In digital marketing, YouTube has grown into a powerful platform that marketers can no longer ignore. With its massive user base and reach comparable to traditional television channels, YouTube offers a wealth of opportunities for advertisers to deliver their message to a broad audience. Video inventory is often limited, making this platform even more valuable. In this article, we dive deeper into the benefits of YouTube advertising and how video marketers can maximize their results on this platform.

The Benefits of YouTube Advertising

Wide Reach and Targeted Audience

YouTube is a massive platform with billions of users worldwide. It offers reach comparable to traditional TV channels but with the advantage that advertisers can target their audience much more precisely. YouTube allows advertisers to target ads based on demographics, interests, search queries, and viewing behavior. This means you can tailor your message to the right people at the right time, leading to more effective campaigns.

Attracting a Younger Audience

One of YouTube’s standout features is its ability to reach a younger audience compared to traditional TV. This makes YouTube a valuable complement to TV advertising, especially for brands targeting millennials and Gen Z. However, it’s important to note that measuring ad results on YouTube and TV requires different methods due to the differing cost metrics, such as GRP and CPM. To simplify this process, Draft has developed a handy tool that converts GRPs to CPMs, helping marketers better understand the price differences between TV and YouTube. Interested in receiving this tool? Get in touch with us.

Quality Management of YouTube Ads

Because anyone can upload content on YouTube, not all inventory is of high quality. To ensure your ads are displayed in a quality environment, you can use several strategies:

• Inclusion Lists: In plaats van exclusion lists, kun je inclusion lists gebruiken om precies te bepalen op welke kanalen je advertenties worden weergegeven. Hierdoor behoud je controle over de context van je advertenties. De kans is namelijk groot dat je zonder inclusion list op veel ongewenste kanalen levert. Denk bijv. aan kinderkanalen of muziekvideo’s.
• Devices: Understand how different devices are used. The impact of a Connected TV screen can be much greater than that of a mobile screen. Make sure to tailor your creative accordingly. Use the right bid multipliers to optimize your bidding strategy effectively.
• Brand of Search Lift Studies: By using these studies, you can accurately measure the impact of YouTube ads on sales or brand KPIs, giving you valuable insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns.
• Test Different Formats: Experiment with various ad formats, such as Bumper Ads or Mixed Formats, to discover which ones work best for your target audience.
• A/B Testing: Conduct A/B tests to determine which elements of your ads are most effective, from copy and visuals to call-to-actions.
• External YouTube Content: Consider purchasing external YouTube content from reputable broadcasters like Ad Alliance or Talpa. This usually provides high-quality content for your ads. However, be cautious with Google’s regular Video Partners, as they often sell fraudulent inventory .

The ABCD Model of Google

We also see that content consumption on YouTube differs from TV. Since YouTube ads can be skipped after 6 seconds, the viewing timeline changes. To create effective content, follow Google’s ABCD model, which includes Attract, Brand, Connect, and Direct, four steps to ensure the quality of your content. First, you want to capture the viewer’s attention to keep them watching longer, then explain your product or service. Finally, you end with a clear call-to-action.

Experience is Key

Finally, experience is invaluable for marketers and specialists who want to get the most out of YouTube ads. An expert video marketer:

• Must have basic knowledge of traditional TV advertising to understand how YouTube can be integrated with it.
• Must be knowledgeable about the entire online video market to optimize buying based on KPIs. It’s more than just YouTube.
• Must stay informed about Google’s best practices.
• Must think beyond Google’s standard advice and develop creative strategies tailored to the advertiser’s specific goals and target audiences.
• Must maintain close contact with the Google account manager to participate in beta and alpha tests, enabling rapid growth in expertise and access to new opportunities.

In short, YouTube advertising offers a wealth of benefits for marketers, but making the right choices is crucial. YouTube provides many opportunities to buy low-quality inventory, and specialists without sufficient experience may not easily recognize this. Additionally, it is not possible to fully integrate with all third-party tools, making detection even more challenging. At Draft, we also believe in strong collaboration with offline media agencies to purchase video inventory as effectively as possible. Furthermore, validating your video strategy through marketing mix modeling or geo-experiments is essential.

Want to start with YouTube ads? get in touch with us .