What if YouTube were a nation?
It would be the largest nation in the world, even bigger than China.
YouTube has over 2 billion users compared to the 1.3 billion population of China.
Starting from a casual zoo video back in 2005, this video-sharing website has turned into a huge platform for watching videos online.
And here are some interesting stats speaking of the stature of YouTube as it is today.
- YouTube has 3 billion users around the world (as of 2021).
- YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.
- 122 million people use YouTube a day watching billions of hours of content.
- 500 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every minute, accounting for 720,000 hours of videos a day.
What Does YouTube Have For Marketers?
YouTube has 2 billion users, meaning that it has several users beyond your imagination. Where are people, there is a great marketing opportunity, right?
No wonder why YouTube marketing has become important to promote on YouTube’s platform.
What is YouTube Marketing?
As the name suggests, YouTube marketing refers to the practice of promoting your product or services by uploading videos on your YouTube channel.
As there are billions of users, your brand has great chances to be seen by thousands, if not millions.
YouTube is all about video marketing that makes your content look appealing, engaging for the target audience. Video has become more important than ever for communication and marketing.
How to Do YouTube Marketing and YouTube Remarketing
While YouTube is used by billions of people, it doesn’t mean you get thousands of views in a day as soon as you upload a video over there.
Keep in mind that you are not alone who is trying to leverage YouTube marketing. YouTube is used by over 60 percent of businesses, making it a highly competitive space.
So you can easily get lost in the sea of similar videos. It needs a serious approach.
That’s why we need to smarten up marketing strategies for YouTube. How?
Here I have come up with this YouTube marketing guide that helps you learn key marketing lessons as well as remarketing over YouTube.
What This YouTube Marketing and Remarketing Tutorial Includes
Here I have divided this tutorial into four parts:
PART 1: Research
PART 2: Optimization and Implementation
PART 3: Promotion
PART 4: Remarketing
The first three parts are dedicated to YouTube marketing. So let’s start with PART 1 that is about doing homework.
PART-1 RESEARCH
Create a YouTube Channel:
(NOTE: If you already have created the one, you can skip to the next steps.)
While you can use your personal Gmail ID to create an account, it is better if you do it with a dedicated business or brand account with Google. The biggest benefit is that a brand account can have multiple owners and managers.
Fill in all the details. Verify your account with a code delivered via text or phone call. Your business account has been created.
After setting up your business Google account, it is time to create your YouTube account. Visit YouTube.com, and click on Sign In.
Once you click Sign In, you will see a menu drop down like this. Click the Settings option.
In the Settings menu, choose to Create a New Account Option
Choose the Right Name for Your Channel.
(Note: You can change or update your YouTube channel name anytime from your account settings.)
Identify Your Audience:
The first rule of marketing is to identify your target audience. Target audience refers to a particular group of people who are interested in your product and services.
If you are looking to create a YouTube channel for your business, you need to be aware of the needs and concerns of your audience. For example, if you sell a joint pain gel, you can create videos on the joint pain remedies, joint diseases, and joint exercises that you find in your research. By doing so, you can make sure that your videos are meeting the right engagement metrics from the beginning.
Therefore, define, understand and find your target audience before anything else.
Image source: LinkedIn.com
Perform Competitive Analysis:
Start by picking three to five competitors. You can also try Google Ad’s free Keyword Planner to see which rival rank for keywords related to your brand. Or check out what channels show up in the searches on YouTube for the same keywords. (As you hit the search, Filter results by Channel)
Pay attention to key metrics such as subscriber counts and viewership so you can set them as benchmarks of your YouTube channel. Also, check out the placement of keywords in the titles and decryptions. Check out their comments to see what people are saying.
And don’t forget to check your YouTube Analytics. This is a feature that lets you get insights into the performance of your YouTube channel as well as reveal audience demographics, traffic sources, and the keywords used by people to find your videos.
Source: SearchEngineJournal.Com
Learn From Successful Channels:
You must have subscribed to several YouTube channels. So here is a question for you—what keeps you coming back to these channels? What do they have to keep you engaged? How do they drive subscriptions, views, and engagement?
The point is here to learn from these channels. You can also consider some YouTube trending videos, no matter if they are related to your industry or not. How these videos are produced? Check out the common length of these videos? Do they have a host, special effects, or text overlays?
For example, I follow Neil Patel’s YouTube channel. Since he is an online marketing guru, take a look at how he strategically places everything, from thumbnail to CTA, to attract those who are looking for online marketing techniques (we will talk about these things later in this blog).
Source: Neil Patel
Like Neil, there will be several experts associated with your industries. Have a look at their videos to pick the elements that make their audience’s favorite.
Do Keyword Research:
Like Google, YouTube is a search engine. It is the second-largest search engine in the world. To get your content ranked by any search engine, keywords are important. People use keywords to find videos over YouTube.
Therefore, keyword research is one of the important building blocks for a successful YouTube campaign. With the right keywords incorporated in the title and descriptions, you can make sure that your videos are reaching the right audience.
Here are some ways to do keyword research for your YouTube content.
- Type in the YouTube Search Bar:
Start typing any word in the YouTube search bar, and there will be a list of related keyword suggestions. For example, if you want to make a video on weight loss, type weight loss in the bar and you see the related ones.
See how you can incorporate them into your videos. For example, you can make a video on that weight loss exercise topic that can cover other keywords such as weight loss diet, tips, and drink.
- Find Keywords From Other Popular Videos:
Several Chrome extensions can help you spot the keywords used in YouTube videos.
I am using this plugin called Keywords Everywhere. See how it is showing the keywords associated with this video guiding on WordPress SEO plugins.
- Use Other Keyword Research Tool:
Certain tools can simplify your keywords research. Some of them are free, while some come with paid monthly subscriptions. This is the snapshot of Ahrefs YouTube keyword tool.
Source: ahrefs.com
PART 2-Optimization
Once we are done with the research part in PART 1, we will move to the optimization step to implement what we have obtained so far.
As soon as you upload your videos, here are the things to do under this part.
Create an Attractive Title:
Well, this is the simplest yet tricky part of optimizing your YouTube videos. It should be attractive and relevant as well as equipped with the right keywords you have researched in the previous part.
Describe what your video is about in a few words as possible, keeping the text under 70 characters. Emotive language can be used, but stay away from clickbait. Misleading titles disappoint the viewers, hurting your ranking.
In the snapshot below, see how the author has beautifully used the keywords such ashome chest workout and bodyweight exercises.
Source: Rowan Roe
Create an Attractive Thumbnail:
Thumbnails are the first thing viewers see. The most successful videos on YouTube have one thing in common: they use a custom thumbnail.
With a custom thumbnail, your video looks stand out.
Again, like the title, your thumbnail shouldn’t be misleading.
The ideal dimension for creating a thumbnail is 1280×720 pixels (16:9 ratio) while the higher res is (2 MB max size)
Add a Keyword-Rich Description:
The first few lines of your descriptions should be an overview of your video topic. See what keywords you can fit in it. But the sentences should be natural and coherent. YouTube only displays 300 characters above the Show More button one needs to click to see the full text.
See how Neil has used the main keywords and secondary keywords in his descriptions for the video on learning SEO.
Source: Neil Patel
Insert Cards, End Screens, and Bumper Ads:
End screens, cards, watermarks, and bumper ads are clickable CTAs to be added to your YouTube videos. These things help users take further action and keep them involved with your channel.
- Cards are small transparent CTAs. Up to five can be used.
- End screens are clickable frames occurring in the last 5-20 seconds and can be used for other content and subscriptions.
- Bumper ads are six-second video ads occurring at the start or end of a video.
Source: Neil Patel
Don’t Forget to Remind Viewers to Like, Share and Subscribe:
Asking for likes, shares, and subscribe doesn’t cost you anything.
Upload and Schedule Videos:
By this point you have created and optimized your videos, the time has come to schedule them for posting.
But make sure to know the right time to post your YouTube videos. The right time can be a day or hour when viewership or engagement is high.
According to the experts, the recommended time to post is on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays between 2 PM and 4 PM, while on Thursdays and Fridays it can be from noon till 3 PM. On Saturdays and Sundays, the time is from 9 AM till 11 AM.
Once you find what is the best time to post, you can publish regularly within this time slot.
Optimize Your YouTube Channel:
- Create a description of your channel. Make sure to include the keywords in that.
- Create a high-res icon or logo.
- Exhibit your services, product launch, or updates on Channel Art or Channel Header Banner, a large banner located at the top of your channel page.
- Add a few social media links to your banner.
- Create a Channel Trailer.
- Add captions and translations so that the non-native can understand your videos.
PART 3: PROMOTION
Now that you have created and optimized your YouTube channel, it is time to market it.
YouTube Advertising:
YouTube Advertising is an effective way to boost your reach as it helps you target the right people. These ads are available as skippable in-stream ads, non-skippable in-stream ads, in-displays or video ads, and non-videos ads. It is done through Google Ads.
Approach an Influencer:
Working with an influencer can also benefit your brand. After all, nearly 60% of YouTube users are more likely to follow the advice from their favorite YouTube.
Share Via Social Media:
This is a no-brainer. But make sure to be active in social communities and groups apart from posting your videos on social media.
PART 4- YOUTUBE REMARKTING
So far, we have learned about YouTube marketing.
So in this part, we will know how to do YouTube REMARKETING.
YouTube remarketing is used to target users who watched your videos but didn’t convert.
It is a way to remind them of your offerings by running an ad to them. It is just like other forms of Google remarketing except it uses video content.
When a viewer watches a video content on your YouTube channel, they get a unique cookie so they can be identified. They can be later tracked and re-approached using Google AdWords.
Remarketing with YouTube will grab your potential customer’s attention and let you connect more directly with them. By combining your video ads with remarketing, you can maximize leads.
Remarketing is as important as your marketing strategies for YouTube.
Let’s find out how to do YouTube marketing.
(NOTE: Before you start, make sure to link your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account. Also, the personalized ads should be turned on in your YouTube account settings.)
First of all, we will create Remarketing List and then create a new campaign to link with this list.
Go to Google Ads, Click Tools
You will be on this screen. Make sure the Remarketing Tab is chosen. From there, click on a big Blue PLUS button and then choose YouTube users from the menu.
Fill in the details as you move to the next screen. Name your Audience and then choose the people based on how they interacted with your videos. Then, select the YouTube channel of this audience.
Set the membership duration for 30 days.
Click on Create Button to get your remarketing audience listed under the Remarketing Tab.
As our YouTube Chanel is linked and our remarketing audience is created, it is time to create a new campaign. Go back to your Google Ad Home Screen and Click the Big Blue Button to launch it.
Here we will learn how to use your remarketing audience for your new campaign.
Choose the Goal from the next screen.
Choose a video from the Campaign type.
In the next screen, name your campaign and other particulars are given there, including Budget, Location, Bidding, Start, and End Date, Audiences, Inventory Types, and Networks.
But here it is important to understand the Audiences section. THIS IS THE PART WHERE WE LINK THIS CAMPAIGN WITH THE REMARKETING AUDIENCE LIST WE CREATED EARLIER.
Once you click the Audiences tab, this screen will appear. Choose the option “how they have interacted with your business.”
Then choose your Remarketing Audience list under the YouTube users category.
At the bottom, there is the Create Your YouTube Video Ad option. Copy the URL of your YouTube channel to this.
As soon as your paste your YouTube channel URL, a graphical overview of your channel pops up on the right side of the screen.
Plus, there will be new fields to be filled as shown in the screenshot given below.
Click SAVE AND CONTINUE once you are done with all the fields given there.
And you will see this after completing all the steps. Click the Continue to Campaign option.
What Benefits You Can Expect with YouTube Marketing/Remarketing
By this point, you must have your YouTube marketing campaigning up and running. So you must be looking forward to getting the benefits it ensures. And there is nothing wrong with it.
With YouTube marketing, you give your brand a competitive edge over those who haven’t started the one yet or have a poorly optimized campaign.
Here are some key benefits you can expect after creating a YouTube marketing campaign:
Tapping into the YouTube’s Huge Traffic:
Like I said before, YouTube is the second largest search engine as well as the 3rd most visited website. It is visited by nearly 122 million users consuming more than a billion hours of video every day. No matter what you sell or do, your target audience would be in million on this platform. All you need to target them with engaging and useful content.
Getting Found on Google:
Google search results are a blend of images, news, book, and videos. You might have noticed videos appear more often in the search results. Creating videos also increases the authority of your website, encouraging Google to display them in the search results.
Earning You “Audiences”Across Borders:
If your videos are relevant, useful, and address the pain point of the target audience, you are likely to find fans from other nations. While videos in English can have upper hands, you can use subtitles and closed captions for videos made in other languages.
In the below snapshot, see how English subtitles can help understand a non-native this Korean poem.
Image Source: KorandEng Translator
Building Email List:
With YouTube, you can build your email list as you continue to deliver useful, informational content. Many tools let you embed your sign-up form directly into YouTube videos.
Earning Money:
And you can earn money directly from YouTube as soon as you get at least 1,000 subscribers along with 4,000 watch hours. Once you reach this threshold, you can apply for YouTube’s Partner Program to monetize your channel. There is also Google AdSense to make some more money.
Boosting Credibility:
Leveraging videos help your business look credible, building trust with your customers. Video content has personal appearances from you or someone from your company, making your business look more human.
Success Story with YouTube Marketing and Remarketing Methods
To testify the benefits of YouTube marketing and remarketing, here is a case study of a handyman client.
This client (name hasn’t been published due to a privacy issue) approached our online marketing team to establish his brand through YouTube marketing.
How We Did IT
Since everything had to be created from the scratch, we asked him to produce quality videos according to the trends as well as the concerns of his customers.
Keeping this in mind, here is how we created a YouTube marketing strategy for the client.
- Asking him to produce DIY videos on home improvements as these are more searched by the homeowners.
- Using the right keywords.
- Optimizing his YouTube channel.
- Promoting it over social media and other platforms.
- Creating compelling thumbnails and titles to retain more audience.
- Working with an influencer.
The Results:
- Getting 1500 subscribers within 1 month
- 40% increase in leads
- 60% increase in revenue
And How We Boost the Results Further with YouTube Remarketing
As this handyman client’s YouTube channel was growing well, it was the right time to try YouTube Remarketing.
While it was a strategy to particularly target those who just watched the videos but didn’t convert, we also wanted to remind the loyal subscribers of the services offered by this handyman.
We launched a remarketing campaign in which we targeted standard lists to re-approach past users and ran in-stream ads to directly connect with them to feature services and products in the client’s DIY and other videos.
OVER TO YOU
So this is all about YouTube marketing, remarketing and the benefits it comes with. But you won’t get success overnight. Patience and right practices, as they say, are things you need. If you face any problem during YouTube marketing or remarketing or you want to ask anything else, let me know by commenting below.