YouTube Ads Strategy: How To Reach Your Target Audience
In the current digital age, online video has become one of the most popular content formats. YouTube is the leading platform for video sharing, with over 1.5 billion active users and more than 50 million hours of watch time daily. For businesses, video marketing presents a huge opportunity to reach a large and engaged audience. However, YouTube ad strategy can be tricky. With so many options available, it can be difficult to know where to start or what will work best for your business.
YouTube Ads are video advertising campaigns that play before, during, or after other videos on the YouTube platform. They can be either skippable or non-skippable, and can be targeted to specific audiences based on age, gender, interests, and other factors.
In order to create an effective YouTube ad strategy, you need to understand your audience and what type of ads they are most likely to respond to. You should also consider your overall advertising goals and how YouTube can help you achieve them.
How Can YouTube Ads Benefit Your Business?
YouTube Ads can be an effective way to reach a large and engaged audience with your marketing message. They offer a number of targeting options so you can reach a specific audience based on factors like age, gender, interests, and location. And because YouTube is the leading online video platform, your ads will have access to a large and engaged audience.
There are a number of YouTube Ad tips available, and this guide will provide an overview of YouTube Ads so you can develop a strategy that works best for your business.
What Success With YouTube Ads Looks Like
YouTube Ads are a great way to reach your target audience, but only if done correctly. A successful YouTube ad is one that reaches the right person, at the right time, with the right message.
Reaching The Right Person
This means targeting your ads to people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. You can do this by using demographic information, like age, gender, location, and interests.
The RIght Person Has The Ability To Invest (Convert)
You need to make sure that people have the ability to invest in your product or service. This means targeting people who are in your target market and have disposable income.
Reaching Them At The Right Time
Timing is everything when it comes to advertising. You need to make sure that you’re reaching people with your YouTube ad campaign when they’re most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Showcasing The Right YouTube Ad
Make sure that you’re showcasing the right video ads. This means creating an ad that is relevant to your products or services and that captures attention.
3 Keys To A Successful YouTube Ad
Another YouTube Ad strategy is Value ads. These are ads that show the viewer what they stand to gain by using your product or service. They briefly present the problem that your product or service solves and then show how your offering is the solution. The goal of a value ad is to show the viewer why they need your product or service in their life.
A successful value ad will have three key components: a hook, education, and a call to action. Let’s break down each of these elements so you can create an effective value ad for your business.
The Hook
The hook is the part of the ad that grabs the viewer’s attention and makes them want to watch more. It should be short, snappy, and to the point.
One of the best ways to grow your YouTube channel is by having bold statements and hitting pain points. Your viewers will appreciate it when you address their problems and provide solutions.
Another way to attract viewers in video campaigns is by using a curiosity hook. This is a technique that involves using cliffhangers or suspenseful elements in your videos to keep people engaged.
Finally, don’t forget to call out a problem. Many viewers are looking for solutions, and they’ll appreciate it when you provide them with valuable information.
A pro tip for your YouTube video is to continue with the phrase “In this video, I’m going to…” to set the stage for the Education section and the Value you want to provide. Create at least 5 Hooks every time you create YouTube Ads so that you can split tests which hook works best.
Educate
Once you have the viewer’s attention, it’s time to educate them on your product or service. This is the key to talk about what makes your offering unique and why it’s the best solution to their problem.
If you want to create ads that convert well on YouTube, it’s important to understand why people are on YouTube to begin with. According to recent studies, most people are on YouTube to learn. They’re in what I call the “Learner’s Mindset,” and they’re specifically looking to learn about something on YouTube. This is great news for advertisers, because it means that viewers are open to seeing your ads and potentially converting.
So how can you take advantage of this? It’s simple – let them know that you’re serious about providing value and that you’re an expert that can actually help them to solve their problems! Showcase 2-5 KEYS within the education section of the ad and provide high-level value.
Call To Action
This is where you tell the viewer what you want them to do next; it could be something like visiting your website, subscribing to your channel, or following you on social media.
Transition your ads by saying something like “Now that you’ve seen [topic] I want to to invite you to sign up for my [program] where I’ll dive deeper and show you exactly how to [topic] or say the words “When you click the link right here on the screen, you’ll get to a page that looks just like this..”
The Key with your Call to Actions are to keep them “Stupid Simple” so make sure that your CTA is clearly shown in the video and easy to follow.
A pro tip is to show the page they’re going to see after clicking the link. This is to demystify what happens after they click the link and to add familiarity and to show what the viewers need to do to take action. Also, leave your CTA up on the screen for at least a few seconds to give slower clickers the chance to click your ad links, you don’t want viewers to get lost after watching your great ad!
How To Film Your YouTube Value-Ad
When creating a YouTube ad, it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t need fancy equipment to create a great video. In fact, with just an iPhone camera and a gimbal, you can create videos that look professional and authentic.
We’ve found that the key with your videos is to be seen as the “Authentic Authority” in your industry – and a great way to do that is by filming a “natural” YouTube Ad with a simple setup!
One of the best ways to make your YouTube channel videos look authentic is to film them in a natural setting. This can be done by filming on location or in an office or home office. You want to avoid using a green screen or big studio for Direct Response YouTube Ads. By filming in a natural setting, your viewers will feel more connected to the video and more likely to trust your brand.
How To Create 10 Different YouTube Ads in the Time it Takes To Film 2 Videos
Now that you know a little bit about our secret weapon for creating amazing YouTube Ads, it’s time to put it into practice!
Below, I’m going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to create your own “Lego Blocks” YouTube Ad Strategy.
- Draft 5-10 different hooks for your video ad.
- Write 1-2 different “educate sections,” depending on how many ways there are to teach the concept.
- Create a solid call to action.
- Film your video ad using the best hook and educate section.
- Rinse and repeat!
By breaking down the video content into smaller, easily-filmable chunks, you can create a variety of different YouTube Ads quickly and easily. This allows you to test out different hooks, educates, and call-to-actions to see what works best for the clients.
So how exactly do we go about filming these smaller sections? Well, you can record each section individually, like this: Hook 1 Hook 2 Hook 3 Etc.
Then film: Educate 1, Educate 2, Call to Action with individually recording each section.
By that time, it feels like you filmed 2-3 videos but actually ended up with 10-20 different YouTube Ads!
Because we can put them all together like Lego Blocks in Post:
Hook 1 Educate 1 СТА.
Hook 2 Educate 1 СТА
Etc.
Having these Lego Blocks YouTube Ad strategy will make you save a lot of time!
How To Target The Right Audience Within YouTube Ads
The biggest issues marketers face when they try to target their ads is only targeting in 2 dimensions. This leaves the algorithm to guess who the correct people are for the ads.
Now, some marketers using Facebook try to run YouTube Ads with just Audiences & Affinities, but similar to Facebook, this leaves YouTube guessing the right time to show ads.
So how do you actually target the right people on YouTube for maximum results? The key is combining demographics with video targeting.
You’re reaching someone with the ability to invest and you’re targeting the right videos (right time), but you’re not ensuring that the people you reach are the right people for your offer. This leaves room for error and can lead to low VSL watch rates, low webinar show up rates, increased conversion costs and decreased call bookings/sales.
Facebook’s algorithm isn’t always great at guessing the right time, especially after recent updates. That’s why it’s important to use YouTube Ads in conjunction with demographic targeting and video targeting. By doing so, you’ll reach the right person at the right time and see a significant increase in your ROI.
3 Different Types of YouTube Ads Targeting
YouTube advertising can be broken down into three main categories: audiences/affinities, demographics, and video targeting. This way, you can reach the right person with the ability to invest at the right time with the right YouTube ad.
Producing the highest ROAS on your YouTube ads requires targeting the right audience. Audiences/affinities are interests that you target, demographics are characteristics of your target audience, and video targeting is what the viewer is watching before they see your ad.
Demographics Targeting
When it comes to demographics for YouTube ad targeting, there are a few factors to consider. The first is your chosen country or geo-targeting options, followed by age, gender, and parental status. However, the most important targeting option to set up is Demographics Targeting.
Google has access to a wealth of data that allows them to estimate the income of the person watching the ad. This information can be used to target ads more effectively. For example, if you’re advertising a course that costs less than $997, you would want to exclude the lower 50% of earners from your targeting. The top 50% of earners have an estimated income of $997 or more.
Video Targeting
Video targeting can be a great way to reach your ideal clients on YouTube. There are a few ways you can specifically target your ideal clients using video targeting:
- Video Placements: You can target specific videos to run your ads in front of. However, this can be a never-ending process of adding new videos to target, and these placement campaigns are often not very scalable.
- Channel Placements: You can target an entire channel if the content on that channel is relevant to your ideal clients.
- Keyword Targeting: You can target keywords of the types of videos you’re looking to target. The key here is to get a variety of keywords to split-test and find the ones that are most relevant and have a good amount of viewership on YouTube.
- Topic Targeting: You can target topics that are relevant to your audience. Make sure you find the topics that are relevant to your audience and ensure you monitor the results because topics are definitely more broad than keyword targeting.
Whichever method you choose, video targeting can be a great way to reach your ideal clients on YouTube.
Audience Targeting
There’s many different Audience targeting options for YouTube – the key is to test out which ones will work best for reaching your ideal clients by layering them in your 3D Targeted Campaigns.
Here’s some of the key Audience Targeting Options on YouTube:
Custom Interests & Purchase Intentions Audience
YouTube isn’t just for targeting based on Videos, Google also offers a robust Audience Targeting – which allows you to pinpoint the “Right Person” for your ads to reach, in addition to the “Right Videos”. These custom built audiences allow you to create a seemingly infinite number of possible audience combinations.
To get started, do some Keyword Research to help find potential keywords for these Interests & Purchase intentions. Pay close attention to the Impression Size & Demographic data in the Custom Segment builder so that you can make sure you’re reaching a good-sized audience (without targeting too broad).
Custom “Similar” Audiences (lookalikes)
The best way to create successful YouTube campaigns is to layer them with good video targeting. You can also create “similar” audiences to your existing converters and lists in Google’s Similar Audiences section.
You may also want to consider using purchase intent or in-market audiences as they are more likely to convert on YouTube. This will help you reach your ideal clients on the platform and maximize your campaign’s effectiveness.
In-Market Audiences
In-Market Audiences are a great way to target people who are likely to convert, because they are already interested in what you do. Google pulls data points from a variety of sources to identify someone as being “In-Market,” which means they have Buyers Intent and are likely to purchase what you’re promoting.
Life Events
This audience is more use-case specific depending on who you’re looking to target.
But if you’re looking to target people “Moving Soon” “Recently Married” “Recently Graduated” “Started a New Job” etc. this is a great way to reach people at the perfect time!
Detailed Demographics
Similar to Life Events, this is very case-specific, but those of you who are looking to target with more detailed demographics & you find an audience that fits your avatar – this works really well!
Affinities
Affinities are some of the most broad-based audiences within your YouTube Ads targeting. Honestly, these audiences usually aren’t the ones you want to target because they’re often too broad. But for more mass-market products or courses, this can work quite well – especially for scalability. However, I wouldn’t start with these audiences.
Google Search Intent Audiences
This can be used to target people on YouTube who have recently searched Google for specific keywords. This is a powerful tool that can be used to reach potential customers who are actively looking for the services or products offered by the advertiser. Create different Search Intent Audiences around different angles/themes that your ideal clients are searching on Google.
App Audiences
App audiences are people who have installed certain apps on their devices, and this can be used as a way to target them with advertising. However, this is one of the audiences most affected by Apple’s privacy policies, as it relies on 3rd party data (from apps) rather than 1st party data (from Google). Despite this, app audiences can still be effective targets for advertising.
URL Audiences
You can literally target people who are visiting your competitors websites (or similar sites) by creating a URL Audience! This allows you to enter the URLs of sites you know your target audience is visiting & put them all together into one audience.
Combining demographic targeting with video targeting and audience targeting will allow you to create laser-targeted campaigns from day one! This will maximize your conversions and help you achieve your business goals.
How Media Pouch Can Help You Create The Best YouTube Ad Videos
YouTube ads can be a great way to get your business in front of a new audience, but only if they are optimized correctly. Unfortunately, many people don’t take the time to do this and as a result, their campaigns are not as effective as they could be.
With Media Pouch, we create the video content needed for the ads. Media Pouch’s video content can significantly increase YouTube Ads conversions for businesses. We can produce creative and effective strategies for your video ads to grab attention and increase viewership. Utilizing our video production services can help you see a significant return on investment through increased conversions from your YouTube Ads campaigns.
So how do you go about optimizing your own campaigns? Start by going inside of your YouTube ad campaigns and looking at the audiences, keywords, targeting, etc. From there, turn off any of the keywords, audiences, etc. that are outside of your KPI while keeping the targeting that is within or above KPI. This will help you “trim the fat” and make your campaigns more effective.
Now that you know a little more about how to target your ideal customers on YouTube, it’s time to put this information into practice! As you individually optimize each YouTube videos campaign, you’ll learn which ones are worth scaling and which ones should be paused entirely – allowing you to create some of the best YouTube ad videos out there.
If you’re looking to scale your business, YouTube Ads is a great way to do it. And if you’re looking for help getting started with YouTube Ads, We have just the thing for you.
We are inviting you to schedule a time to speak with one of my top YouTube Ads Advisors. They’ll help you map out the best YouTube Ads Strategy for your business, specifically following our “Value Ad” Video Strategy and 3D Targeting.
We’ll give you an exact action game-plan of what you need to do to dial in your YouTube Ads.
If we invite you to become a client, we’ll work with you hands-on to implement all of our YouTube Ads Strategies directly into your business to get you the biggest results from YouTube Ads in the shortest amount of time!
Either way, you’ll get a full YouTube Ads Strategy and we’ll point you in the right direction to dial in your ads and scale your business.
