1. Massive Reach

Through AdWords for Video you can reach 85% of the UK’s online population. All of this doesn't even take into account the fact that you can also target the Google Display Network through an AdWords for Video campaign.

2. Engaged Audience

Targeting YouTube with an AdWords for Video campaign will ensure you reach users while they are highly engaged with the content they’re looking at. Google estimates that 52% of people take an action as a result of watching an online video.

We live in a world of short attention spans and a video ad goes far beyond what’s achievable with a text or an image ad. It allows advertisers to use graphics, motion picture & sounds to raise awareness, remind, engage, amuse and entice their target audience to take a desired action. Still not a believer? Watch these videos to see how engaged you are with them:

• A Hunter shoots a bear
• A dramatic surprise on a square

3. Social Engagement

YouTube is not just a video hosting site; it’s also a social networking site. People like, dislike, share, rate, comment on, and subscribe to videos and channels. All signs of an engaged audience that is ready and willing to tell other people about your brand, products/services, video or channel.

Google has been working hard to enhance YouTube Analytics (formerly known as YouTube Insight). This now includes engagement reports where you can get an insight into trends for subscriptions, likes & dislikes, favourites, comments etc. You’ll now be able to make better judgements on whether or not your videos are working.

Furthermore, Google has made some of these metrics available directly within the AdWords for Video interface. For example you can now see numbers for Follow-on Subscribers and Follow-on Views in the AdWords interface. This will give you an indication of the effectiveness of each video advertising campaign you launch.

4. Targeting Options

YouTube offers all the targeting options that you get from Google AdWords plus more. The standard targeting features you will be familiar with are:

• Search Targeting
• Display Targeting – Contextual, Interest, Topic & Placement
• Remarketing

With YouTube remarketing you are also able to retarget people that liked, make your video a favourite or subscribed to your channel. You can also exclude people from retargeting if they disliked your video.  With these kinds of options you should be able to better reach the audience that interacts most with your brand.

5. Cost & Conversions

This is an important consideration for most businesses. We have been running AdWords for Video campaigns for over a year and the average CPV (cost per view) we have seen across multiple verticals and campaigns is just £0.10. This is a lot cheaper than the equivalent CPC (cost per click) advertisers pay in their Google search & display campaigns. 

The TrueView concept also helps to keep your costs down as you only pay if users are engaging with your content.

In terms of conversions, we have seen mixed results but ecommerce clients appear to be doing better. Making use of remarketing via video on YouTube is where we’ve seen the best results as this often leads to much more engaging content being shown to site visitors than standard display image ads. Advertising on YouTube can help any business increase brand exposure, credibility and brand recall.

Given the low cost associated with these types of campaigns it is worth investing a small amount of money to test the waters for your business and see what you can gain. If you are an existing client then speak to your account manager about running an AdWords for Video campaign today or contact us for more information.

Image Credit: SweetMania (Stuffpoint)