2017 YouTube Advertising Tips & Tricks – Stay in the Loop!

With over one billion users, YouTube draws in almost one-third of all internet users worldwide. What’s more, according to a 2016 Google-commissioned study from comScore, 81% of viewers cite YouTube as their number one preference for both long and short-form content. 

youtube advertising tips & tricks

With YouTube amassing such a gigantic portion of the online video viewing community, it would be silly not to look into how you can harness its benefits for your business. And the opportunities truly are massive!

Take for example TrueView Discovery ads. With this advertising format, your ads are placed in YouTube’s search results, on their homepage, and alongside related videos; actually helping users to discover your ads and want to click on them! The beauty of this tool is that you only pay when someone chooses to click on your video, and what’s more, they are specifically aimed at making your content more noticeable. Another benefit of these ads is that they appear across all devices – meaning you can also capture mobile YouTube traffic!

The fact that users are now choosing to interact with brands – as demonstrated through TrueView Discovery – is wonderful news for advertisers. After all, more people clicking through to your site from your ads, means a higher chance of conversions! Research has shown that viewers are more likely to take action after watching ads on short-form content compared to traditional content, and this type is ideal for users who are on-the-go (which lets face it, is most of us).

According to Syndacast, it has been estimated that by 2017, 74% of all web traffic will come from video. As you can imagine, this of course means that a large chunk of your target market are going to be spending time on YouTube as opposed to browsing websites, reading blogs or searching on Google.

So, how can you use this information to build yourself an effective 2017 YouTube advertising strategy?

  1. Ensure Your Ads Aren’t Too Long

Research shows that ads under 15 seconds are much more effective than 60 second adverts, so as a general rule, the shorter they are the better.  Don’t let your audience tune out before they know how awesome you are!

Think of simple landing page designs and advertising with short and sweet text content…the same goes for video.

  1. Check the Quality of your Website or Video Channel

On average, users will view one additional video from your brand within 24 hours of watching your TrueView Discovery ad. Ensure you’ve got a repertoire of relevant and informative content which enables users to get the most from your channel.

  1. Get to know YouTube’s Demographic

It may surprise you, but YouTube super users are not just millennials; in fact, in  March 2015 there were almost 20 million (ComScore) unique visitors over the age of 65. That said, YouTube does have a strong demographic of viewers between 18-49 years old, so the most important thing to do is consider who your demographic are, and how you can target and engage them through video advertising.

The evidence is clear: these days, more and more people are using YouTube to not only view content, but to also engage with brands in this space.  As advertisers, harnessing the power of video opens up a world of opportunities, including the ability to be more relevant and present to users in the micro-moments they need. It’s fair to say that this is an area that will only continue to grow in 2017, so stay tuned for more exciting updates and features from Google!