17 Sep Oiling Your YouTube Marketing Engine
For the best conversions, your YouTube marketing should ideally be a mix of paid and organic content. Organic content can range from a how-to guide, to a sneak peek inside your workplace, to product reviews, or even a music video plugging your product. The style of the video and its contents are only limited by your imagination.
YouTube ads, however, are a different ballgame altogether. While YouTube has display ads and clickable overlay ads that appear while a video is playing, the real worth of YouTube comes from using videos to put across your message in an engaging way to your audience. Video ads on YouTube are called TrueView ads, and these come in the following formats:
- InStream – Streaming video ads that autoplay before, after or in between the non-paid video content that YouTube displays. This type of an ad is cheaper than a search based ad. Viewers can choose to skip these ads after viewing the first 5 seconds. This format is good for generating a higher number of views for your paid video, but is usually not the best converting ad format. Now there’s a version of InStream that omits the ability to skip ads, and prices differently than the original.
- InDisplay – The display banners that show up on the top right-hand corner of the screen while non-paid videos are played. This works best for really engaging content, as a viewer has to switch from his current video to the one displayed here by deliberately clicking on it.
- InSearch – The paid video results that show up above organic results on YouTube’s search results page when a specific term is searched for. These are extremely conversion oriented as the user has actually specified what they are looking for and these are results based on specific keywords.
Mix your various ad formats with informative and interesting organic video content using these elementary but essential guidelines.
Have a Clear Call to Action
Like any other marketing content that you create, video content must have a clear call to action as well. This can be in the form of a closing slate at the end of the video that carries a CTA button, details about your product and a link to your website. Alternately, it can be built into the audio visual with the characters in the video speaking out the call to action verbally. The best position for such a verbal call to action is towards the end of your video content.
A combination of both a closing slate accompanied by an audio visual reinforcement of your message would be the best option for maximizing conversions. It does not hurt to display a simple 1800-style contact number for viewers who may want to speak to a real person about your product or service.
A call to action overlay ad drives home the message in the video even more forcefully.
Another option to draw a user’s attention to your call to action is by including a call to action overlay over your ad or the organic video that’s being played. A call to action overlay is essentially a text ad that is encapsulated inside a banner and is displayed while your ad or content video is playing. It ideally has a strong keyword rich headline, a URL leading to your landing page and a clear request for action from the viewer. This handy guide to creating a call to action overlay is a good read for those who’ve never used it before.
Make it Fun, Unique, Shareable
Who hasn’t logged on to YouTube to watch amazing, absurd and completely hilarious videos about nearly everything under the sun? The charm of YouTube lies in the fact that you can always find some content that will interest you on YouTube, guaranteeing you hours of entertainment. YouTube is equally sought after as a place to learn new skills, what with detailed DIY videos, tutorials and classroom style lectures available for every imaginable topic – from SEO marketing to learning new languages.
Chipotle’s poignant ad that highlighted the blights of the modern food industry – industrially farmed animals, ‘meat-like’ substitutes in food, hormones and chemicals pumped into food to increase production – was a scene-stealer when it released on TV and was no less popular on YouTube, going by the number of views it’s garnered. It was a unique ad, beautifully rendered and extremely share-worthy.
The content that you create on YouTube ought to fulfill at least some of these characteristics. Create video content that people would want to seek out, share and enjoy over and over again. It’s your choice what tone you want to take. Funny? Educational? Adventurous? It’s your call. As long as your video is interesting, you’ll get viewers sitting through and clicking through to find out more.
Rohan Ayyar is the Project Manager at E2M, India’s premium digital marketing agency. Rohan frequently blogs on social media, ecommerce and conversion rate optimization and his articles have been featured in leading publications such as Fast Company, Search Engine Journal and Social Media Today. Hit him up on Twitter @searchrook.
