With over 2.5 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second largest social network after Facebook’s 2.9 billion users.

As such, YouTube can become a very cost-effective place for brands to market their products and services to consumers, using unique content in a format that viewers can easily consume and share. There is a nature. Businesses can also leverage content from influencers and other brand advocates to showcase their culture, messaging, products, and more.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how businesses are using YouTube for marketing and the challenges that come with social video platforms.

Why Brands Use YouTube Marketing

Over 1 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every day and 500 hours of content is uploaded every minute. Consumers use YouTube for entertainment, education, tutorials, and product research.

Apart from the content that appears on a brand’s own YouTube channel, businesses can work with influencers to provide reviews of products and services that customers or prospects of the brand can view and purchase. You can decide if you want it or not. Brands can also create video ads that play intermittently while users watch related videos.

According to Google, 70% of users buy products after seeing them on YouTube. Video marketing is hugely popular, with 86% of brands now using video as a marketing tool, according to a Wyzowl report.

Christian Brown, co-founder and CMO of influencer marketing network Glewee, told CMSWire how brands are using YouTube for marketing.

“Some brands use YouTube to showcase their products and services, some use it to connect and build relationships with their customers, others use it to drive traffic to their website or blog. We also have brands,” said Brown. “Whatever way a brand uses YouTube, the important thing is that they are creating quality content that engages their audience.”

Using branded videos on YouTube

To effectively use branded videos on YouTube, you need to understand the concept of brands and branding. A brand is how the outside world perceives your business, and branding is the act of creating and building on your own distinctive brand.

A brand identity consists of a set of creative elements that go into the branding process and includes a brand’s website, social media presence, and logo. These elements communicate your brand’s values, purpose and message to your customers. In today’s market, YouTube makes a lot of sense as a place to establish your brand identity.

The traditional TV market has dried up somewhat, but YouTube continues to gain broad reach. Global programmatic media Oscar London, senior vice president of partnerships at his partner MiQ, told CMSWire about the overlap between TV and YouTube ads.

“There are examples in some industries of reaching a million to two million more people than TV alone. To do.”

London said that TV and CTV formats are great ways to find consumers if marketers want to raise brand awareness and attract new prospects, but linear TV doesn’t reach as many consumers as it used to. I explained that I was no longer reachable.

“YouTube is in a great position to capture some of those TV dollars because of that, given the app on CTV and the ability to test different creatives for specific audiences,” he said. rice field.

Using influencer videos on YouTube

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that typically involves endorsements and product placements from influencers (i.e., people who are perceived to have expert-level knowledge or social influence in the field). included.

It’s a great way to reach a large number of customers and prospects and provides a fun way to introduce these customers to your products and services.

“Influencer marketing can provide an efficient and cost-effective way to reach your target audience and build brand awareness,” says Brown. “Influencer marketing, if done right, can be invaluable to boost sales and grow your business, especially for ecommerce brands.”

Influencers don’t have to have millions of followers to be useful. Pictured above, Randy from NotaRubicon Productions has just over 100,000 followers. But since he covers a narrow market (GMRS, or General Mobile Radio Service and amateur radio), many radio brands send him radios and review them on his YouTube channel.

Randy maintains the radio, creating fresh content for his audience, and brands receive video promotion in the form of reviews for the price of a radio.

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With thousands of YouTube content producers covering a wide variety of genres, products and services, there are many options for brands looking to get cost-effective video coverage that can reach thousands and millions of customers and prospects. offers.

Using video ads on YouTube

YouTube video ads are a great way to reach your customers and leads. Brands can target audiences based on their Google search history and YouTube viewing behavior. So marketers can target ads to people who have recently searched for a particular product or service.

If the content in your video ad is related to the product or service people searched for on Google, they’re more likely to view the full ad or click through to your brand’s website.

There are several types of video ad formats. If you’re a YouTube viewer, you’re already familiar with many of them. They include:

• Skippable in-stream ads: Play before, during, or after other videos. After 5 seconds the user can skip the ad.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: 15 seconds (or less) in length and plays before, during, or after other videos. Viewers have no option to skip ads.
• In-feed video ads: It consists of a video thumbnail image and text that appears next to YouTube search results and related YouTube videos. The exact size and appearance of your ad may vary depending on where it appears. These ads constantly encourage users to click and watch videos. The video will then play on YouTube’s play page or on his channel’s homepage.
• Bumper Ads: 6 seconds (or less) in length and plays before, during, or after another video. Viewers have no option to skip ads.
• Outstream advertising: Turn off the sound and start playing. Users can tap the ad to unmute the video.
• Masthead advertising: The main video of the Masthead ad autoplays silently for up to 30 seconds at the top of the YouTube Home feed. These ads can be viewed in widescreen format and have an info panel on the right that automatically uses assets from your brand’s channel. If the user wants to hear the audio from the video, they can click the mute her icon. On mobile devices, the featured video for these ads will autoplay for the full length of the video without sound at the top of the YouTube app or m.youtube.com home feed.

YouTube marketing challenges

YouTube is an effective place to reach a wide audience, but this is not the case for all brands.

For example, Mr. Brown says: “For example, brands looking to sell a product or service (like a new technology) that can be easily showcased in a short video find YouTube a very effective way to reach current and future consumers. will notice.

But brands looking to sell more complex or abstract products and services may not realize how effective YouTube is, he added, citing investment firms as an example.

Annette Sally, president of Blue Sky Agency, told CMSWire, as with any platform for advertising and marketing, brands need to understand their target market and how best to reach the demographic they want to reach. said.

“For example, if your brand primarily serves older clients, YouTube may not be the best tool to use. But if it’s gamers or Gen Z consumers, , brands will probably have better luck given that this is where many of our viewers live, play and consume content on a daily basis.”

Brands also need to determine whether short-form content is best suited to their target audience, or whether longer videos capture their audience’s attention.

“Brands need to understand what they are sending out to the world and how they will ultimately engage consumers,” says Sally. “Sometimes short-form content is better, sometimes more descriptive treatment.” she added.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Miss the Benefits of YouTube

Many brands are now leveraging video marketing on YouTube, recognizing that it has the potential to entertain and educate existing customers while attracting new customers.

With branded videos, influencer recommendations and reviews, and YouTube ads, brands get the most reach from their advertising and marketing budgets.