YouTube Ads vs TV….How Do These Platforms Compare?
Carlos Scarpero — December 6, 2016 Follow @mr_leads— December 6, 2016
Have you considered running ads on YouTube?
In the past, TV was the only way to reach a mass audience.
Not anymore!
In this post, I will outline some reasons why you want to add YouTube to your advertising arsenal.
Here’s a tutorial video that I made on this topic:
YouTube, which is owned by Google, offers several ways for you to get your message out there. YouTube advertising is done through Google’s Adwords program.
Stats about YouTube
YouTube reaches more 18-49 year olds than any cable channel.
Over 1 billion people have watched a video on YouTube.
Nearly 5 billion YouTube videos are viewed every day.
Top YouTube celebrities get millions of views per month, rivaling the audience of many TV shows.
Over 10,000 videos on YouTube have reached a billion views.
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/
The audience is there, so how do you reach them?
So, as you can see from the stats above, there’s obviously an audience that can be reached.
Here’s where it gets interesting. With YouTube, you have much more control over who sees your advertisement. You can send it to only the interested parties, which will make your advertising much more effective.
Image via entrepreneur.com
YouTube Targeting Options
One of the clear advantages of YouTube is you can do extensive targeting.
Some of the targeting options are:
Geographic
With YouTube, you can target down to the zip code. Unlike TV, you are no longer required to target an entire 15 county region. For a business, like a restaurant that primarily serves customers near their location, this can lead to a much more efficient use of advertising budgets.
Demographic
YouTube has amazing demographic targeting available. You can target the user’s age, sex, income, and viewing habits. You can even target people that have been to your website, viewed your videos or are on your email list. The possibilities are endless!
When you add in keyword and specific placement targeting, you will be able to hone into your ideal customer and have very effective marketing!
Stacking
One of the annoyances with TV advertising is stacking. They don’t show one commercial. They show multiple commercials over a period of 5 minutes. This gives the viewer lots of time to get a snack, change the channel or check email.
However, with YouTube, it’s just one commercial at a time. They are going to see it and have the opportunity to take action!
Immediate trackable action
Another great advantage of YouTube advertising is the ability to take immediate action. With TV, the user might remember the phone number or website or might not. With YouTube, the link is immediately available for the customer to contact the business. This creates a much more achievable ROI.
Video length
One of the great advantages of YouTube is there’s no restriction on video length. With TV, you are stuck with either a 30 or 60 second commercial, which doesn’t give enough information about the business.
The other option on TV is the full length infomercial, which can be terribly expensive.
With YouTube, none of these problems exist. A 5 to 10 minute video can be something as simple as the business owner giving some quick tips via a webcam. As long as the tips are useful, it can go a long way toward helping the business get more customers.
With this advantage, a smart way to market on YouTube is to create some informative videos about your topic.
For example, a hospital can create informative videos that alleviate common concerns that first time mothers have. They could then target this advertising on videos that a first time mother might watch: baby names, parenting tips, crib selection, etc.
A dentist could create a video about different dental options available and when a type of pain can be a reason to come in to the dentist. Just like above, they can use targeting to target people that are searching out this type of information.
A roofer can talk about the dangers in the roofing industry, how to file for insurance claims and other tips related to roofing.
An insurance agent can talk about types of insurance, scams out there and what deductibles are needed. Just like above, she can use the targeting options to find people who are most likely to be interested in viewing the content.
An auto sales company can use YouTube to talk about the different types of cars that are available, new safety features or how to get financing.
All of these are useful content that will get shared. All of these examples are types of content that will drive customers to your business, but will be way to expensive to produce through a traditional TV ad.
Types of ads on YouTube
These are several different types of ads that you can purchase on YouTube. One of the great things about using YouTube ads is you only need to pay when the viewer has watched the ad for 30 seconds or longer or clicks over to your website.
The image below shows two of the most common types of ads that you can purchase: in-stream and in-display.
Image by Traffic-Builders.com
Click here for a full list of the types of ads that you can use on YouTube.
Here’s a great video from Digital Marketer that explains what the different ad types are, when to use each type and examples of how other companies have utilized each type of ad.
As you can see, there are many options for running YouTube ads. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.
How to do YouTube Ads correctly
Like any type of advertising, it’s important that you have good, professional advice so that you can do it right and do it effectively.
You need to understand what you are doing, why you are doing it and how it leads to your sales. You also need to understand how to track your results and have a follow up system so you can advertise effectively.
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