The 3 advantages of advertising on YouTube
Been hearing all the buzz about CTV recently? If so, you're probably already aware of the countless benefits of connected TV advertising. Whether you’ve already started running programmatic CTV ads or have yet to integrate CTV into your advertising strategy, YouTube ads are a great next step.
Up until late last year, YouTube ads were only capable of reaching audiences via mobile or desktop devices. But, aware of the massive rise in popularity of connected TV, Google introduced TV screens as a device type option. This allows advertisers to reach crucial audiences who watch YouTube through devices capable of streaming online TV content, like smart TVs and gaming consoles.
There’s no doubt that both CTV and YouTube ads are powerful on their own. But, by serving YouTube ads directly onto users smart TVs at home, you’re getting the best of both worlds.
If you are in need of a refresher as to why YouTube ads are so incredibly effective, here are three main reasons:
1) Audience size
To put it simply, there are a ton of people watching YouTube content, every day, every hour, every minute. And it's all video content, so you know audiences are engaged the entire time. On TV screens alone, users watch over 180 million hours of YouTube every day.
Not only is YouTube a place for entertainment, but users also turn to the site for information. In fact, there are over 3 billion searches conducted on YouTube every month. This makes the site the second most popular search engine after Google.
2) Targeting
If you are familiar with running search campaigns through Google, YouTube can be thought of as an extension of Google Ads. You get the same options for reaching your intended audiences. This includes targeting by demographic groups (age, income, gender...etc.), geo-targeting (specific regions, cities, zip codes), and by operating system, device models, language… and the list goes on.
Most importantly, with YouTube ads, you can place your ad in front of specific content types. For example, if a user is watching a video on how to build a website and is served an ad about web development software, they will find this ad to be both relevant and important to them.
This helps create an environment that feels 1-to-1. Users are served appropriate ads based on the topics and keywords they are searching for and advertisers can be sure their ads are matched to content that's relevant.
3) Cost
YouTube’s sophisticated metrics take away a lot of the guessing associated with some forms of video advertising. Questions like, Are people actually paying attention? Are they engaged? Did they watch the full ad? Am I spending my budget effectively? YouTube has all those answers.
With YouTube's TrueView video ad format, you only pay when a user watches your full ad or interacts with your ad in some way. As an advertiser, you know when users actually complete a view. And if they don't, you don't pay for it! But even when a user skips your ad before watching it in its entirety, you still get brand exposure...and for no cost!
The advantages of YouTube and CTV advertisements are impressive. Together, they are a must for any strong video strategy.
To find out more about YouTube, CTV or to get started on building a comprehensive strategy, talk to our team today.