3 Must-Try Tactics for YouTube Ads Success

Heard of  YouTube Ads? Think YouTube is overcrowded with adverts and can only be effective if you have a big budget of a large enterprise? That is not the case. At least, not just yet. With carefully planned strategies and a wise choice of YouTube Ads format, you may connect to your target audience and reap unexpectedly good ROAS. Check out the 3 must-try tactics for YouTube success below.

Tactic 1: Create YouTube Ads for each Funnel Stage

Creating a single video YouTube ad to showcase your brand and product is a great starting point. Oftentimes though it will only resonate with some of your potential customers.

This is because the buying journey is getting longer, users have more choice and are also more and more demanding. So, for your marketing efforts to be effective, you need to consider a full marketing funnel for every situation that your audience finds themselves in.

YouTube Ads Strategy for Top of the Funnel Stage

Consider this strategy if you are targeting new audiences, known as cold audiences. Key characteristics of cold audiences are:

  • they have never visited your site before
  • they do not know your brand or product
  • they may not be looking to purchase at this stage yet

Generating buzz around your brand and capturing uses’ attention is at this stage is not easy.

For YouTube Ads aimed at cold audiences, consider:

  • In-stream Video Ad Format (60 seconds or longer)
  • Use In-Market Audiences
  • Tell your audiences why your product deserves their attention
  • Show how the product /service works

In-stream Video Ad is a great choice as it can be played before, during or after a relevant video your audience is interested in. With a gripping enough message, your video will be watched and you’ll be building your brand awareness effectively.

We will always put an emphasis on creating an informative video that also uses an emotional element that enables a user to relate to a brand’s offering.

YouTube Ads Strategy for Middle of the Funnel Stage 

For warm audiences, there’s a different strategy for YouTube Ads success. Key characteristics of warm audiences are:

  • they have visited your site before (but not purchased or taken any other valuable action
  • have expressed some level of interest, i.e. they watched your In-stream Video Ad

As these people are likely to be at a research stage of a buying journey, they will respond better to an impulse nudge or a sharp incentive in a video ad.

In this situation, consider:

  • Use Bumper Video Ad Format but also Test a shorter In-Stream Video Ad (between 60 seconds to 2 minutes)
  • Apply Remarketing Audiences (custom created audiences lists that allow you to group all users according to the type of interaction they have had with your business)
  • In your YouTube Ad content – include reference to key pain points; express emotional understanding

Bumper Ads are up to 6 second long and are also non skippable. These will work well when you want to communicate a snap discount or other offer your warm viewers will find very helpful.

In-stream YouTube Ads at this stage perfectly communicate how your product solves users’ problems. There are also many successful YouTube Ad campaigns that focus on helping the users to choose the right product for their needs.

YouTube Ads Strategy for Bottom of the Funnel Stage

Audiences that move towards the bottom of your marketing funnel, are highly motivated users who are browsing the net with a solid purchase intent.

Here, you want to consider yet another set of video ad formats, paired with the right content:

  • Use In-Stream YouTube Ads with CTA element (less than 30 seconds long)
  • Record Video Reviews to promote user generated content
  • Promote Value-based message i.e. Discount codes, bonuses and other incentives

To create an In-Stream Video ad with CTA elements, choose site traffic or lead generation as you campaign’s goal. This gives you extra functionality to design a YouTube Ad. It is a video based ad but comes with a clickable call-to-action button below the video as well as a header and your brand logo.

 

Tactics 2: TrueView Solution

TrueView Ads is a solution that emerged as a result of creating a seamless ad experience for a YouTube user. It gives up the disruptive advertising method in favour of a native advertising method.

Flexibility of Ad Creatives

With this system, advertisers are not limited in terms of length or type of content they want to promote. This is because audiences have full control here, meaning, they decide whether they want to watch your video ad or not. Your creatives can cover:

  • explainer video
  • product demo
  • testimonials

Your Video ads impressions will also align with the interests of your target audience. That way you eliminate the risk of ads being shown to viewers who do not want to watch your video ad.

 

TrueView allows brands to display their YouTube Ads in 2 ad formats:

  • In-Stream Skippable Video Ad (plays for 5seconds, then viewer chooses to either continue to watch or skip)
  • In-stream Video Discovery Ads (displayed alongside of the videos list that user is browsing through or on YouTube search results pages)

Low-Cost Campaigns (when compared to Search or Shopping)

Apart from the flexibility of creatives and a seamless advertising that blends in rather than disrupts, there’s another benefit of using TrueView strategy in your YouTube Campaigns: Relatively Low Cost per View.

Affordable cost is a result of two factors:

  1. Many businesses don not take a full advantage of YouTube Ads opportunities. They still prefer other platforms to advertise on (like search and shopping). Whilst there are 2 billion active monthly YouTube users, this is a unique chance for other brands to shine – and not pay through the roof.
  2. With the TrueView system, you only pay if a user watches at least 30 seconds or till the end of your video ad. That way, you are likely to get FREE views from users who were half interested at a time but still build your brand awareness and reach

Tactics 3: Skippable vs Non-Skippable 

There are 6 main YouTube Ads formats available for advertisers:

  • display ads
  • overlay ads
  • in-stream skippable
  • in-stream non-skippable
  • bumper ads and sponsored cards

We explain video ad formats in detail here.

If your business is new to YouTube advertising, and you haven’t built any audiences lists yet, we recommend that you test a mix of skippable and non-skippable formats in your initial strategy (especially the TrueView Ads described in Tactic 2 of this article.

Here is an example strategy as a step-by-step process:

  • record 2-6 long form videos covering a range of topics (product demo; testimonial; explainer video)
  • Run the above as skippable in-stream video ads for at least 30-60 days
  • Analyse KPIs: CPV (cost-per-view), Earned Views, {8e70974195c48f015656ec00029c2bf559b83ca472845d96d7b604466648386d} of Videos Viewed, View Rate, Clicks and Conversions
  • Based on your findings – record related short form videos and use as non-skippable bumper ads targeting Your previous Video viewers
  • Alternatively (should you not have enough performance data), go back to skippable in-stream video ads but roll out a few creative variations of your most viewed video.

 

Are you currently planning to use Video Ads in your marketing strategy and need help setting up your YoTube campaigns? Get in touch today and we will guide you through the process. Go ahead and submit your details via form below now.

Minty Digital Team
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