Introduction to YouTube

YouTube was created by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim as a video sharing website on which users could upload, share, and view videos. YouTube was officially activated on 14 February 2005. YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Since then, YouTube has grown by leaps and bounds to 1.3 billion active viewers. Every minute, we have more than 300 hours of video being uploaded on YouTube. Every day, there are almost 5 billion videos being watched on YouTube. In India, more than 180 million viewers watch YouTube only on mobile devices.

The Tamil movie star Dhanush realised that a disgruntled employee of his production house had leaked a recorded song titled "Kolaveri Di" from his movie on YouTube. This unauthorised release put him in a spot as the music rights of the movie had been sold to Sony Music India. To take control of the situation, Sony Music shot a four minute video of Dhanush singing "Kolaveri Di" at A.R. Rahman's studio in Chennai. It was all done within half an hour and the video was uploaded on YouTube.

The video got four million views on YouTube in four days and 19 million views in three weeks. It got 6.5 million shares on Facebook. Within two months, the video had registered over 46.5 million views on YouTube and was downloaded by more than 2 million people using their mobile phones. Having garnered over 45 million views so far, "Kolaveri Di" had made Dhanush a household name and proved that YouTube can play a key role in viral marketing.

Sujoy Ghosh, the acclaimed movie director, decided to make a short 14 minute thriller movie titled "Ahalya" and released it on YouTube. The movie got critical appreciation for the actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Radhika Apte and attained huge popularity. More than 20 lakh people watched the movie in four days.

Video marketing is gaining momentum with each passing day. A research done by Syndacast has forecast that 74 per cent of all internet traffic will now comprise of video. The same study indicated that using the word "video" in the subject line of an email can increase open rates by 19 per cent, click-through rates by 65 per cent and reduce unsubscribers by 26 per cent. Twitter has also confirmed that videos are getting more Retweets (RT) than normal Tweets.

YouTube Advertising Strategy

Video ads run on YouTube and across the web through the Google Display Network. With more than 1 billion users, YouTube is available in 70+ countries and 60+ languages, and offers rich content from all over the world. The Display Network reaches over 90 per cent of internet users worldwide through 2 million sites and apps (source: ComScore).

By targeting video ads on YouTube and the Display Network, the company can advertise to consumers at moments that matter. With a wide variety of targeting methods available to the company such as demographic groups, interests, placements, and remarketing lists, they can reach specific or niche audiences based on who they are, what they're interested in, and what content they're viewing.

YouTube helps in digital marketing in the following ways:

• To create a video campaign

• To connect with the target audience

• You can use AdWords conversion tracking to track and convert the number of people who click on a video ad.

The steps of YouTube marketing strategy are given in the following diagram:

1. Create the Video

The video should start with a small introduction explaining the viewer how they are going to be benefitted by watching the video. The video should have some kind of a compelling value proposition to make the viewer watch till the end, and also forward the same to others. The video should end with a recap, conclusion and advice in the form of recommendation or a reason to buy the product or service. It is better to add a call to action (CTA) in the end. A call to action (CTA) is a prompt statement on a website that tells the user to take some specified action. A call to action is typically written as a command, such as "Sign Up" or "Buy Now" and generally takes the form of a button or hyperlink.

The ideal length of a YouTube Video is around three minutes. The less the length of the the more will be the CTR (Click-through Rate). CTR is the number of clicks that the ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown:

CTR (Click-through rate)= No of clicks received / Impression (Number of times the video is displayed)

For example, if you had 5 clicks and 1,000 impressions, then your CTR would be 0.5 per cent. 

YouTube supports different video formats like Mov, Mpeg, Avi, Wmv, Flv, 3gp and WebMYouTube recommended video resolutions for quality and search optimisation are:

2. Optimise the Video

More than 300 hours of video content is uploaded on YouTube every hour. More than 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day. So, there is a fair chance that your video might get lost in the crowd if it is not optimised. Hence, video optimisation is a key step before uploading the same on YouTube.

The first step is to optimise the video's metadata. Metadata is the data that serves to provide context or additional information about other data. This can be the title, subject, author, typeface, enhancements, and size of the data file of a document which constitutes metadata about that document. It may, also, describe the conditions under which the data stored in a database was acquired, its accuracy, date, time, method of compilation and processing, etc. Providing the right information in your video's metadata will help to ensure that it is properly indexed by YouTube and appears when people are searching for videos like yours.

The next step in optimisation is tagging. Using tags is a way to associate your video with similar videos, broadening its reach. When tagging videos, tag your most important keywords first and try to include a good mix of more common keywords and long tail keywords. The other strategic option is to put subtitles. Subtitles and closed captions help viewers, and also help to optimise your video for search by giving you another opportunity to highlight important keywords. You can also add cards to create bigger emphasis. Cards are small, rectangular notifications that appear in the top, right-hand corner of both desktop and mobile screens. You can include up to five cards per video, but if you're including multiple cards, be sure to space them out evenly to give viewers time to take the desired action.

While uploading the video in YouTube, you need to choose the video category. This can be done from "Advanced Settings". Video categories help to group your video with related content on the platform. YouTube allows you to sort your video into one of the following categories: Film & Animation, Autos & Vehicles, Music, Pets & Animals, Sports, Travel & Events, Gaming, People & Blogs, Comedy, Entertainment, News & Politics, How to & Style, Educations, Science & Technology, and Non-profits & Activism.

3. Choose the Video Ad Format

There are several types of ad formats in YouTube. Some of them are given below:

1. YouTube In-Stream Ads

Most YouTube videos have ads either at the beginning of the video (these can be skippable or non-skippable) or in the middle of the video. These are called pre-roll and mid-roll ads, but they are also known as in-stream ads.

a) Skippable video ads

Skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds, if they choose. They are inserted before, during or after the main video. 

b) Non-skippable video ads

Non-skippable video ads must be watched before your video can be viewed. Long non-skippable video ads may be up to 30 seconds long.  They are inserted before, during or after the main video. 

In-Stream Ads are great for encouraging viewers to check out your content, and they're also great at breaking up the monotony of watching long videos on repeat.

You can also customize these ads with your own branding and messaging, which makes them a great option if you have multiple products or services to promote.

2. In-feed YouTube Ads

In-feed YouTube ads put your brand in front of your audience's eyes. How? They identify what your audience is watching and strategically place your ad in their own feeds so they can find you without even noticing.

In-feed YouTube Ads often appear on a viewer’s recommended and home pages. Their main goal tends to be featuring different products in order to directly generate sales, but they can also be used for different lead generation or brand awareness campaigns

3. Discovery Ads

Discovery ads offer another form of in-stream ads. These ads appear in the viewer’s YouTube Home feed, Watch feed, and Search feed. For example, you may search “cooking tutorial” only to find a sponsored recipe at the top of the list.

With these ads, you can place your content in front of those already searching for similar videos.

4.YouTube Display Ads

Display ads consist of an image that runs across the top of your screen while you're watching a video on YouTube. These images may include text and links that allow viewers to click through to take an action such as visiting an advertiser's website or signing up for their newsletter.

5. Overlay Ads

Overlay ads are some of the most common types of ad space on YouTube. They appear over the video's leading content and can be either horizontal or vertical in format.

Why are overlay ads important? Well, one of their main advantages is that they are free.

That's right, you don't have to pay anything extra for these ads. It's part of YouTube's service for anyone who wants to use them. That means these ads are often used as a way to promote products or services, and they're great for increasing brand awareness.

4. Video Ad Types/Google TrueView: 

Google's TrueView is built on the strategy that the advertiser will only pay when someone chooses to watch their video ad.

With Google True View, viewers and advertisers get a choice that is win-win. Viewers see videos they are curious about, and advertisers get more views from an audience that they know is interested. And, since advertisers choose what they want to pay for a view, advertisers get the right audience at the right price.

TrueView ads are opt in, so you aren't restricted by time limits. This means you have the freedom to experiment with creative formats try a longer product demo, testimonial or how-to video demonstrating your product in action. With True View you can take the time to tell your story.

a) TrueView In-Stream

In-stream ads play before or during another video from a YouTube partner. Viewers see five seconds of your video and then have the choice to keep watching or skip it. Advertisers pay only when a viewer watches for at least 30 seconds or till the end of the video (whichever is shorter) or clicks on a card or other elements of an in-stream creative.

b) TrueView Video Discovery

Video discovery ads appear alongside other YouTube videos, in YouTube search pages, or on websites on the Google Display Network that match your target audience. Advertisers pay only when a viewer chooses to watch the video by clicking on the ad.

5. Target Audience

Video ads run on YouTube and across the web through the Google Display Network. With more than 1 billion users, YouTube is available in 70+ countries and 60+ languages, and offers rich content from all over the world. The Display Network reaches over 90 per cent of internet users worldwide through 2 million sites and apps (source: ComScore).

By targeting your video ads on YouTube and the Display Network, you can advertise to consumers at moments that matter. With a wide variety of targeting methods available to you, such as demographic groups, interests, placements, and remarketing lists, you can reach specific or niche audiences based on who they are, what they're interested in, and what content they're viewing.

There are several methods that you can use for targeting your video ads. These targeting methods are added at the ad group level. It's important to know that with each targeting method you add, you narrow, not widen, your targeting. There are mainly two types of targeting methods Audience Targeting Method and Content Targeting Method. 

a) Audience Targeting Method

Audience targeting method lets you define who you want to reach. These include:

i) Demographic groups

You can choose the age, gender, parental status, or household income of the audience you want to reach.

ii) Interests

You can pick from available audience categories to reach people interested in certain topics, even when they may be visiting pages about other topics.

iii) Affinity audiences

You can raise brand awareness and drive consideration with your video ads by reaching out to people who already have a strong interest in relevant topics.

iv) Custom affinity audiences

With custom affinity audiences, you can create audiences that are more tailored to your brands, compared to our broad, TV-like affinity audiences. For example, rather than reaching sports fans, a running shoe company may want to reach avid marathon runners instead.

v) In-market audiences

You can select from the in-market audiences to find customers who are researching products and actively considering buying a service or product like those you offer.

vi) Video remarketing

Through video remarketing, you can reach viewers based on their past interactions with your videos,

TrueView ads or YouTube channel. If you've linked your YouTube account to your AdWords account already, we will create custom lists for you automatically.

b) Content Targeting Methods

Content targeting methods let you define where you want your ads to show. These include:

i) Placements

You can target unique channels, videos, apps, websites, or placements within websites. For example, you can target an entire high traffic blog or just the home page of a popular news site. Placements can include:

• YouTube Channels

• YouTube Videos

• Websites on the Display Network

• Apps on the Display Network

Note: When you add Display Network placements, your ad may still run in all eligible locations on YouTube. And, when you add YouTube placements, your ad may still run in all eligible locations across the Display Network.

c) Topics

You can target your video ads to specific topics on YouTube and the Display Network. Topic targeting lets you reach a broad range of videos, channels, and websites related to the topics you select. For example, if you target the "Automotive" topic, then your ad will show on YouTube to people watching videos about cars.

d) Keywords

Depending on your video ad format, you can show your video ads based on words or phrases - keywords - related to a YouTube video, YouTube channel, or type of website that your audience is interested in.

6. Choose the Budget

The YouTube promotion budget is determined based on business goals, i.e., whether you are targeting to get clicks, impressions, conversions or views. YouTube allows bidding strategy as per business goals. In the case of video ads, the bidding strategy used is Cost-PerView (CPV) bidding. With CPV bidding, you'll pay for video views and other video interactions, such as clicks on the calls to action overlay (CTA), cards, and companion banners. You just enter the highest price you want to pay for a view while setting up your True View video campaign.

In COST-PER-VIEW (CPV) bidding, the advertiser has to pay only for video or interactions. The interactions can be in the form of action overlays, cards and companion banners. The advertiser will be billed if the target customer watches at least 30 seconds of the video or the complete duration if the ad length is less than 30 seconds.

The CPV bid is done in the form of MAX CPV or maximum CPV bid. This is the highest amount that the advertiser wishes to pay per view.

Max. CPV bid is the most you will be charged for a video view, but you won't always be charged this maximum amount. Google will charge the advertiser only what's necessary for the ad to appear on the page. The final amount the advertiser will actually pay for a view is called the actual CPV. Actual CPV is often less than max. CPV because with the AdWords auction, the advertiser pays no more than what's needed to rank higher than the advertiser immediately below him/her.

Two elements affect the actual CPV the advertiser has to pay: Quality Score and AdRank. The Quality Score is a measure of how relevant your ad is to a customer, and includes multiple performance factors like view rates. Once the Quality Score is determined, it's multiplied by the max CPV bid to rank the ads among other advertisers. That's called AdRank.

Once all ads have been ranked, the actual CPV for the ad is based on an equation that considers the AdRank of the bidder below you and your Quality Score. The highest ranked ad wins, and the cost for a video view of this ad (the actual CPV) will be just above the CPV bid of the next ranking ad.

The max. CPV bid you set helps determine your ad's chances of winning the auction and appearing to viewers. For TrueView video discovery ads running on YouTube search results, it can also affect your ad's position among other ads on the search results page. A higher max. CPV will increase your ad's chances of appearing, and increase your ad's chances of appearing in a higher position compared to other ads, if applicable.

7. Uploading the Video

There are certain steps to be followed to upload the final video ad on YouTube. First of all, you need to sign into your YouTube account. Then, you need to click on “Upload" at the top of the page. Before you start uploading the video you can chose the video privacy settings. Select the video you'd like to upload from your computer. You can also create a video slide show or import a video from Google Photos.

As the video is uploading you can edit both the basic information and the advanced settings of the video, and decide if you want to notify subscribers (if you uncheck this option no communication will be shared with your subscribers). Partners will also be able to adjust their Monetisation settings.

Click "Publish" to finish uploading a public video to YouTube. If you set the video privacy setting to "Private" or "Unlisted", just click "Done" to finish the upload or click "Share" to privately share your video.

If you haven't clicked "Publish", your video won't be viewable by other people. You can always publish your video at a later time in your Video Manager. Once the upload is completed, Google will send you an email to notify you that your video is done uploading and processing.

Once the video has finished uploading, it will need to spend some time processing on YouTube's servers before it is ready for viewing online. You will be able to watch it process at the top of the page. Once it reaches 100 per cent, you will see a link at the top of the screen that you can click to view your video. Alternatively, you can always find your videos by clicking on your username at the top left of the page and then choosing "Videos" (which may be labeled as "My Videos" for some accounts). This will let you access all the videos you have uploaded.

8. Remarketing

By using remarketing, the advertiser can show personalised ads to millions of viewers across YouTube and video partner sites, based on their past interactions with their videos or YouTube channel. This is known as "video remarketing". By reinforcing the message with people who have already seen your videos or channel, you're more likely to succeed in increasing your return on investment. There are several benefits of video remarketing. They are:

a) Improved ROI

Advertisers who use remarketing on YouTube have improved their return on investment (ROI) by showing video ads to people interested in their product or service.

b) Broader scope

With YouTube's vast network, your video ad can reach potential customers on your remarketing list.

c) Efficient pricing

The AdWords auction model offers competitive rates that meet your target ROI. With CPV bidding, you will pay for video views and other video interactions, such as clicks on the call to action overlays (CTAs), cards, and companion banners.

d) Flexibility

Website remarketing (also known as "remessaging" or "retargeting") is based on visitors' actions on a website. You can remarket based on actions specific to your YouTube videos, including when viewers like, dislike, comment on, and share your video.

Working Mechanism of Video Remarketing

Remarketing lists are created by first linking your YouTube account to your AdWords account. Once you link accounts, you can create remarketing lists that reach people who have done the following YouTube related actions:

• Viewed any video from a channel

• Visited a channel page

• Viewed any video (as an ad) from a channel

• Liked any video from a channel

• Commented on any video from a channel

• Shared any video from a channel

• Subscribed to a channel

• Added any video from a channel to a playlist

• Viewed certain video(s)

• Viewed certain video(s) as ad(s)

You can then use these lists in your target settings for new or existing campaigns. Manage your lists anytime in the "Audiences" section of the Shared library. However, please remember that video remarketing lists cannot be created from views of bumper ads.

For "Initial list size", you can either pull list members from the last 30 days of activity on your channel, or start fresh. If you have multiple YouTube channels, you can link more than one YouTube channel to your AdWords account. While you can create several lists per channel, you can't use the same list on multiple channels.

Creating the YouTube Channel

A YouTube channel is a dedicated space on YouTube where a brand can promote his videos and gain subscribers. When you become a YouTube member, YouTube assigns a personal channel to you. The channel has divisions designed to display a short personal description, thumbnails of videos you have uploaded, members to whom you have subscribed, videos from other members you have picked as favourites, lists of members who are your friends and subscribers, and a section where other people can comment on your channel.

YouTube channel has several benefits. It is free. It costs nothing to start a YouTube channel. You can drive targeted traffic to your website with every video. If you can consistently produce great video content that entertains and informs your audience, then you can attract a loyal following of viewers on YouTube. You can also monetise your video content on YouTube and turn it into a moneymaking channel as well.

With a Google account, you can watch and like videos and subscribe to channels. However, without a YouTube channel, you have no public presence on YouTube. Even if you have a Google account, you need to create a YouTube channel to upload videos, comment, or make playlists. You can use a computer or the YouTube mobile site to create a new channel.

How to Create a Personal YouTube Channel

To create a personal YouTube channel, you need to sign in to YouTube on a computer or using the mobile site. If you don't yet have a channel, you will see a prompt to create a channel. You can create a channel with a business or other name. You can use a brand account to create a channel that has a different name, but that's still managed from your Google Account.

You can create a YouTube channel for a brand account that you already manage by choosing the brand account. If this brand account already has a channel, you can't create a new one - you will just be switched over to that channel if you select the brand account from the list. 

The final step to making money out of your YouTube channel, involves promoting your channel on all the social media platforms, gaining more viewership and traffic through ads and shares to your channel. You also need to check out your video analytics to see the number of views, ad performance, minutes watched, age group of people who've watched it, etc., so that you know if your content is reaching your target audience and further, if you need to change anything.

The next step is to set up a Google AdSense account and link it to your YouTube account. This is the most important step, as it allows you to collect your revenue. YouTube will then pay for per ad click and per view. This works well for you when your video gets more and more views, because this leads to more potential of ad clicks and this further leads to more revenue. Although AdSense can be downloaded for free, the revenue can only be received if you have a bank or PayPal account and a valid, physical mailing address.

But at the end of the day, content is king and you need to have some really good videos for the people to watch and love.

Optimising Strategies for YouTube Marketing Campaign

If you find that your video ad's view rate is lower than ads in your other campaigns, you can adjust your campaigns for a higher view rate. If your cost-per-view (CPV) is higher than your target CPV and you are willing to reach a broader audience, try adjusting to a lower CPV. If you are not achieving your click-through rate (CTR) or CPV goals (and are paying much less), you can consider increasing your CPV or CTR.

Understand that users come to YouTube to learn, watch and be entertained. As such, create videos that feature original content. You are the expert on your industry, product or service. Try creating videos that teach and engage the YouTube community on your expertise. Keep your message simple and concise. A good benchmark is to try to keep your video to two minutes or less.

Use the audience retention report to see which parts of videos keep your users most engaged. Based upon user engagement data, optimise your video content to keep users watching. Update your content on a regular basis. The YouTube users who have been successful keep their message fresh with regular updates to their channel. Read user comments on your own and similar video and channel pages for ideas.