Every business in the market competes for attention and exposure. The more popular the brand is, the more trustworthy it becomes to the eyes of the public. The general public trusts the product whose names they see more often. With this logic, brands like Gucci, Coke, Apple, and others are presumed to have high qualities. Coincidentally, this idea of “having more is better” also plays in YouTube metrics. Note: If you’re wondering how much you could pay influencers to advertise on the channel directly, you can use our Youtube earnings calculator.
Just as marketing takes a digital form, YouTube becomes one of the most famous stages of brand promotion. YouTube is currently the third most popular social network in the world wide web, and it is also continuously rising in fame. For this reason, YouTube is one of the best places to build a name for a company’s brand. For a more comprehensive guide on YouTube marketing that goes beyond brand awareness, read our article: How to Use YouTube for Marketing Your Business.
Why YouTube?
Ever since Google bought YouTube in 2016, this video search engine has become more famous and more capable than ever. Although at the time of purchase, YouTube was already gaining steady fame. But when Google acquired complete responsibility upon YouTube’s legal liabilities, the platform has been more efficient for the public – both to consumers and capitalists.
There are more or less five billion views on YouTube on a daily basis. For this reason alone, YouTube is already an imaginable pool of networks that consists of people from all walks of life.
Google was also able to upgrade the Ad controls of YouTube as search history for both search engines are considered when suggesting ads. This circumstance allows advertising on YouTube to have a broader scope of marketing audience.
Apart from those basic facts, video marketing is also taking an optimistic toll in the modern age as people engage more in what they see and hear. Just like how TV advertisements work, YouTube Ad builds up online presence even faster than Ad posters on the side of the screen.
Furthermore, YouTube’s algorithm continuously improves over time. It is said to have been easier to use and is more cost-efficient than before. Considering that YouTube is continually adjusting to the needs of its users, viewers and influencers alike, this platform remains to be one of the best advertising arenas to build brand awareness.
How to Use YouTube?
YouTube is a search engine on its own. It has its own complexities, algorithms, and rules and regulations. There are several YouTube Ad practices that any advertisers can benefit from. Opting to focus on one advertising scheme is acceptable, but exploring other YouTube campaigns is a better option to make the best out of its engine.
Create Brand or Product-Bound Channel
The first step to start building a name on YouTube is by making a video channel and creating the brand. This channel will be the company’s profile in the network. Therefore, it is essential for the videos to be in line with the business’ communication manifesto.
While it is hard to make a name out of the blue, YouTube has programs that allow marketers to reach their target audience. Once a channel is established in its database, YouTube can increase the recommendation of the videos, given that it has high-quality content.
The uploaded videos in the channel can run as paid ads and will appear to the target audience as set up. Another strategy for starters is to create entertaining and creative content. This strategy has been popular among Southeast Asian ads like Jollibee and Thai Insurance Life.
Buy Ads
As fascinating as it is, Ads on YouTube have higher chances of being trendy compared to other advertising networks. There are several types of Ads that YouTube allows. Depending on how YouTubers utilize them, each category of Ads can function distinctively with various advantages.
TrueView Ads
TrueView Ads standard ads will cost an advertiser fee once the viewer reaches at least 30 seconds or if they watch the whole video. It means that with this advertising scheme, a company’s airtime can be free up to the 30-second mark. There is also an additional charge every engagement of the viewer with the ad.
Pre-roll ads
Pre-roll ads are the nuisance ads that can play before, in the middle, or at the end of the video. The average timeframe of this commercial is at 15 – 25 seconds. Pre-roll ads are only to be played in the middle of the video if the video exceeds 10 minutes. Unlike TrueView Ads, this one charges the advertiser regardless if the viewer engaged with the link of the ad or not.
Bumper Ads
Another chargeable ad is the Bumper Ad. It is a non-skippable ad that is as short as 6-seconds. This type of Ad is the most popular tool for brand awareness since it has a very short time. The 6-second timer is just enough to present the brand to the viewer and to barely promote anything.
Get Featured in a Famous Vlogger’s Channel
Making a name in YouTube is a hard course to take; being a beginner and amateur in the platform is another thing to consider. Under such circumstances, entertainment branding is a path commonly used.
Since YouTube is a pool of creative networks, getting tangled with one or two YouTube vloggers with high promoting value is a marketing strategy. A featured channel automatically gets YouTube views when included in a video description. As a result, the YouTube metrics can increase even without having the viewers watch any ad video.
YouTube influencers can help increase brand awareness, given that they already have a stable number of subscribers in their channels. Most viewers tend to be curious about featured products in their trusted channels. If these sets of viewers get interested enough, opportunities for the advertiser’s Channel getting visited can be high.
This strategy is often masked under “review videos” or “brought to you by…” commentaries. However, brands that are smoothly inserted into a video’s content is considered to be much better than blatant marketing.
Practice SEO on a YouTube video
More than strategic Ad purchasing and video featuring, one of the most effective ways to get a steady favorable ranking in YouTube is by learning the techniques of the search engine. Search Engine Optimization can also work with YouTube knowing that it is also a search engine for videos.
Identify Keyword and Target Audience
The very first step in every SEO process is the identification of the appropriate keyword. Knowing the keyword for the channel is pinpointing the niche of the business. While there are SEO tools on the market that can give lists of keywords, what works in Google may not necessarily work on YouTube.
For this reason, the best place to generate a list of viable keywords is the YouTube suggest button itself. This search bar gives tons of keyword ideas that can narrow down a YouTube video’s approach. The results from the search bar are mostly keywords that have a significant number of Click Through Rate (CTR).
Identifying the appropriate keyword for the channel would inevitably lead to recognizing the target audience. It is necessary to pinpoint the target audience to narrow down the leads of the YouTube video. Once both the niche and the target audience are identified, it is easier for YouTube to promote the videos to a specific community. Thus, the videos are given a bigger chance to be noticed.
Understand YouTube Analytics
YouTube has its own set of Analytic Metrics that any YouTuber can use to their benefit. It is essential to monitor these metrics because they also tell if the channel is doing good or bad. Apart from that, understanding YouTube metrics can also lead to future prospects of how the next ads should be.
There are approximately 15 YouTube metrics that every YouTube advertiser should learn. However, there are 5 significant metrics that one should focus on, namely: Watch Time Metric, Audience Retention, Who’s Watching Your Videos, Engagement, and Traffic Source.
Both the Watch Time Metric and Audience Retention can both implicate how appealing the videos are to the target audience. The Who’s Watching Your Videos is a demographic report of the age, gender, and geography of those interested in the given niche. Engagements and Traffic Sources are both references to how people react to the videos and the channel overall.
These metrics can reveal the significance of a channel allowing the vlogger to understand what the viewers want. Every YouTube advertiser is obliged to recognize the taste of the majority. Fortunately, with YouTube metrics, realizing the public’s taste is more accessible with its quantitative data.
Takeaway
The fact that YouTube is the second most popular search engine, next to Google, states the need for business people to invest time and resources on it. The number of people that idles, promotes, and visits the site, are all potential customers. Such an opportunity is not a good-for-nothing chance especially when there are ways to dominate the site.
However, advertising on YouTube for Brand Awareness can be considered as one of the boldest moves in today’s market. Maintaining a YouTube Channel and continuously monitoring the metrics is not an easy job. The need for consistency, uniqueness, and creativity in this field of marketing is of uttermost importance.
Nevertheless, with the unceasing and rapid development of technology, YouTube is trying to adjust to the needs of its users. As a result, this platform has become more accessible both to general viewers and advertisers.