YouTube Adverts – 2 Persuasive Reasons To Get Started

Many small businesses don’t make an effort when it comes to YouTube adverts.  They think it’s merely a place for spoof videos, clips of TV shows, gamer videos etc., and anyway the time and effort involved in creating a video seems far too complicated and expensive to be taken seriously.

But perhaps that is a little short sighted.  YouTube statistics continue to be impressive and who doesn’t want to get their products or services in front of as many people as possible?

We believe there are 2 key reasons that will persuade you to get started with YouTube adverts without delay:

• Video marketing can really work. In fact 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the content with the best ROI*
• You don’t need to produce expensive videos or invest lots of time to get good results 

YouTube Adverts – The Why?

Online Videos have huge potential for ANY company’s content marketing strategy – nowadays people just love videos!  Here are some interesting stats*

• 78% of people watch videos online every week
• 75% of business executives watch work related videos at least weekly

With regard to YouTube advertising, consider these 2017 statistics**

1. Total number of YouTube users = 1,300,000,000
2. Number of visitors to YouTube per day = over 30 million
3. Frequency of watching YouTube videos = 80% of 18-49 year olds watch YouTube in any given month
4. Number of hours people spend watching YouTube videos is up 60% compared to last year

If you run paid YouTube adverts, your videos can appear before, after, alongside other videos that people have chosen to watch – in short, you have a captive market.

Now let’s be honest, YouTube users are invariably there to watch the videos they like.  If your paid advert pops up and breaks the flow of what they were watching, they won’t necessarily be delighted – but this is no different to the commercial breaks that intersperse TV programmes.  Unlike TV commercials, in the majority of cases, users can skip the paid YouTube video after only 5 seconds running time… so no harm done.

However – and here’s the nub of the matter as a YouTube advertiser – if your video has a great, captivating intro, many users will find themselves compelled to watch more than 5 seconds.

YouTube Adverts – The What?

It’s true that only videos that resonate with your target market are going to bring you a good ROI on paid YouTube ad campaigns.  But that doesn’t mean you want your company video to go viral – sounds nice in practice but if your website suddenly gets tens of thousands of hits would it be robust enough to cope?  Could your company cope with a mega influx of leads and orders?

For most businesses, the ideal YouTube advert is one which

1. Increases brand awareness (for all the right reasons)
2. Drives genuinely interested traffic to your website which results in increased sales

Now the Dollar Shave Club video from 2012 is exceptionally good (24,550,540 views).  Not only was the product almost unbelievable ($1 per month for deliveries of razors), but the founder and star of the video, Michael Dubin, delivers his spiel with humour and panache. No surprise this went viral.

But for the majority of SMEs, this is too hard an act to follow.

So we’ve rounded up some effective business videos (in terms of views) in random industry niches each with over 150,000 views:

• Hedge fund structure and fees | Finance & Capital Markets | Khan Academy – detailed lesson in Hedge Funds 159,268 views
• TOP 10 SNEAKERS FOR UNDER $100 – simple video of the host discussing various trainers 1,085,055 views
• How To Make A WordPress Website 2017 – a long video (over 100 minutes) with full details about creating a website   372,376 views

The 3 videos above are all completely different and have clearly impressed very many viewers in each specific niche.

But perhaps the most interesting point is that none of them are professionally filmed, none have special effects  and not one of these would have cost a fortune to create.

Yet over 150,000 people have viewed each one.

YouTube Adverts – Conclusion

This information provides some clear take-home messages

1. Videos continue to be an excellent way to showcase your business, your services and your product
2. YouTube continues to be “the” website for video advertising
3. Popular videos are less about the quality of the filming but more about the content.

YouTube adverts are a serious strategy to consider within your overall digital marketing strategy if you want people to find your brand.

For more information about how to set up a YouTube adverts campaign, see more details in our related blog

If you need help in video creation, we offer a highly affordable service where we convert your images and footage into professional looking videos.  Find out more today.

And if you have any other questions about digital marketing, please feel free to contact us for a no-obligation chat.

*https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/2017-year-of-video-marketing

**https://fortunelords.com/youtube-statistics/