YouTube attracts a mammoth amount of traffic – in fact, more searches are made on YouTube than an all of Yahoo. And yet, companies do not think about it enough as a marketing platform.
Time to learn about Google’s AdWords for video programme! It allows companies to place video adverts on the site, leading back to their own website or YouTube page.
You can choose to have YouTube play your video before, during or after another, related clip – just like a traditional television advert. Alternatively, you can have it displayed on the YouTube site and on other sites that use Google ads, such as newspapers or private blogs.
What are the pros?
- The biggest is that you don’t pay unless someone chooses to watch your ad. You also have quite a lot of control over what you spend. You can set a ‘maximum pay per view’ – ie decide how much you are willing to spend to get someone to click on your ad.
- Some options will also allow you to pay only if the viewer watches the first 30 seconds of your video, or to the end (whatever comes first).
- You can set your target audience very precisely, controlling for location, interests, demographics, and a host of other factors. You can also set groups of people you do not want your ad to be shown to, and search terms you do not want your ad to be associated with.
- As with a standard Google campaign, you can track which clicks actually lead to a result on your website.
As for the cons…
- One catch is that while some of the video advertising formats allow companies to lead back to their websites, others only allow them to lead customers back to their YouTube page.
- Another is that just like AdWords, placing an ad does not mean that people are going to click on it. You need to make sure that it is attractive enough to entice viewers to watch it. Here are 12 great tips on how to do this, even if you have a tiny budget!
Danny Bermant is director of Brainstorm Digital. He is author of the YouTube Marketing Guide , published through Smart Insights.
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- Is YouTube only for companies with large budgets?
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