30 million people visit YouTube every single day. The website has become our go-to for digital video, and Google turned all the advertising that accompanies that content into $4 billion in revenue just in 2017. All those hilarious pet videos or your favorite music videos are fine and dandy from a consumer perspective, and from an advertising perspective, they provide a substantial opportunity for our clients.
When it comes to YouTube Advertising, businesses can use the video site to build not just brand awareness, but brand affinity, with interested prospects through a highly engaging format on a highly used channel. Brands can really tell their story and showcase their business through video.
Most of our familiarity with YouTube comes as consumers of all its content, and we’re certainly not alone. According to YouTube, users spend over 1 billion hours viewing videos around the world -every single day. On YouTube mobile, alone, the average user spends over an hour digesting all sorts of content. In addition to their phones and desktops, people are also watching it in their living room on their smart TVs. And as of 2017, the number of hours people spent watching YouTube videos experienced 60% year-over-year growth.
YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world right behind Google. According to Forbes, YouTube is the second largest search engine, with search volume larger than that of Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined. These other search engines are meant to send the user elsewhere; YouTube keeps the user plugged in to the website for much, much longer.
Google pointed out that YouTube reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any broadcast or cable network on mobile alone. No surprise considering the cord-cutting trend in North America coupled with those “oh-so-convenient” cable companies out there. Focusing more on advertising than consumption, only 9% of US small businesses use YouTube. Yes 9%. All that to say, there’s a ton of eyeballs out there and a ton of inventory. Couple that with small businesses seemingly putting a toe in the water, there’s an opportunity for our brands to make a splash.
For starters, YouTube will enrich any conversations. It’s a hot topic these days. People spend as much time on YouTube as they do watching TV according to Google. While people love the platform, so many brands aren’t sure how to monetize it yet. It’s a great conversation-starter, it’s something tangible that people can relate to, and it makes our conversations bigger since we start talking about the full customer journey. The key take away is that 47% of Americans use YouTube to help them during the purchase decision process.
YouTube Ad Formats
YouTube offers a number of video ad formats. The most commonly used is the TrueView In-Stream format. These are skippable video ads that may play before, during, or after a video (and usually beforehand). Businesses can also employ TrueView Discovery Ads, the sponsored videos users see at the top-right of the watch page or within search results. Finally, Bumper Ads are available for YouTube advertisers. These are short, 6-second, non-skippable videos that usually play before the main video begins.
The three video ad formats all have their advantages, but the best format for I find for YouTube Advertising will be the TrueView In-Stream format. In-Stream typically receives more views than Discovery ads, and most of our clients lack the brand or resources to create an impactful 6-second video.
TrueView In-Stream
- Description
- Ad plays before main video
- User may skip the ad after 5 seconds or watch the entire ad before the video
- Where the Ad Appears
- Desktop, mobile devices, TV, game consoles
- Main Section of YouTube watch page
- Videos on partner sites and apps within the Display Network
- How it is Charged
- User watches first 30 seconds
- User watches the entire video if video is less than 30 seconds
- Cost-per-View (CPV): $.12-$.20
TrueView Discovery
- Description
- Thumbnail image from the video as well as text that invites people to click to watch
- Ad watched within current watch page or in a brand’s channel
- Where the Ad Appears
- Desktop, Mobile devices
- Search results
- “Related” YouTube video list
- YouTube mobile homepage
- How it is Charged
- Each click on the thumbnail image
Bumper Ads
- Description
- 6 second, non-skippable video that plays before a video
- Where the Ad Appears
- Desktop, mobile devices
- Main Section of YouTube watch page
- Videos on partner sites and apps within the Display Network
- How it is Charged
- CPM basis
Check out my YouTube best practices!
Ad Specifications
- Length – 12 seconds to 3 minutes (30 seconds or less is optimal)
- File Size – Max of 1 GB
- File Types – AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4, or MPEG
- Dimensions – 16:9 or 4:3
The primary value of YouTube advertising is the brand interest and purchase consideration it generates for the client throughout the customer journey. That customer journey is far from linear anymore, so whether a consumer hasn’t even thought about a purchase or is stuck between two businesses, video ads on YouTube can play a role in the final decision. YouTube advertising offers a number of other benefits to the client. The medium enables the client to target their ideal customer.
TrueView ads on YouTube are similar to TV commercials, only you get to specify who gets to see the ad and only pay when people watch it. There are over 500 audience segments available which leverage Google’s broad spectrum of user data. Those segments may include demographic information, consumer patterns, life events, and so on. YouTube advertising also enables the business to tell a comprehensive brand story. If a picture says a thousand words, how many are said within a 30-second video?
In addition, YouTube advertising capitalizes on shifting consumer behaviors. People are flocking away from live TV and spending more time on digital video. 6 in 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV according to Think with Google. By 2025, it’s expected that half of viewers under the age of 32 will not subscribe to a pay TV service. And while these consumer behaviors change, ad spend hasn’t quite caught up with the trend. Even though 20.9% of time spent in digital media is wrapped up in video, only 15.1% of digital ad spend goes there. That gap signals the opportunities of low competition and extremely low costs-per-view.
Impacts
As an advertising solution focused on branding, the extent of the impact depends on the quality of the video as well as the frequency it is shown. Considering the video ads will be seen throughout the dynamic customer journey, a campaign may affect the brand in a few ways.
Video ads on YouTube can generate ad recall. This is the consumer’s ability to remember an ad after initial exposure. In a study of 50 campaigns from Fortune 100 brands, 94% of the campaigns drove a significant lift (an average of 80%) in ad recall. Going a step further, video ads can generate brand awareness, or the consumer’s familiarity with a brand.
Brand awareness drives success in other advertising methods like PPC or SEO since consumers have that familiarity, and a level of trust, with the brand.Video advertising can generate brand interest in that the consumer becomes interested with the brand after seeing the ad. It could even create brand favor ability where consumers begin trusting in that business for their particular product or service. The brand impact can ultimately culminate in purchase consideration.
Now, catching a video ad before a YouTube video will almost never result in a person dropping what their doing, heading to the advertiser’s website, and making a purchase right on the spot. What some YouTube advertising campaigns may do, with a great video quality and steady frequency, is get the consumer to start thinking about purchasing from a business. Regardless the extent to which YouTube advertising impacts the brand, the target audience should gain some conscious or subconscious recognition of of that brand.