Are You Using YouTube for Your Business?
With more than a billion users and an elaborate selection of content, it’s no wonder so many companies are using YouTube for business purposes.
Numerous brands, causes, and events make themselves known through the variety of advertising points on YouTube: Paying a social media influencer to showcase a beauty product, becoming a content creator to discuss a cause, and paying for advertisements are all viable options that marketing teams use in YouTube land.
In a world where social media influences virtually every generation and their purchasing decisions, your company will be left behind if you don’t jump on the internet marketing bandwagon!
Understanding YouTube Advertising Methods
There are many ways to advertise on YouTube, but three that are the most effective. Each will result in completely different outcomes depending on your marketing motivation.
A Content Creator publishes videos to be viewed on YouTube by creating a channel viewers subscribe to. This is the long-haul option; in addition to publishing regular videos with interesting content, you’ll also need to study your competition, look up YouTube trends, and engage your audience through comments in order to drive traffic to your channel.
Becoming a content creator can result in a higher payoff if you can offer insightful, interesting content without being too salesy. It can take a longer time to build your popularity, but it pays off in other ways, since you and your company will end up earning money from views and subscribers through YouTube for business. Plus, you can create a loyal following to your brand.
If your organization can’t put in the time and effort to be a content creator, consider paying an influencer to advertise your product or cause. This involves some heavy research on social media influencers who align with your brand’s niche and offering them some compensation to advertise for you.
This can be a risky form of YouTube advertising with the amount of “honesty-first” influencers (if your makeup brand causes dry skin, for example, they’ll be honest with their followers and say so no matter how much you pay them), and your efforts may be ignored if this influencer is highly sought after.
If you’re building your brand, find local influencers to reach out to first to build credibility.
If you’re simply looking to create more traffic to your company’s website, YouTube advertising may be the most effective route.
By creating funny, educational or meaningful advertisements that have a call to action at the end, you can establish a marketing budget via YouTube and run your ads within a specific demographic.
This is a quicker option to leverage YouTube’s insane amount of users, because not every company can generate enough engaging content to make a YouTube channel worthwhile!
Why Choose YouTube Over Other Social Media Platforms
Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. LinkedIn. Snapchat. Where should your precious social media marketing dollars go? Here are the benefits of using YouTube Ads over other social media platforms to get your message across.
- The reach: Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has continued to earn millions of viewers and users around the globe. In fact, YouTube has reached more than one-third of the internet (well over a billion users) and is used by more than 80 percent of North Americans. Good luck finding a bigger audience to reach than that.
- The targeted audience: A key factor in using YouTube for business is the ability to target your audience. YouTube gathers data from its users and learns what kinds of ads may be of interest. This gives your YouTube ad a better chance of being clicked on.
- The simplicity: You don’t need a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing to use YouTube advertising. Select your budget, select your bid max, determine your audience, and upload your ad. The process is straight-forward and very user friendly for just about anyone.
- The budget: You determine how much you want to spend on YouTube advertising. This is a great opportunity for small brands to play in the same field with the big boys.
- The return on investment: As with every marketing effort, you want to drive audience members to your product or service. A bigger reach increases the chance of more traffic to your website—and ultimately results in the likelihood of sales.
Is YouTube Advertising in Your Company’s Budget?
One of the best parts of using YouTube advertising is the customization and affordability it offers. On average, a full ad view can cost your company between $0.10 to $0.30, and it’s totally dependent on the parameters you set out. The cost of your ad can vary based on:
- Budget – YouTube, like most social media platforms, allows you to set a daily budget that gets used up based on ads watched and ads that are clicked on. This allows companies to advertise on one of the biggest platforms on the internet without blowing out their marketing budget.
- The type of ad – From pop-ups, to skip-able ads and full-length videos, selecting the type of YouTube ad will take up more or less of your budget. This can entirely depend on the content you share in your ad and what market you’re trying to reach.
- The market – It’s important to know beforehand about the demographic you’re trying to reach. What age is your target market? What words or phrases are they searching for? What interests them?
It’s important to note that if you’re using YouTube advertising within a very popular target market, you’ll likely have a lot of other ad competitors and therefore you’ll pay more to get your advertisement out there.
YouTube’s advertising options and affordability make it a fantastic marketing investment option. Spend some time identifying your company’s YouTube marketing goals so you have a clear picture of what outlet works best for you.
Remember that no matter what you do on YouTube, you must keep your content interesting and relevant, so your audience wants to watch and be engaged. It’s the only way to attract them to your brand. The simplicity and effectiveness of YouTube advertising will carry out the rest of the legwork!
