When it comes to monetizing your YouTube channel, there are all sorts of options for raking in revenue from your content. However, running YouTube ads can be a great way to get your channel in front of new audiences while boosting leads for your business–translating to even more income. But what’s considered an “effective” YouTube ad–and how do you create them? Let’s dive into the details so you can give yourself every chance of success!
What Makes a YouTube Ad “Successful”?
In running a business, or even just looking for ways to monetize your YouTube channel, you need to make every dollar count. So when it comes to considering your YouTube ad campaign strategy, you will need to create clear goals for yourself that determine success. Here are three pillars of a successful YouTube ad:
1. Consistent Messaging and Branding
Marketing, at its core, is all about establishing trust with your audience. That’s why providing your viewers (even new ones) with consistency is key. Whether this is in the form of following through with your promises through the daily practice of integrity or providing consistent branding and imagery, this can go a long way toward building a relationship with your audience.
Make sure your value proposition is immediately clear and, most of all, relevant to the demographic you choose to target.
2. Clear Calls To Action (CTAs)
No viewer should make it through the end of your advertisement and feel like they don’t know what to do next. Decide what the optimal action would be for the viewer after watching your ad.
An obvious example would be to click on a link to your products page–but other options include signing up for your email list, subscribing to your channel, or even using a discount code. Making your CTA concise, clear, compelling, and personalized (wherever possible) is the best way to incite action from your audience.
3. Measurable Results (Return On Investment, or ROI)
Even if you create an ad that doesn’t perform super well when you first run it, the benefit of getting it “out there” is to begin collecting data. Determine which portion of your ads is getting the most clicks, when viewers are bouncing, and the demographic with whom it tends to get the most follow-through.
Finally, look at the ROI of running each ad–that is, comparing the cost of your campaign with the revenue collected directly from the ads. This will give you a solid, quantifiable metric that lets you know just how effective your ads really are. Remember, if your numbers aren’t where you want them to be at first, you can always tweak the ad and pivot!
5 Practices for Creating the Most Effective YouTube Ads
Marketing is part art, part science. While it definitely requires creativity, without an effective strategy, you might as well be handing out drawings for free on the street and hoping for a million dollars.
Needless to say, this is not an effective approach. By incorporating data-backed, actionable steps into your campaign, you’re much more likely to see the results you want. Here👇are five best practices for making the most effective YouTube ads possible:
1. Target a Specific Audience 🎯
Most people don’t like “being sold to,” but many do like investing in products, services, or experiences that feel as though they’re personalized and tailored directly to them. Getting to know your audience inside and out through market research and analytics assessments should be the backbone of any comprehensive YouTube ads strategy.
Try to get as specific as possible with your ideal customer–and take the empathetic leap to write marketing copy that generously considers their needs, wants, and pain points. Even considering characteristics like age, sex, income status, or lifestyle choices can be a huge help when it comes to figuring out who you’re “calling in.” If you have to, don’t be afraid to run separate campaigns catering to different audiences. This is referred to as “segmentation.”
2. Consider Ad Placement
Put some thought into which channels or content would be ideal hosts for your ads. This is usually for content in a relevant subgenre to your niche.
For example, if you run a natural supplements brand, you might want to place your ads on channels that endorse exercise, nourishing eating, or other healthy lifestyle choices. YouTube allows you to get pretty specific with this level of targeting–so do some research, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box!
3. Leverage the Power of Keywords
Never underestimate the importance of leveraging keywords in your ads! This can help your advertisements to show up in related areas of YouTube’s algorithm (including suggested videos) that can help generate clicks from viewers who are more likely to convert.
YouTube ads’ keyword targeting tool allows you to select keywords that will help your content to show up in relevant spots for users–increasing the likelihood of ROI.
4. Find Neighboring Niches and Relevant Topics
Organizing your ads by “topic” is a powerful way to encourage YouTube to showcase your campaign in a productive way. If you run a dog training business, selecting related topics (such as dog food and diet, grooming tutorials, and other related fields) can be a great way to draw in additional viewers who are already likely to be interested in what you’re selling.
5. Optimize for the Right Device 📈
Finally, where are most of your viewers hailing from? Is it a mobile device, tablet, desktop, or even a TV screen? Consider ways you can reduce the pain points for your audience that may inhibit them from following through with your carefully chosen CTA.
Especially if you are including a link in your ad, it might be better to send your campaign only to mobile or desktop users, where it’s much easier to click through.
Optimizing Your YouTube Reach Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you don’t need to feel like you have to “do it all” alone. In fact, there comes a stage in the growth journey of your business that you will simply need to bring in more people in order to continue to expand.
Whether you find ways to rack up YouTube views quickly or choose to work with a reputable digital marketing agency, you’ll have to decide where the bulk of your energy goes. Whatever you choose, if you remember to keep your audience top-of-mind throughout your content and marketing efforts, you’ll be golden–so dig into those analytics and keep building!
