Video Advertising and Remarketing for Direct Marketers

In today’s presentation, we discuss using YouTube’s TrueView video ads,and how by growing viewership of your ads, you can use remarketing tracking to build a prospect list and bring viewers back to your video marketing message. If you’re familiar with Google Adwords, this is a logical progression in expanding your direct response media choices.

With remarketing, also known as remessaging or retargeting, you have the opportunity to show text or display ads to promote your video to millions of viewers based on their past interactions with your videos or on your YouTube channel. By reinforcing your message with people who have already seen your videos you’re more likely to succeed in building your list, generating leads, or making a sale.

AdWords for video is a video-specific campaign management tool within Google AdWords. It offers an advertising program called TrueView. Within TrueView are a few video ad formats to choose from, all priced on a cost-per-view, or CPV, basis.

With TrueView ads, you only pay when a viewer actively selects your video, or chooses to continue watching a video when it first loads as they browse video content.

There are three formats:

1. In-Stream Video ads. Use this format when you have video content you’d like to promote before short or long-form videos. You might think of this as a pre-roll ad, and they appear on the video. The viewer has the option to skip the ad, but you’re only charged when the viewer reaches the 30 second point of the video.

2. In-Search Video ads. These were previously known as YouTube Promoted Videos. This format lets you promote a video using a text ad that includes your video’s thumbnail image, above or below search results on YouTube. You’re only charged when viewers begin to watch your video.

3. In-display video ads. These ads appear alongside other YouTube videos, or on websites in the Google Display Network. You’re only charged when viewers choose to watch your ad.

When you run a video ad campaign on YouTube, you also have the opportunity to create a video remarketing campaign. Remarketing lets you show ads to users who've previously visited your website as they browse the Web. And remarketing is a powerful way to stay engaged with your target audience.

Remarketing lists are created by linking your YouTube account to your AdWords for video account.

When you link these accounts, lists are automatically created that collect channel viewers, channel subscribers, and channel visitors for you. These were warm prospects at one point, and with remarketing, you have an opportunity to engage them again.

You can create remarketing lists that target viewers based on the following YouTube-related actions:

1. People who watch any of your videos.

2. People who take an action, such as liking, disliking, commenting, or sharing of your videos.

3. People who view your video as a TrueView in-stream ad.

4. And people who visit or subscribe to your YouTube channel.

You can then use these lists of viewers within your targeting settings for new or existing video campaigns.

Here are some key benefits:

First, you can improve ROI: Direct marketers who use remarketing on YouTube can improve return on investment by reaching back to customers or prospects who have demonstrated an interest in your product or service.

Second, your YouTube video can generate a high number of views, sometimes quite quickly, by allowing you to reconnect with potential customers on your remarketing list sooner than with other remarketing methods.

Third, you get efficient pricing. The AdWords auction model offers competitive rates that meet your target ROI. You pay only when the user chooses to watch the ad, known as cost per view.

Fourth, enjoy flexibility: most remarketing relies on users visiting an advertiser’s website. Now, with AdWords for video and YouTube, you can remarket based on actions specific to your YouTube videos, including when viewers like, dislike, comment on, and share your video.

Additional features of video remarketing include your ability to market to your potential customers by using specific categories, such as topics, interests, keywords, geo-targeting, and more.

As a direct marketer, you’ll want to see reports. You’re in charge of optimizing your remarketing campaign based on performance metrics. For example, you can raise bids on specific topics or channels that generate the greatest response for you.

There is one caveat before you can start a remarketing campaign. Your video or channel must have interactions from a minimum of 100 viewers to meet the remarketing list criteria before the video remarketing list can be added to a targeting group. Most likely, you can get those 100 interactions by sending an email to your customer list, or promoting your video on social media, and ask your followers to watch the video, or subscribe to your channel.

Clearly there is much more to this video marketing opportunity than can be included in today’s presentation, so I encourage you to checkout Adwords for Video from Google.