Video ads are a powerful way to showcase and communicate your products or services to potential customers. They’re also a great way to drive leads and growth through PPC campaigns.
Experts are more in tune than ever with different platforms and the audience groups they attract, rather than focusing on just driving content. As the landscape changes, marketers need to find new ways to create the right kinds of video campaigns to resonate with their target segments.
So this week on episode 20 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to two experienced video ad gurus, who shared their rich experience and insights with our audience:
Joe Martinez, Director of Client Services at Clix Marketing
Cory Henke, Founder and CEO of Variable Media
As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.
Here are 5 insights to help you deploy effective and powerful video ads.
1. Hook your audience in the first 5 seconds
Joe: For me, the message in the first 5 seconds of a video can have more impact than anything else. What is the narrator or character trying to convey? For people like me, who listen to YouTube while working, the first five seconds of any ad will trigger me to pay attention to it. So that message is going to be extremely important.
Make sure that your logo is visible so that even if your audience is paying attention or skips the ad, they will see the brand name.
2. Look at audience intent rather than channel
Joe: If you have a limited budget and have a specific goal in mind with your campaign, it’s always important to optimize to whatever is working. Think about whether you would want your content shown on a particular channel.
We’ve seen people converting from a music channel because we focus on a very customer-intent audience rather than the type of channel. Now, if a customer is looking for SaaS products, we’re targeting them and not the placement or the channel.
Be proactive. If you think your audience isn’t on certain channels, then block those. You can get help from several exclusion lists created to guide you better.
3. Target wisely for a TV-only campaign
Joe: Looking specifically at a TV-only campaign, your ad’s performance depends on the various targeting options. Even if you don’t see a spike in the initial days, keep watching as the percentage of people watching your ads on TV increases gradually.
Go back to check your initial targeting options and whether you’ve been remarketing to the same audience. If your targeting is specific, try to expand it to check if that gives you the exposure you want on TV.
4. Drive your ads through IGTV
Cory: On Instagram, the areas that are most promotable are the stories and the newsfeed. The areas that you can’t advertise are IGTV and live streams. And that is where, we believe, we get the most organic reach for our videos.
Now, the trouble with IGTV lies in promoting it. How do you get people to see it? That’s one of the most difficult things with long-form videos. To help increase your view count, run your long-form video ads on Facebook.
Another way would be to take the IGTV videos and embed them into a webpage. You can use the URLs to guide users onto your Instagram with a call to action like ‘Watch now’.
5. Don’t neglect lead forms
Cory: We focus on CPC as that shows how the audience engages with the content rather than just visiting the website or channel. It shows how much impact the ads could have, especially when there isn’t much of a lead flow.
Don’t forget to test your bid types. We think that one of the biggest variables to look at is Target CPS vs Maximized Conversions. That’s great to potentially find some more lead volume that could help you decide what works for the audience better.
Keep an eye on the engagement with the lead form and experiment with your call-to-action.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of video ads is because they’re so easy to consume. With the way the world is right now, it’s no surprise people prefer video content over other types. The surging popularity of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok (for now) is a testament to the balance of power shifting towards video ads.
While it’s definitely not easy to succeed with such a dynamic ad type, marketers need to be mindful of audience interests, broadcasting channels and mediums, and content type.
Go a step further to cater to your target audience by customizing your very own exclusion list. Start by checking out Joe and Clix’s list of over 1,400 children’s YouTube channels to exclude from your campaigns.
People use the moving picture to sway opinion, win hearts, and tell stories. In a marketing setting, it brings consumers as close to a brand or product as the online experience will allow.
But video continues to be ignored by many businesses for a variety of reasons
“It’s expensive.”
“We don’t have the resources.”
“Our target audience isn’t on YouTube.”
All these misconceptions were dismantled this week during episode 12 of PPC Town Hall, where we discussed the intricacies of YouTube (and video in general) with:
Joe Martinez, Director of Client Strategy at Clix Marketing (email, Twitter)
Cory Henke, Founder and CEO of Variable Media (email, Twitter)
As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.
Here are five tips from our panelists on how to use YouTube and video to drive growth and learning.
1. Exclude ads from content you don’t want to show for.
Joe: In terms of content exclusions, we’ve seen really good hand-curated lists from other marketers. I’ve created one that stops your ads from running on channels geared towards children; others have created exclusion lists for news, political and controversial channels.
So there are options if you don’t want to run your ads on specific types of content. Some of the ad formats, like TrueView discovery campaigns, give advertisers greater control. They let you limit yourself to targeting just YouTube search results; you don’t have to be a pre-roll or in-stream ad all the time.
2. Use the data to learn about your audience.
Cory: When you start to find different channels and videos that work well, that’s a key insight into your consumer — you see the videos they watch after your ad play. One advertiser we worked with had a baby product that was not really succeeding on YouTube.
What we found was that the minimal conversions that happened all came before hurricane-related news content. We saw that was driving conversions, and we learned that it was a fear-based action. Before people watch hurricane content, they’re in a heightened state of awareness or fear; serving something that could potentially help your future child play into that mood.
3. Try out the YouTube Video Builder.
Joe: For me, there’s no longer an excuse for a brand to not be on YouTube. It no longer matters if you don’t have someone with video editing skills or high-value assets because Google basically takes your visuals and does the work for you.
There are dozens of templates based on what you want to promote — product, service, mobile app. When you pick a template you like, it shows you what images you need, as well as the format and sizes for those images. I did a few demos of my own to show some clients. For a free tool, it’s very good.
Get Access: Opt into the beta of YouTube Video Builderhere.
4. Learn from skippable and non-skippable video ads.
Cory: Non-skippable ads usually drive very high CPCs with high completion rates; with a 15-second interstitial ad, you usually get a completion rate similar to a bumper ad. I think you’ll find people who are willing to watch your ad until the end, but not necessarily willing to click through and find out more.
So it’s kind of like a brand placement. I like it, but it’s harder to learn from.
With a skippable ad where you don’t pay for a user until 30 seconds, there’s a lot you can learn in that time — and greater scope to optimize these ads to make them more effective. With a skippable ad, there’s also unlimited time; your ad can be 10 seconds or 40 minutes. That variation lets you learn what your customers want to see from your future video content.
We could take this episode of PPC Town Hall and run it as a skippable ad, and compare it to another episode that we also promote similarly. You would know which users are willing to stay longer versus who ends the video early, and you might even see a link between that and who’s in the video.
We ran a test for a client’s 20-minute yoga ad where we used two versions with a black male and a white female to see what people would respond to. We also created a funny version and a more serious one. The white female version had better CTR and CPC, as did the serious version. What we learned from that is who to put on the next Instagram post or in-feed ad. The goal is to present that variation at the beginning of the video to maximize your learning.
5. Repurpose video beyond YouTube.
Joe: It’s absolutely worth doing video — especially if you’re budget-conscious — because it goes so much further than just YouTube.
You can use videos in responsive display ads, in your universal app campaigns and engagement display ads, in your Gmail ads. Or use video to really boost other campaigns and awareness; it’s still video views we can create audiences from to do remarketing with fresh video content.
To do this, you’ll need to optimize your videos for different online platforms and purposes. And make sure to use good video editing software for your needs to edit your videos quickly and professionally without breaking the bank.
Remember that different video formats work best on different digital platforms, so it’s important to optimize them properly when you’re repurposing this content outside of YouTube.
You don’t have to make a video and use it once on YouTube when there are ways to enhance your other paid media campaigns within Google.
Must Read:Check out Joe’s adviceon how to use YouTube to power your non-video Google campaigns.
Conclusion
YouTube advertising is all about two things: freedom and flexibility.
You have the freedom to present your product, service, app, or brand in a way that offers something different from search, display, and shopping campaigns.
At the same time, different ad formats and product innovations give you the flexibility to set up variant campaigns to test what works best for your business.
There’s never been a better time to invest in content (YouTube is cheaper than ever), experiment with ads (more people are online), and learn from the data (you might discover an audience you didn’t know you had).
Video ads are a powerful way to showcase and communicate your products or services to potential customers. They’re also a great way to drive leads and growth through PPC campaigns.
Experts are more in tune than ever with different platforms and the audience groups they attract, rather than focusing on just driving content. As the landscape changes, marketers need to find new ways to create the right kinds of video campaigns to resonate with their target segments.
So this week on episode 20 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to two experienced video ad gurus, who shared their rich experience and insights with our audience:
Joe Martinez, Director of Client Services at Clix Marketing
Cory Henke, Founder and CEO of Variable Media
As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.
Here are 5 insights to help you deploy effective and powerful video ads.
1. Hook your audience in the first 5 seconds
Joe: For me, the message in the first 5 seconds of a video can have more impact than anything else. What is the narrator or character trying to convey? For people like me, who listen to YouTube while working, the first five seconds of any ad will trigger me to pay attention to it. So that message is going to be extremely important.
Make sure that your logo is visible so that even if your audience is paying attention or skips the ad, they will see the brand name.
2. Look at audience intent rather than channel
Joe: If you have a limited budget and have a specific goal in mind with your campaign, it’s always important to optimize to whatever is working. Think about whether you would want your content shown on a particular channel.
We’ve seen people converting from a music channel because we focus on a very customer-intent audience rather than the type of channel. Now, if a customer is looking for SaaS products, we’re targeting them and not the placement or the channel.
Be proactive. If you think your audience isn’t on certain channels, then block those. You can get help from several exclusion lists created to guide you better.
3. Target wisely for a TV-only campaign
Joe: Looking specifically at a TV-only campaign, your ad’s performance depends on the various targeting options. Even if you don’t see a spike in the initial days, keep watching as the percentage of people watching your ads on TV increases gradually.
Go back to check your initial targeting options and whether you’ve been remarketing to the same audience. If your targeting is specific, try to expand it to check if that gives you the exposure you want on TV.
4. Drive your ads through IGTV
Cory: On Instagram, the areas that are most promotable are the stories and the newsfeed. The areas that you can’t advertise are IGTV and live streams. And that is where, we believe, we get the most organic reach for our videos.
Now, the trouble with IGTV lies in promoting it. How do you get people to see it? That’s one of the most difficult things with long-form videos. To help increase your view count, run your long-form video ads on Facebook.
Another way would be to take the IGTV videos and embed them into a webpage. You can use the URLs to guide users onto your Instagram with a call to action like ‘Watch now’.
5. Don’t neglect lead forms
Cory: We focus on CPC as that shows how the audience engages with the content rather than just visiting the website or channel. It shows how much impact the ads could have, especially when there isn’t much of a lead flow.
Don’t forget to test your bid types. We think that one of the biggest variables to look at is Target CPS vs Maximized Conversions. That’s great to potentially find some more lead volume that could help you decide what works for the audience better.
Keep an eye on the engagement with the lead form and experiment with your call-to-action.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of video ads is because they’re so easy to consume. With the way the world is right now, it’s no surprise people prefer video content over other types. The surging popularity of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok (for now) is a testament to the balance of power shifting towards video ads.
While it’s definitely not easy to succeed with such a dynamic ad type, marketers need to be mindful of audience interests, broadcasting channels and mediums, and content type.
Go a step further to cater to your target audience by customizing your very own exclusion list. Start by checking out Joe and Clix’s list of over 1,400 children’s YouTube channels to exclude from your campaigns.
People use the moving picture to sway opinion, win hearts, and tell stories. In a marketing setting, it brings consumers as close to a brand or product as the online experience will allow.
But video continues to be ignored by many businesses for a variety of reasons
“It’s expensive.”
“We don’t have the resources.”
“Our target audience isn’t on YouTube.”
All these misconceptions were dismantled this week during episode 12 of PPC Town Hall, where we discussed the intricacies of YouTube (and video in general) with:
Joe Martinez, Director of Client Strategy at Clix Marketing (email, Twitter)
Cory Henke, Founder and CEO of Variable Media (email, Twitter)
As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.
Here are five tips from our panelists on how to use YouTube and video to drive growth and learning.
1. Exclude ads from content you don’t want to show for.
Joe: In terms of content exclusions, we’ve seen really good hand-curated lists from other marketers. I’ve created one that stops your ads from running on channels geared towards children; others have created exclusion lists for news, political and controversial channels.
So there are options if you don’t want to run your ads on specific types of content. Some of the ad formats, like TrueView discovery campaigns, give advertisers greater control. They let you limit yourself to targeting just YouTube search results; you don’t have to be a pre-roll or in-stream ad all the time.
2. Use the data to learn about your audience.
Cory: When you start to find different channels and videos that work well, that’s a key insight into your consumer — you see the videos they watch after your ad play. One advertiser we worked with had a baby product that was not really succeeding on YouTube.
What we found was that the minimal conversions that happened all came before hurricane-related news content. We saw that was driving conversions, and we learned that it was a fear-based action. Before people watch hurricane content, they’re in a heightened state of awareness or fear; serving something that could potentially help your future child play into that mood.
3. Try out the YouTube Video Builder.
Joe: For me, there’s no longer an excuse for a brand to not be on YouTube. It no longer matters if you don’t have someone with video editing skills or high-value assets because Google basically takes your visuals and does the work for you.
There are dozens of templates based on what you want to promote — product, service, mobile app. When you pick a template you like, it shows you what images you need, as well as the format and sizes for those images. I did a few demos of my own to show some clients. For a free tool, it’s very good.
Get Access: Opt into the beta of YouTube Video Builderhere.
4. Learn from skippable and non-skippable video ads.
Cory: Non-skippable ads usually drive very high CPCs with high completion rates; with a 15-second interstitial ad, you usually get a completion rate similar to a bumper ad. I think you’ll find people who are willing to watch your ad until the end, but not necessarily willing to click through and find out more.
So it’s kind of like a brand placement. I like it, but it’s harder to learn from.
With a skippable ad where you don’t pay for a user until 30 seconds, there’s a lot you can learn in that time — and greater scope to optimize these ads to make them more effective. With a skippable ad, there’s also unlimited time; your ad can be 10 seconds or 40 minutes. That variation lets you learn what your customers want to see from your future video content.
We could take this episode of PPC Town Hall and run it as a skippable ad, and compare it to another episode that we also promote similarly. You would know which users are willing to stay longer versus who ends the video early, and you might even see a link between that and who’s in the video.
We ran a test for a client’s 20-minute yoga ad where we used two versions with a black male and a white female to see what people would respond to. We also created a funny version and a more serious one. The white female version had better CTR and CPC, as did the serious version. What we learned from that is who to put on the next Instagram post or in-feed ad. The goal is to present that variation at the beginning of the video to maximize your learning.
5. Repurpose video beyond YouTube.
Joe: It’s absolutely worth doing video — especially if you’re budget-conscious — because it goes so much further than just YouTube.
You can use videos in responsive display ads, in your universal app campaigns and engagement display ads, in your Gmail ads. Or use video to really boost other campaigns and awareness; it’s still video views we can create audiences from to do remarketing with fresh video content.
To do this, you’ll need to optimize your videos for different online platforms and purposes. And make sure to use good video editing software for your needs to edit your videos quickly and professionally without breaking the bank.
Remember that different video formats work best on different digital platforms, so it’s important to optimize them properly when you’re repurposing this content outside of YouTube.
You don’t have to make a video and use it once on YouTube when there are ways to enhance your other paid media campaigns within Google.
Must Read:Check out Joe’s adviceon how to use YouTube to power your non-video Google campaigns.
Conclusion
YouTube advertising is all about two things: freedom and flexibility.
You have the freedom to present your product, service, app, or brand in a way that offers something different from search, display, and shopping campaigns.
At the same time, different ad formats and product innovations give you the flexibility to set up variant campaigns to test what works best for your business.
There’s never been a better time to invest in content (YouTube is cheaper than ever), experiment with ads (more people are online), and learn from the data (you might discover an audience you didn’t know you had).
