What is YouTube Marketing?

YouTube Marketing is the practice of promoting businesses and products on YouTube’s platform, by uploading valuable videos on a company’s YouTube channel or using YouTube ads.

Step 1: Creating a YouTube channel via Google account

To get started on YouTube, you would need to sign in with your Gmail account, as YouTube is Google’s property now. If you already have an existing account then good enough, if not then you can easily sign-in with your Gmail account, which gives you access to all Google properties.

If for personal marketing, then you can use your personal Gmail account, it will be under your name and also redirect users to your email.

If it’s a brand or business account/channel, then it is advisable to use your business Google account as multiple people might access your account for various reasons. This way all the marketing needs can be fulfilled from one single account.

Step 2: Study your audience

You have launched your channel successfully, but the kind of content you upload completely depends on your audiences and what they would like to consume. To determine this, you need to study your audiences and what exactly are they engaging with. Here demographics play a big role to help you understand and analyze your audience’s behaviour.

Ranging from location, age, gender, and personal interests use these metrics to identify your core audiences and what exactly they are looking for. As per recent research done by Think With Google, there are a variety of reasons why video consumption is on the rise and what prompts them to watch it. In a country like India, learning something new and useful ranks as the top reason for watching a video.

Type of content consumed by different age groups:

All these inputs and data can help you determine what type of content should you post for various age groups and how it can benefit them. It’s not about the high quality of the video, but the focus is more on passion and interest.

Step 3: Study your competitors and favourite channels

Once you have decided upon the format of content and audiences, the next step would be to study what your competitors are doing and learn from your favourite channels. Understand what can set you apart from your competitors and teach you how to use the tool most effectively.

Take a look at YouTube’s trending videos and what format is lapped up more by the audiences. Even if those videos are not related to your business or brand, they will teach you about the techniques and other details that you can incorporate into your videos. What type of content works for you or your brand? Do you plan to use YouTube to tell stories, showcase your products, offer tutorials, or establish your brand in some unique way? Or all of the above? Plan your content strategy accordingly as per your study and research.

Step 4: Optimize your videos to perform

Creating Great Thumbnails: 90% of the people first notice the thumbnail rather than the video title. Another important thing to remember is that the image and the title should be in sync with the thumbnail.

Example of a good thumbnail:

The above image shows common traits that stand out:

Colour
Text
Bold Font
Symbols
Logo

Crafting a perfect title: Titles are very important to grab the attention of your YouTube audience. This matters the most when it comes to clicking on the video, rather than the actual video content. This also helps with SEO optimization as you can include trending keywords and emojis to rank higher.

Let’s see some good examples of titles:

Here the keyword predominantly used is “insurance”.

In the above screenshot, I have searched for “best youtube titles” and these searches appeared right on top. Notice what they all have in common– using HOW TO right at the beginning of the sentence.

In the above screenshot, the search query is “best restaurant in Delhi” and the top results have some numbers incorporated into the title. Notice how the title ending with a question and an amount has the highest views.

The title character limit is 70, but it would be advisable to use a 50-60 character limit so that the title isn’t cut off when it shows up.

Creating description: Even though the character limit for description is very high, 5000 characters, but that does not mean you go into the bonkers mode and add content which is not of very high value. It is important to add SEO keywords placed with a mix of long-tail keywords. In the initial 2-3 sentences try and give a short gist of the video. YouTube shows 300 characters initially then you need to click on “Show More” to read the whole description.

Try not to sound too spammy, use keyword-rich content and, also try and include links to your website in the description. You can also add links to your social media platforms to redirect them to your page. If possible, also try and use a few relevant hashtags in the description, so that when people search for something related to your business, it can appear on the top.

Example of a good video description:

Example of a SEO optimized video description

Add Tags: By highlighting the main keywords in your tag, you increase the chances of broadening your reach while people search for similar videos.

Image source: SEMrush

Best practices to follow for tags:

1. Your first keyword should be the target keyword or the title of the video
2. Use a mix of long-tail and short-tail keywords
3. Do not go overboard with tags
4. Use tags that are relevant to your business, using common tags can confuse the platform
5. Use a tool to generate tags
Youtube Marketing

Example of long & short tags and keyword generator:

Adding a category: YouTube allows you to choose a category for your business after you upload a video. This helps in grouping your videos with related content on the platform.

There are many categories to choose from such as Education, Film, Gaming, How To Blogs, Comedy, News, Music, Entertainment, People & Blog, Docuseries, Commentaries, Q&A, Tutorials, Interviews, Challenges,Youtube Marketing etc.

Adding Subtitles: More than 30% of YouTube’s most popular videos are in English but the video consumption is 60% outside the country’s origin. Once you start uploading the video, adding subtitles to it is always a good idea. In case if your video is in a regional language but you want to reach out to larger audiences or non-native speakers, then adding English subtitles and captions would be of great benefit.

Adding subtitles allows you to add keywords specific to your business and helps in SEO ranking and discovery. You can either upload the full video transcript by yourself or take some professional help for it. You can also translate the meta into the language which you want your audiences to see and reach.

Step 5: Schedule your videos

After creating your video and optimizing them, it is important to create a schedule for it. For a successful YouTube channel, posting videos regularly and at a given time always helps. Check the analytics and see what time the videos get high traction and make it a practice to follow the schedule regularly. This way your subscribers know when to expect your videos and how often.

Use an app to schedule your videos in advance, as that would make things easier. You can use any tool like Hootsuite or YouTube Studio to manage your videos.

Step 6: Advertise your videos on YouTube

If you are looking to grow your channel and target audiences who would be interested in your content in the most effective way then YouTube advertising can help.

Even if you want to promote your product or service, some event, or just your brand, to the right audiences, then advertising on YouTube will help expand your reach. Audiences are three times more likely to pay attention to online video ads Vs TV ads.

Why advertise on YouTube

Enormous Reach: YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google and is accessed by people from all kinds of geographies, from metro cities to smaller towns.

Power to Influence: A recent YouTube insights report stated that YouTube product and brand videos influenced the buying decisions of 66% of beauty product purchasers, 72% of auto-vehicle purchasers, and 62% of smartphone purchasers.

Measurability: YouTube offers the most in-depth data about your ad’s performance like views, clicks, engagement, reach, and frequency.

Personal branding: If you wish to build a personal brand or grow as an influencer, YouTube is the best way to get recognition and get users to your other platforms.

How YouTube ads help businesses grow

Some of the commonest marketing and sales goals that can be accomplished using YouTube ads:

Website traffic
Redirect users to the online store
App installs
Video views (brand awareness)

Accurate audience targeting
You can select from close to 4.7 million audience sets across all industries, businesses, products, and services.

Getting location specific
You can target audiences from as large as the entire nation of India to as localized as a 3km radius around where the business is located.

Only pay when you see results
You have full control over how much you want to spend on your ads. Pay only when someone interacts with your ad, like clicking on it or watching the video.

Monitor performance
With nuanced metrics on ad performance, you can not only track campaigns but also optimize them going forward.

Type of YouTube Ads

Skippable ad

What is this ad type: Skippable ads are video ads that appear at the time of watching a video on YouTube. Viewers may skip through the ad.

When does this ad show: These ads show before, during, and after some other YouTube video. Viewers have the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds.

What does this ad achieve: You can use this option for brand promotion or website traffic.

Where does this ad show: Your ads will appear on the YouTube platform or any of the websites and apps that are part of the Google video partner program.

How much does this ad cost: You pay when a viewer watches the full length of the video content or takes action, whichever comes first.

YouTube – In-stream – Skippable ad

Non-skippable ad

What is this ad type: Non-skippable ads are video ads that appear at the time of watching a video on YouTube. Viewers, however, cannot skip through the ad.

When does this ad show: Non-skippable ads show before, during, and after some other YouTube video. Use this option only if you want viewers to watch your entire message. The ad video can’t be more than 15 seconds long.

What does this ad achieve: You can use this option for brand promotion or awareness.

Where does this ad show: Your ads will appear on the YouTube platform or any of the websites and apps that are part of Google video partner.

How much does this ad cost: You pay based on impressions (views) of the ad. Youtube Marketing

YouTube – In-stream – Non – Skippable ad

Video discovery ads

What is this ad type: Video discovery ads help discover your business, service, or personal brand across the YouTube ad ecosystem.

A discovery ad consists of a video thumbnail with some text. The exact size and appearance of the video depending on where it appears. The call to action invites viewers to click on the video which then plays on the YouTube watch or channel page.

When does this ad show: These ads are based on deeper intent and are usually shown based on audiences’ online behaviour and search pattern.

What does this ad achieve: You can use this option for brand promotion or consideration.

Where does this ad show: Your ads will appear on the YouTube platform in any of the following places:

YouTube search results page
In the related videos section next to an already playing video
YouTube’s mobile homepage
Youtube Marketing

How much does this ad cost: You are charged based on the clicks your video receives.

Once you set-up your channel successfully, it is time to measure the impact. As per the analytics, you can create a marketing strategy. Getting YouTube marketing right involves trial and error. Not everything will work, and that’s okay as long as you learn and adapt.

Use YouTube Analytics to monitor the growth of your channel and track the performance of your videos. When you publish a new video, keep an eye on:

Changes in your subscriber count
Audience demographics
Video playback and traffic sources locations
Device reports (mobile, desktop, smart TVs, etc.)
Youtube Marketing

Once all this data is available, you can run ads specifically targeting the audiences and locations who are engaging with your content. Even demographics can be changed or altered as per consumption.

Running ads on YouTube can be a little daunting as there are many settings/factors to take into account but you can use an automated digital advertising platform like Mediaqart which will help you advertise your channel in the easiest and effective way. You can even manage multiple channels from one place and advertise on the channels which work for your business.

To know more about Mediaqart and how it works and can help your business, watch this video.