How would you like to pay three cents per click to advertise your business on the world’s second biggest search engine?
Here at Trada, we find value in experimenting with different types of marketing. Videos are more effective than we ever would have thought – in fact, the funny little How it Works video we put together back in March when the marketing department was just hatching has proven immensely valuable not only for lead generation, but also for concisely explaining how Trada helps people with paid search. (I guess I don’t need to mention that a concise explanation can help with lead generation.)
So the video is great when it’s embedded on our website. If someone lands on our “how it works” page the video is right there, and it might turn a visitor who is skeptical about Trada into a potential customer. And we can definitely push out the video to our blog, and of course we post it on YouTube and optimize it for SEO and all that jazz.
But this is still a small pond. How can we get this video – which has proven so successful for us – out to a larger audience? A bunch of folks who need help with paid search – but don’t really know what they’re looking for?
Ta-daa! YouTube Promoted Videos. On the setup end, these work like AdWords and other pay per click platforms – but instead of directing traffic to a landing page on our website, promoted videos appear on a page with the organic search results – as a thumbnail with three lines of text – and drive traffic to our video.
Don’t have you hooked yet? Try this on for size. We pay only a few cents per click.
Still not sure? YouTube is the second largest search engine. It’s bigger than the Yahoo/Bing Search Alliance, which we’ve been suggesting for ages you use in addition to Google.
Wait, you’re really still skeptical? In addition to appearing on YouTube results pages, you may also elect to have your videos appear on AdSense ad units – potentially reaching a massive content network audience.
Now, there is one complicated part. You need a video. The creative process for promoted videos is slightly more involved than with regular old paid search. We’ve moved past building campaigns around our How it Works video and have begun producing “branded editorial videos”, specifically to raise awareness about Trada and how it can help with pay per click advertising. The data we got from our first campaign with How it Works was enough to convince me that this was an avenue worth pursuing – and dedicating time and resources to.
But you don’t need a crack team of videographers to benefit from YouTube’s promoted videos.
If you already have a video for your company that explains what you do, or provides educational value in your space, it’s a good place to start trying to advertise on YouTube. It’s an easy and cheap! way to reach a new audience – and to generate valuable real-time data about your messages.
Here are some best practices to consider when working with YouTube promoted videos. For the sake of focus, we shall assume you have already implemented standard best video SEO practices – which, when followed, can also positively affect your promoted video campaign. For a great article on 14 SEO video practices, check this out.
Remember why you’re promoting your video. What are you hoping to accomplish? If you’d like a viewer to visit your website, use the free Call-to-Action Overlay feature. You can also use the video description box to include information.
Choose a thumbnail – you’ll have three choices – that best represents your video.
YouTube offers data reporting similar to AdWords. Use what you learn to inform your next step – and your other marketing channels. Always use your data!
Create a Call to Action Overlay (they’re free with a promoted video campaign) so that, once you’ve driven potential customers to your video, they know what to do next and can become a customer.
If you have many videos, consider driving traffic back to your channel, where a viewer can peruse your other offerings.
Elect to make your video embeddable. You want people to see it!
Whatever you do – make sure an interested viewer knows how they can contact you. Put a watermark with your URL into the video (super easy with Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, and iMovie), put your web address – first, so it’s above the fold – into the description box.
YouTube Promoted Videos is a relatively new offering – and it’s constantly improving and changing. There will be less competition in your space – and that means better click prices and the freedom to educate yourself by making mistakes. So go! Go and try it!
We did eventually remake the old How it Works video.
