Deciding Whether or Not to
Advertise on YouTube
Regardless of whether you’re very tech-savvy or active on social media, you’ve probably heard of YouTube. Very few people don’t know all about it or at least the basic concept behind it. It is a place where you can share videos, whether you’re sitting in the basement creating content with virtually no budget or you represent a major company, and you’re putting out movie trailers and so forth.
If you have a company and you’re trying to think of ways to advertise, you might consider social media in general and YouTube specifically. In this article, we’ll talk about whether or not you might advertise on the platform. Doing so can certainly help many businesses and entities, but it’s not necessarily for everyone.
Some YouTube Advertising Pros
Many companies find YouTube advertising worthwhile, and that’s because if you run an ad next to some specific content, it’s pretty likely someone will interact with it. If you use YouTube for promotional purposes, you can have your ads appear randomly, but it’s helpful to set up more targeted marketing. For instance, you might set up a system where your ads appear next to videos that connect with them in some way.
If the products or services your company offers would interest someone who watches a particular video, it makes sense to feature those ads there. Say that you have someone watching videos about cooking meats in a smoker. If your company makes and sells smokers or grills, you should probably run the ad there since you’ll likely interest that potential customer.
You can also create ads for YouTube that connect with your potential buyers in memorable ways. That has less to do with ad placement and more with writing the ad.
If you can write ads that connect with someone watching through humor, that might convince them to buy. Maybe your ad works because it’s tapping into natural human sentimentality. Whatever ad you write, you should make sure to run it by some focus groups to get feedback before you release it to a wider YouTube audience.
Additional YouTube Advertising Perks
Aside from all that, you can create YouTube ads that showcase your company in a way that explains what you mean to the community you serve. You might make ads that feature products and services less and focus more on you giving back to a community through outreach efforts. Some potential customers will respond to that better.
YouTube remains somewhat unique among social media platforms because you can create long or short-form content. You can easily create a thirty-second ad similar to a TV commercial and feature it on the platform. However, you can also create long-form content if you think you can capture the public’s attention long enough that they will watch to the end.
If you can connect with your audience meaningfully through a thoughtful and creative YouTube spot, it’s highly likely the watcher will remember your company, products, and services afterward. The longer you can get them to watch, the more likely they’ll buy from you. It’s ultimately that conversion you want, and launching the right YouTube ad campaign can absolutely do that for you.
Sometimes, putting the camera on yourself and simply talking about what your products and services can do for the buyer works best. If you come across as likable and sincere, that might work more than a big-budget ad with tons of special effects. Instead, you might use an ad that shows the factory making your products, your workers putting the finishing touches on them, the trucks or planes delivering them to stores, and more.
Potential YouTube Advertising Negatives
Now, let’s talk about some potential drawbacks if you’re thinking about creating a YouTube ad campaign. With most advertising, people not wanting to engage with the content can wreck a promising campaign. For example, if you make a TV commercial and someone does not want to watch it, they might change the channel instead of sitting through it.
If you want to make sure someone watches an ad, you must make sure they’re a captive audience. Putting ads in front of feature movies at movie theaters does that. A person who already bought a ticket and who’s waiting for the movie to begin can’t very well change the channel. They must sit and watch the commercials you decide to show before the film starts.
With YouTube, you can put an ad before some content that someone wants to watch, but if they’re dead set on not watching that ad, they might go to a different YouTube channel to get away from it. YouTube user studies indicate that does happen sometimes.
People often try not to watch long-form ad content on YouTube or anywhere else they encounter it. That’s why you’re potentially better off sticking to shorter ads on the platform if you want to increase the odds that someone watches it.
Also, if you play the same ad content too many times on the same channel, someone might feel bored by it and switch to another channel because of it. If you’re going to keep the watcher’s interest, you’re better off coming up with several different ads so you can mix things up.
Some watchers don’t necessarily have enough bandwidth to watch YouTube channels. If this concerns you, you might do some research before creating a YouTube ad campaign to see what demographic will likely see that content.
If you discover that not enough individuals from your target audience can watch what you create, it is probably not cost-effective to use this platform. You might use another social media option, or perhaps a radio spot or TV commercial will serve you better.
YouTube ads help many companies, but you should only create an ad campaign on this platform if you feel confident enough of your target audience members will watch it. You should also make sure you have enough in your marketing budget to create compelling YouTube ads.
