Is YouTube Right for My Digital Marketing Plan?
People Are Consumed With Watching YouTube Videos
We all watch YouTube videos! And, we know others are watching too because YouTube is the second-largest internet property in the world with 34.6 billion users. Google is the largest with 92.5 billion users. And, Google owns YouTube. There are a lot of meaningful stats that demonstrate why your business should be on YouTube.
- 73% of US adults use YouTube
- 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute
- Each visitor spends 11min 24 seconds on YouTube on average every day
- 70% of what people are watching is determined by YouTube’s recommendation algorithm
Something else to keep in mind is that all kinds of people in all age groups watch YouTube videos. In fact, there is less of a difference in the age groups of the YouTube user base than on other social media platforms. In the 3rd quarter of 2020, we can see that US users of YouTube are in all different age groups.
- 77% of users are 26 to 35 years old
- 73% of users are 36 to 45 years old
- 70% of users are 45 to 55 years old
- 67% of users are 56 and older
The question now becomes how should I integrate YouTube with my marketing plan?
With marketing, the idea is always to tell your story and get your message in front of people. YouTube videos are a great way to show others what your business is all about! Use video to showcase how your business can solve problems. If you don’t have a YouTube channel, it’s time to start building your presence.
Don’t overthink creating videos!
Failure to get started with a video marketing strategy puts you behind. YouTube has been around for 16 years. Thus, that’s how long your competitors have had to come up with a video plan. You may need to produce videos in-house or bring in a video expert to help. There are many ways to do this and how it’s done will depend on time, budget, and other resources.
And, don’t get wrapped up in thinking “Will anyone want to watch my YouTube videos?”. Get out there, get on YouTube, and utilize video in your content marketing strategy. Starting a video strategy is a journey and you have to start somewhere. Give useful information and provide a service through your YouTube videos. Remember, people want authenticity and video is a perfect platform to display just that.
YouTube Is Valuable for Digital Marketing
Sometimes people look at YouTube as a social media channel and other times they don’t. It’s really a user-generated video platform that can be very social. TickTock has gained viewer popularity with their platform for short user-generated videos. With YouTube, you can have longer videos and there are many benefits to sharing that great video content.
Optimizing YouTube Content So Videos Get Found
YouTube videos show in search engine results. If you have several types of content available, including video, your audience will notice and watch. Google will also notice and its algorithm will prioritize your content and videos accordingly! Your YouTube videos will be featured in search results if you have good content that is being searched. Your YouTube videos should have valuable information that people are looking for. Make sure your videos answer the questions your audience wants to know about and is searching for.
You can constantly grow your entire online presence through video.
There are all kinds of SEO tips that go along with posting videos on YouTube. Taking time to optimize them helps your videos get found. Some things to think about are the video title, descriptions, keywords, and phrases or questions that people are looking for. Add themed playlists for your video content. Think about different service lines, relevant categories, location, language, and end cards to keep your audience engaged.
There’s a whole set of useful data that goes along with YouTube marketing.
As marketers, we want users to watch video after video. You’re rewarded when you keep viewers on your channel longer. Why?–Because YouTube makes money off of advertising.
Digital Marketing Through YouTube Advertising
Just like Google, there are organic YouTube ads and paid YouTube ads. Paid ads are how all of these internet properties are able to sustain and continue to provide content. There are a lot of places for digital marketers to buy ads and target their audience and YouTube offers a huge benefit when it comes to digital ads.
YouTube Channel Ads
Businesses can market their products and services on other YouTube channels. You can actually put a short, non-skippable bumper ad in front of your competitor videos! This is one great way of developing a competitor strategy.
YouTube Video Ads
You can showcase your content via in-display or overlay ads, TruView in-stream ads, skippable ads and non-skippable ads. This has the potential for a variety of successful options for digital marketing through YouTube advertising.
Ads on Google Display Network Websites
YouTube offers advertising through The Google Display Network. This reaches 90% of Internet users worldwide. That’s over two million websites, news pages, blogs, and Google sites!
Ads on Google Display Network Apps
There is an opportunity to place ads on mobile apps provided that there’s video placement. A lot of businesses with apps do this so they can make money. It allows, in many cases, an app to continue to be offered for free.
YouTube Audience Ad Targeting
There are a lot of targeting options. And, there is lots of layering that can go on with the different types of YouTube targeting.
Much of the YouTube ad targeting options are related to user search behavior.
Google is getting ahead. With the new iOS update, there are changes with user data tracking. All of this will affect marketing targeting strategies. With YouTube, there are numerous ways to target audiences or groups of people. Some of those are listed below and you can find a full list through Google YouTube Support Answers.
- Age
- Gender
- Parental status
- Household income
- Students
- Homeowners
- Interests
- Life events
- In-market audiences
- Remarketing to those who have interacted with your videos
- Custom list uploads
- Topic-based
- Keywords
- And much more!
And, Google will build similar audiences. The targeting options are amazing and there are lots of opportunities to market your products or services through YouTube. All of these YouTube audience targeting methods let you define who you want to reach.
Digital Marketing Strategy Should Include YouTube Videos
We always recommend doing omnichannel marketing, and video content isn’t going away. If you’re not utilizing YouTube in your digital marketing plan, it’s time to start developing a video strategy. Video content is valuable and overlaps with other parts of your marketing. Your audience will find you because of the videos you produce. There are many opportunities for digital ads through YouTube. Take advantage of this valuable video platform!
