As a result of Covid-19, our daily lives have changed dramatically and as a result we face new challenges everyday. While we practise social distancing and staying at home, normal day to day activities such as working and shopping have come to a halt for the time being. This means businesses across the globe are having to deal with reduced working hours and staff while they review their own activities to make sure they are spending their money wisely and in the interest of their business. Luckily as the second biggest search engine in the world, YouTube means that there are a number of opportunities for businesses big and small to generate interest and sales through the platform. We are gaining new knowledge on a daily basis through Google’s new daily webinar series which aims to give Google Advertising experts such as ourselves a chance to keep on top of the current situation, learn and understand new trends all the while learning new tips and tricks that we can use for our clients in the short and long-term. 

In this latest article we answer the question “What should you know about YouTube Advertising in 2020 and how to maximise these opportunities”:

1- Youtube as a platform is going to keep growing

We all want to reach as many potential customers as possible but there is only so much time and money to be allocated and spent in a month. With limited resources people have to prioritise and often overlook certain channels and platforms as a result. But in 2020, having a diversified digital marketing strategy means you can broaden your reach and speak to many more people than normal. Youtube and video advertising is an option that should be seriously considered. By 2021, 80% of internet traffic will be coming from video while among the Gen Z generation, Youtube is already their most visited website. Now is the time to start focusing on Youtube more seriously so when things shift even more in the direction of video advertising, you can be ready to draw from this market.

2- Youtube Advertising is becoming more data-driven than ever before

In the earlier days of Youtube video advertising, success was a loosely determined statistic measured by things like impressions and views. It was difficult to know for sure how successful your videos were and challenging to communicate to clients and partners what impact exactly video was having. Nowadays, with the launch of Youtube for Action, ‘success’ can be measured and understood in a much more concrete way. The metrics currently available such as Brand Lift 2.0, clicks, conversions and store visits allow us to track success in more ways than we could have before and we can now understand more deeply the impact our video ads have which is always a plus. After all, what you can measure, you can manage.

3- The importance of creatives

According to Google experts, approximately 50% of the performance of your Youtube ads will be down to your creatives. Youtube creatives have a 95% viewability rate and 95% audibility rate vs the industry standard of 66% which means you are all but guaranteed for your ads to get the full attention of whomever comes across them. With the new active story arc structure that people are implementing, it means you can get down to brass tacks outlining a problem statement, your product/service’s USPs, and calls-to-action with subtle brand cues throughout. You no longer have to start slow like traditional tv ads. It’s best to catch the viewer’s attention in the first 5 seconds.

4- You don’t need a big budget to utilise Youtube for Action.

For those out there lucky enough to have contact with a Google rep on a consistent basis, you can send them an existing ad you may have produced for a tv audience and they will help you adapt the video to be more actionable for Youtube. Though this is not a replacement for a creative agency, there is a recent development by Google to help businesses of all sizes get set up with creatives through a creative agency. If you visit Youtube.com/ads, you can find creative agencies in your locality who have helped businesses produce videos from budgets of as little as €10 up to €20k. Due to the action-driven nature of Youtube ads, even those with a small budget can produce campaigns that convert at a reasonable cost per action.

5- Youtube ads are comparatively efficient and cost-effective.

During the purchasing process there is the opportunity to reach customers at various touchpoints across multiple channels. Not only is it important for this reason to have a presence on Youtube, but also because of the cost effectiveness of this channel and the benefits you can get by adding a channel like this to your marketing channels. A case study was done by Google with dutch bike shop Fietsenwinkel.nl who managed to improve their brand awareness by 115% with Youtube ads. Even better, compared to their search and shopping advertising channels, they were able to lower their cost/sale by 73%.

At the end of the day, we all have limited time and money, so if you want to spend yours wisely, try experimenting with Youtube advertising campaigns this year.