More people are on YouTube than any cable segment in the United States, which means there is a huge audience there that will only continue to grow. And when you create your campaign, remember that mobile is just as important with video as it is for other AdWords ads since more than half of video views are on a mobile device.
Video presents such as a unique way to connect with the right people. Since they can like, share, and subscribe to your videos – rather than simply click – it’s a much different experience than user behavior on a typical Google.com search. With keywords, demographics, and topics, you can connect with the right customers at the right time.
Before you create your first campaign, ensure YouTube and AdWords are connected. This provides access to YouTube analytics, allowing you to create remarketing lists, and gives the options to create call-to-action overlays.
Decide on the ad type: In-Stream or Video Discovery
Ad groups are where you choose the in-stream ad format or a video discovery ad format. In-stream ads run before, during, or after videos on YouTube and the Display Network. Advertisers pay when someone interacts with an ad, which includes clicking on an overlay button.
With video discovery ads (formerly known as “in-display”), ads run next to videos on YouTube, in the search results on YouTube, or on publisher sites that are part of the Display Network. Advertisers are charged when the viewer chooses to view the ad. Videos must be on YouTube and either public or unlisted. (You cannot run an ad on a private video). Note that these two different types can be in the same video campaign. It’s the ad groups where they need to be separated.
Define your audience
Ways to reach potential customers include keywords, demographics, topics, affinity audiences, custom affinity audiences, in-market (purchase intent), remarketing, and placements.
A custom audience can be a group based on interest and specific web pages visited so you can go beyond the built-in audiences available in AdWords. If you are unsure about targeting your YouTube ads, start with broader groups like demographics and topics. Let this method run for a while so you have time to learn what is working well.
Basic demographics include age and location, which is helpful, but even deeper targeting is available with YouTube ads. You can reach people who are in-market for your product regardless of their demographics and you can personalize by using your own data to reach audiences.
Since many advertisers are clearly performance driven, in-market audiences are my recommendation for targeting since these people are actively researching and demonstrate intent to buy a service or product similar to what you offer. Google defines these audiences based on their surfing behavior and is a good strategy to reach people who are further down the purchasing funnel.
Think of targeting as a two-step process. You are specifying the type of customers you want, then allowing them to choose whether or not to watch your video so you are excluding people who may not be prospects. Proper targeting is crucial for reaching the undecided - not the uninterested.
Remarketing
Remarketing can improve the return on your ads since you already know a certain group has expressed interest in your offering. However you defined your targets and invite those groups to revisit you.
With remarketing, your targeting options include those who watch a video, take some action such as commenting, view your ad, or subscribe to your YouTube channel or even visit your website.
The goal of remarketing is to extend your reach or continue telling your story. This can include sequential storytelling, meaning people who saw Episode 1 see ads for Episode 2. Those who saw Episode 2 will then see an ad for Episode 3, etc. Although the initial remarketing list generally includes people who were active within the last 30 days, you can amend this criteria based on your traffic patterns.
Guaranteed home page placements
If you have a significant budget and want to guarantee your ad is shown, you may want to consider reserved media placements. These are eligible for the YouTube home page. Google does implement this for you so you need to go through support to set this up and Google provides a weekly report with detailed performance.
It can be a CPM or CPD (cost-per-day) and must be created six days in advance of the run date. Targeted options for CPM are topics, interests, browsing patterns, and demographics. With in-stream ads, they can be purchased on a first position basis meaning it’s the top ad within a user’s session.
Although this guaranteed placement on YouTube’s homepage is probably out of reach for many advertisers, the ability to advertise is available to everyone. Review the steps above to decide the type of ads you want to run, and consider include both in-stream and video discovery. And be willing to experiment a bit with the targeting. You may surprise yourself and uncover a brand new audience for your business.
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