From the latest survey of its visitors carried out by YouTube itself last year, it appears that more than 2.000 million users access the platform every month. According to We Are Social and Hootsuite Digital Report 2020, YouTube is the second most used social network in the world. In Italy, on the other hand, it represents the "virtual place" where people spend more time every day.
In terms of online advertising, YouTube offers marketers the ability to place ads directly within the platform, intercepting users as they watch or search for content that interests them.
Addressing a large audience of people, how is it possible to get a message to the right person at the right time? This is where the main difference between a television commercial and a YouTube ad lies. Today, marketers can rely on effective measurement and analytics tools to access functional data to target and reach desired users. Furthermore, there is a large economic gap between a television advertisement and a YouTube. The cost of a television commercial is much higher and, above all, there is no certainty that the people the advertising reaches are interested in your products and services.
Youtube advertising can be an extremely effective way to promote your brand online. However, before we figure out how to capitalize on the opportunities this platform offers, we need to understand how to precisely define who your target audience is.
How to effectively select your target audience with 5 variables
To know the type of users potentially interested in your brand, you must identify which variables are useful to identify your target audience. YouTube users are divided into different groups based on the following variables:
- Common interests: fundamental to establish the affinity of users with respect to specific products or services. For example, knowing that a user watches a YouTube video about makeup indicates that he or she is most likely interested in that specific industry. This information is essential for companies that sell makeup products and want to launch an advertising campaign.
- Demographics and demographic groups: useful for identifying homogeneous categories of consumers. For example, students from the tourism sector or girls interested in the field of fashion. Age, gender, education, and income level are just some of the main parameters referenced to identify target users to focus on.
- Topics covered by a creator on a specific channel: Knowing that a particular user constantly follows a YouTube channel dedicated to interior decoration allows you to easily understand that that person can represent a potential client for your company that sells interior design objects. Simply convey your message.
Video remarketing strategies
People who have already watched a video or visited a YouTube channel: With video remarketing, you can personalize your message to users who have already interacted with certain video content. This way you have the opportunity to retain your customers or acquire new ones.
Know the type of device used by your target users
Type of device used: Those who watch videos on YouTube from a smartphone certainly have different levels of attention (and time availability) than those who use video content from their computer. Furthermore, it is essential for marketers to know the type of device their target users use to access the platform, so they can decide precisely which device to publish on and, consequently, show more of their advertising.
With several types of ads available to develop an effective YouTube advertising campaign, it is essential to evaluate which solution is best suited to convey your message.
Therefore, after having defined your target audience, it is time to analyze the different types of ads that the platform allows.
What are the different types of ads that YouTube offers?
Here is a list of the main ad types that marketers can rely on:
Skippable in-stream ads: Generating interest in the first seconds of viewing is essential for this type of ads. The ad appears before the start of the video chosen by the user and can be ignored after 5 seconds by clicking on a banner at the bottom. It is for this reason that user participation must be instantaneous.
Non-skippable in-stream ads: the total duration cannot exceed 15 seconds and the user is required to view the entire ad. The risk is that the visitor to the YouTube channel chooses not to watch the video anymore. That is why it is important to create quality advertising content to prevent the user from "changing channels."
Video discovery ads: They consist of a miniature image of the advertising video with a small textual part. They are displayed in YouTube search results or in correspondence with related videos.
Bumper ads: They are suitable for capturing the attention of a large audience with a short but at the same time incisive and memorable message. As with non-skippable in-stream ads, the viewer cannot skip the video, which in this case is only 6 seconds long.
Header ads: This category of ads is the most exclusive because it is available by reservation only. This format, which differs depending on the device used to view the video (smartphone, computer, TV screen), appears at the top of the YouTube home page. It is used to increase the awareness of a new product or service, or to reach a wider audience in a short time, for example, during sales.
The type of ads that show only on Google video partners
Outstream ads: They are mobile-specific, only shown on Google video partners, and not available on YouTube. The goal of “outstream” is to expand the coverage of video ads to show them to more users at an advantageous price. They initially play with the audio off and viewers can click on the ad to turn on the video's audio.
Advertising on YouTube: A springboard for your business
15 years have passed since YouTube was founded in February 2005. Year after year this video platform has gained more and more importance in the web world. Already in 2006, the company itself reported that around 100 million videos were viewed every day. This data is enough to understand that today YouTube represents an incomparable promotional tool to dynamically publicize products and services to a large number of people.
Communicating your message to the right user and at the right time is not an action left to chance. For this reason, choosing to benefit from YouTube advertising could be a very effective springboard for your business.
