The numbers don’t lie. Indeed, YouTube is also the second-biggest search engine after Google, with 1.9 billion monthly active users.
50 million of those users are content creators who upload 576,000 hours of video to YouTube every day.
The first piece to any successful advertising campaign is choosing the right platform. YouTube is arguably the best network for running ads. Here’s why. The thing is, advertising on YouTube is very different from running a PPC or paid social campaign. There are specific creative constraints and a ton of options for this platform, and you need a base knowledge before you even scope out your next video project to make the most of the paid possibilities.
What are the formats for YouTube video ads?
There are three video ad categories on YouTube:
1. TrueView ads
- They’re versatile.
- They’re low risk.
TrueView ads are a cost-effective way to reach a relevant audience. You only pay when the ad has:
- Played for 30 seconds or longer (or ended)
- Prompted an action from your viewer (like a click)
They reach a wide audience.
TrueView ads allow you to advertise your products and services with how-to videos, demos, video testimonials and more. Here’s a campaign that was hugely successful:
Resulting in a 37 percent rise in digital sales, and a 55 percent increase in hero product sales!
2. Non-skippable video ads
There are two types of non-skippable YouTube ads:
- Pre-roll ads: before a video plays
- Mid-roll ads which appear at the midpoint of 10 minute-or-longer videos
Generally, non-skippable ads are effective for increasing brand exposure to specific target markets. Another benefit? They’re paid for on a cost-per-mille (CPM) basis, giving you more control over your ad spend.
3. Bumper ads
Bumper ads are the more tolerable version of non-skippable ads, lasting six seconds at most. They appear at the end of YouTube videos, and are paid for on a CPM basis.
Because they’re short, bumper ads are ideal for targeting mobile users. They’re also a great way to recycle longer content.
Here’s one of the top 20 bumper ads of the moment!
Let’s get started!
The reality is this; YouTube is king when it comes to video content.
Step #1: Create a YouTube channel and Google Ads account.
Step #2: Upload your ad
Step #3: Create a new campaign
Now you’re going to navigate away from YouTube and head over the Google Ads. From here, you’ll be able to start a new campaign.
Step #4: Select your goal
Google Ads will give you the option to proceed without choosing a goal, but it’s definitely in your best interest to do so. These are your options:
- Sales
- Leads
- Website traffic
- Product and brand consideration
- Brand awareness and reach
- App promotion
Step #5: Choose your campaign type
Obviously, for our purposes here today, you’re going to choose the video option. As you can see from what I’ve highlighted above, this type of campaign will reach users on YouTube.
Step #7: Configure your campaign
Determine your budget and bidding strategy for the advertisement. You can set your budget two ways. Either the total amount that you’ll spend for the duration of the campaign (as shown above) or a daily amount that you want to spend. There are six different options for bidding strategies.
- Maximum CPV — cost per view.
- Maximum CPM — cost per 1,000 times the ad is displayed.
- Target CPM — average cost per 1,000 times the ad is displayed.
- Viewable CPM — cost per 1,000 times ad was viewed (at least 50% of ad is on the screen for two seconds or more).
- Target CPA — automatic bids based on an action, billed at the CPM rate.
- Maximize conversions – automatic bids set up by Google to give you the highest number of conversions to fit your budget.
Step #8: Select keywords and topics
Step #9: Paste your video ad URL
Snapchat has nearly 200 million daily users, watching 10 billion videos per day. Snapchat is used primarily among younger demographics, like Gen Z and teenagers. Content appears only in quick flashes – snaps – and usually disappears within 24 hours.
Worth paying attention to for any marketer. Especially, for connecting with millennials (18-34 year-olds).
Because of that… Snapchat is different than the others.
Here are some numbers:
- Nearly 88% of users viewing Snapchat ads for a men’s deodorant campaign were 13 to 34 years old.
- About the same applies for U.S. Demographics.
- It reaches 41% of all 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States- every day.
- Snapchat has the sixth highest concentration of millennial users on mobile apps at 76%.
Snap Ads Snap Ads are full-screen ads on Snapchat that come in video format. They always play with sound on and are 100% viewable in-frame:
How does the Snapchat Ad Manager work?
To create an account, head to Snapchat’s Business site and click “Get Started:”. If you already have a Snapchat account, you can sign in and transition it from a personal to a business account. Currently, you can pick between driving traffic to your website, application installs, remarketing audiences, video views or simply growing brand awareness.
One of the great features is being able to run ads on a timeline. For example, you could run holiday sales campaigns that drive website traffic, limiting their dates to a specific week. Next, you can start to build your ad sets. This includes delivery time, status and creative type. After choosing your creative type, you can start to customize targeting factors for your audience. Similarly to Facebook, Snapchat packs a powerhouse of data on its users. You can target by interest, lifestyles, shopping behavior and more. Plus, you can optimize what device you want to target. For example, if you run applications only on the iOS app store, you can ensure that you only show ads for Apple users. For simple demographics, you can target age ranges, genders and specific locations. If you want to target new audiences, create a lookalike audience based on your current customers. You can either upload a video, create one, or choose from templated videos that you can add text and graphics to. And with Snapchat analytics, you can measure the performance and results of your campaigns in seconds:
The top brands on Snapchat finding success
Peak, the popular brain game application drove 1.7 million app installs in two months on Snapchat. They averaged a 72% month-over-month increase in application installs.
The best part? Their costs were 50% less than advertising on other platforms.
Pinterest pins are 100 times more spreadable than a tweet, with the retweet average hitting only 1.4%. And, as for Facebook, the half-life of a pin is 1,6000x longer than a Facebook post
WHY? Pinterest is more than a social media platform — it’s more like a search engine, like Google. With social media, users primarily connect with each other and share content. And, with Pinterest, users search for inspiration and create boards they can revisit later with pinned content that interests them.
Since launching in 2010, Pinterest has steadily grown to become the third most popular social platform
Pinterest Promoted Pins
There are a few ways to promote your content on Pinterest.
1. Promoted Pins
Promoted Pins look and act just like a regular static Pin, but they have a small “Promoted” label to set them apart.
2. Promoted Video Pins
3. Promoted Carousels
4. Promoted App Pins
How to promote on Pinterest?
1. Choose your campaign objective.
If you want people to discover your business, choose Brand awareness for standard Pins or Video views for Promoted Video Pins as your campaign objective. For these two objectives, you can set a maximum cost for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives. If your Pinterest goals are to drive qualified leads to your website or improve traffic, choose Traffic or App install for your campaign objective.
2. Set your campaign budget.
If you want to spend your campaign money evenly over a specific time period, select lifetime. Select daily to choose the amount spent each day.
3. Maximize your SEO efforts.
By adding an interest and keywords to your descriptions, they become more relevant to people who are actively searching for that content. Keep in mind that hashtags don’t add any ranking value.
4. Choose your target audience.
Pinterest has six targeting options that you can use singularly or combine together for a unique targeting approach. Audiences combine your customer knowledge with behavioral insights from Pinterest. If someone has recently bought something from your site or engaged with your Pinterest content, this allows you to target that person for an ad. Keywords show your ad to someone who is searching for that kind of content. Interests target people based on the types of content they regularly engage with. Expanded will provide you with additional interest and keywords based on your ad’s content and who you’re trying to reach. Demographics allows you to select a specific location, language, device, or gender. Placements gives you the option to choose where your ad is delivered.
5. Add value.
You have to add value to every touchpoint with your customer for them to engage with your content.
To add value on Pinterest, try adding Pins that your audience will want to engage with that don’t include your product or business.
Indeed, today’s young people are bombarded with more advertisements than ever before. Pinterest, Snapchat and Youtube are great platforms to target younger people.
