By Phyllis van den Berg: If you’re working on a marketing campaign for YouTube, there are a few things that you should know in order to make it as successful as possible. As YouTube is the most frequently used video hosting platform in the world, it’s an extremely valuable marketing tool that should be utilized in your business (and at a minimum, be considered).
By adding YouTube ads, you’re opening your business up to billions of potential new clients. Yes - billions. YouTube has 2 billion unique visitors every month and those numbers are only growing, both among the oldest and youngest demographic age groups.
So, how do you go about using ads on YouTube to target a specific audience for your business? Here’s a quick guide to some of their ad targeting options:
1. Targeting viewers directly
Google Ads [which is the platform used to run YouTube ads] has an option that allows you to connect your subscriber list with YouTube. Once you’ve done that, you can use the algorithm to target the subscribers that are both on your email list and watching your YouTube videos. This creates a personalized ad experience for the user which typically results in a higher return on investment (ROI) or the business — and often at the lowest cost. It’s like fishing where the fish are.
2. Search-Based Targeting
This type of YouTube ad targeting is familiar to anyone who’s ever run a Google Ads campaign. It utilizes search-based behaviors — keywords and phrases — that show ads to people based on what they’re searching for. So if your user is searching ‘blue bicycles,’ you can bid on ‘blue bicycle’ as a keyword and get your ad shown to that user.
3. Targeting Preferences
As a Google Ad user, you can target people based on their preferences. By utilizing this ad targeting method, you can zero in on a user’s: lifestyle, attitudes, values, interests, and hobbies. After your ad hits YouTube, you can further customize this ad targeting campaign with the viewer’s search history. By the end of the day, it’s going to be as if you’re the viewer’s best friend and you know exactly what they want and need.
4. Targeting Demographics
If there’s a certain demographic that you’re looking to appeal to (gender, age, income, location, relationship status, etc.) you can use YouTube ads to specifically target them. For example, if you’re a make-up company, you’re likely to target your ads [mostly] to women. A luxury luggage company might target those with higher incomes and travel affinities. Jewelers would do well by targeting people in relationships, and so on and so forth.
5. Targeting Competitor Channels
Everyone likes a little competition, right? When you utilize targeting competitor channels, you can place ads for your business by targeting those who interact with your competitor’s channel and win over some new clients. There is a catch: You can only utilize this targeting option with Partner Channels which means that their channel has been monetized.
If you’re just starting out with your YouTube ad campaign, these targeting options are a must. Once you begin utilizing and connecting with the users in your target market, you’re sure to see a great ROI in no time.
Any basics that you’d add? Comment below.
- Phyllis van den Berg