you target people based on something they’ve recently searched for.
You can build an audience around keywords and anyone who searches for a certain keyword will be placed in that audience.
However, they are not looking for that thing right now. Yes, they might be interested, but they’re not in the market or actively looking. This means that the YouTube search intent is delayed or even expired.
This is to say nothing of the risk that the intention is off.
When someone searches [marathon training plan] on Google, keyword intent indicates that there is a good chance that they need products such as running shoes, compression garments, fitness items, etc.
Instead, the same query on YouTube may lead to a link to short films about what a creator ate to prepare for his marathon, or it may be to a specific video based on its title or content.
There is no way to be sure of the intent. That’s why I suggest you view YouTube as a consideration and awareness channel rather than a conversion-focused channel.
In other words, YouTube’s “next step” needs to be compelling.
3. Don’t neglect the organic part
I’m bullish on digital advertising, but I believe the best results come from brands with a strong organic presence.
A strong organic YouTube presence across shorts and standard videos means there’s something for people to enjoy if they end up on your channel.
Answering questions, partnering with influencers in your product space, and seeding your shorts with semi-promotional content can shorten that funnel instead of running ads and nothing else.
🚨PSA: Launching today 🚨
The DTC brand index 📋
More than 900 brands
More than 30 categories
With a link to his:
place
FB Ads Library
TikTok and IG profiles
YouTube channels
Never miss a beat on a brand’s creative, marketing and niche: https://t.co/sn9Iwd4Qkj#PPCCat
— Duane Brown 🇨🇦🏳️🌈 4x Vax’ed! (@duanebrown) December 14, 2022
Ad campaign views and metrics also count toward overall channel metrics.
It works together and sometimes when you run an ad campaign, it helps increase your organic lift because people are looking at your other content.
They subscribe to your channel and share your videos, which feed the algorithm.
Get the daily search newsletter marketers trust.
4. Do everything to safeguard your brand
One of the main concerns for any advertiser on YouTube is maintaining brand integrity.
How do we ensure that our client and business brands don’t appear on content or channels they don’t want to be associated with?
In the settings, you can choose “sensitive categories” of content to exclude at the campaign level.
For standard video action campaigns, you can provide audience and interest targeting: Content-based targeting with keywords, topics, and placements is deprecated.
But you can create audience exclusions for those who shouldn’t see your ads based on various qualifiers.
For example, you might want to exclude recent buyers or a cohort based on age or gender.
5. Never set it and forget it
I find Google’s automation very beneficial, but I always monitor my campaigns so nothing is left to chance.
Even with your targeting set up perfectly, you may end up in front of people who aren’t interested in your offer. Any additional information you can provide will improve the system.
PPC agency Leadocity recently ran a video campaign that avoided some of their targeting exclusions.
It only occurred in their video campaigns and only with optimized targeting ability
App and display campaigns were not affected, as were video campaigns that were not enabled for optimized targeting.
The only way to opt out was to contact your Google Ads representative and be whitelisted from the program.
This is another example where Google and advertisers can come into conflict. Google knows their product well, but advertisers know what our accounts and customers need.
With several changes to how targeting and video placements work, I know a lot of people will miss these capabilities, myself included.
But it is what it is. We must adapt if we want to continue running profitable campaigns.
My advice: Use bulk app exclusions if you need to. Enter “mobileappcategory::69500” in location exclusions.
6. Take advantage of clear and useful data
Even as someone who doesn’t like to complain about Google’s choices, I’ll admit that the dearth of data in the search terms report is limiting.
That’s why I really appreciate the level of detail available in video campaign analytics.
Video assets served through a Top Performance campaign won’t have as much detail, but regular YouTube campaigns show detailed reports on location, consumer audiences, gender, and demographics.
It is more robust than many other campaign reports and very detailed. You can see what app a user was in when they clicked your ad and what video or channel they watched on YouTube.
Use this data to make better decisions about creative, placements, budgets and more.
Like all channels, YouTube deserves a place in your marketing strategy that is more nuanced than “we can spend money here.”
Not only does it work best as part of a larger mix, but it rarely does well on its own.
Running ads on YouTube without a presence anywhere else will likely achieve very little.
Even a major brand with incredibly good SEO can count these two assets in their favor.
If all other things are equal between two products, people will probably buy what they have seen elsewhere (paid and organic).
Once you’ve saturated these other channels (search, shopping, top yield, paid social), you’ll likely start looking for a new place to spend your budget.
A “social style” campaign uses only non-feed creatives.
You can use your high performing ads on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to advertise on:
✅ YouTube
✅ Discovery
✅ Screen
✅ Gmail
✅ News feed pic.twitter.com/aUVMPTjcL2
— Menachem Ani (@MenachemAni) March 15, 2023
For e-commerce, it will usually revolve around your best and best-selling products.
From something at this stage, you know what you want to promote based on what has sold elsewhere.
When YouTube does more harm than good
There are two scenarios where I would classify YouTube ads as more risk than reward.
When your budget is small. It’s probably best to wait until you have a larger amount to work with. You’ll get limited results on YouTube and spread too much across other types of campaigns, limiting yourself on two fronts.
When you don’t have the right type and quality of creatives. Remember that the consumer is in “Teach Me” or “Teach Me” mode, so the ad must have the same pattern break.
It’s like the video hook you press on paid social media, but even stronger because you have three seconds until it’s skipped.
Often, even long videos can work well, if you can grab and hold their attention with a good story or content.
Capturing an audience’s attention in a compelling way requires knowing what they’re seeing and what works.
Until you know what that looks like, focus your budget on where it can best impact your business.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
[ad_2]
Source link
