Does your advertising routine feel a little stale?
I find that clients who are only advertising on one platform tend to get pretty sub-par results. Sure, advertising anywhere is much better than no advertising, but it’s definitely worth the investment to expand your efforts every now and then.
I’ve written a lot on the benefits of Facebook ads, but I realized that I haven’t really delved into the power of YouTube advertising. Let’s fix that!
Reaching Your Audience
With over 1 billion users, YouTube is sure to have viewers from your target audience. Obviously you don’t want your local business to market to tweens in Taiwan, which is why YouTube’s targeting options make it easy to get your ad in front of the right audience.
YouTube lets you place your ads based on demographics, location, interests, and viewing device, which gives you a lot of room to get creative. One noteworthy filter is that you can set the times that your ad runs. That means that if my first video ad is getting a lot of traction at 10:00pm and nothing at 6:00am, I know that my next ad needs to run in the evening and not early in the morning. These are the kind of campaign alterations that make YouTube’s targeting so valuable!
And this isn’t even to talk about YouTube’s advanced targeting options. YouTube allows you to create custom affinity audiences, which are audiences made of people who have already shown an interest in your kind of product/service. For example, if you were selling clothes for young women, you’d normally only be able to get as specific as “18-25 year old women making $X per year, etc.” Custom affinity audiences let you zero into the specifics that really make a sale, and you could target that same audience, but this time you could show your ad only to young women who like floral dresses. Yes, it gets that specific, and yes, you should be using it!
Saving Adspend Budget
YouTube is also a great platform for stretching your adspend dollar. While other platforms generally have you pay per click, YouTube only charges you when someone clicks on your ad or watches the entire thing (i.e. doesn’t hit the “skip” button). That means that you’re only paying to put your money in front of people who are engaged with your content and want to see more!
This is especially helpful when it comes to targeting. Yes, YouTube has great targeting options, but getting it 100% right is tricky, especially if you’re not a professional marketer. With these ads, though, even if you accidentally reach a few people who aren’t in your target audience, you won’t end up paying for that view since they’ll just skip your ad and save you the money!
Influencing Buyers
YouTube is one of the most effective platforms for convincing users to make purchases. One YouTube Insights report showed that 66% of beauty product purchasers, 72% of auto-vehicle purchasers, and 62% of smartphone purchasers were influenced by what they saw on YouTube. Why? It helped them “visualize how products fit into their lives.” That’s not something that you can easily replicate on another platform, people!
Compelling copy and engaging visuals are great—nobody is doubting that. But there’s something about seeing a product or service in action for yourself that makes it much more appealing. And sure, other platforms let you advertise with video, but why wouldn’t you skip the middle man and just advertise on the world’s second most popular website?
Add YouTube Ads
I know that nobody is excited by the idea of spending more money, but remember that when YouTube ads are done well, they earn you much more than you spend. So stop waiting! Make a move and use this untapped resource!
Do you need some help planning your YouTube ads? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!
