Are you missing out on one of the most powerful partnerships in digital advertising?
Considering that 48% of content marketers admit they are not using video marketing to its fullest potential, while 87% of those using it are satisfied with the ROI it delivers, it is likely that the answer is yes.
This partnership we speak of is not simply about pairing videos with your content marketing strategy, but specifically, including YouTube strategies to power up your Google Advertising campaigns.
Think about it:
- Google is the most powerful search engine on the Internet
- Google owns YouTube
- YouTube is the 2nd most powerful search engine on the Internet
- Imagine the power when they play strategically together!
Are you ready to take your digital marketing advertising to the next level?
Read on for (un)Common Logic’s YouTube marketing tips as supported by a successful case study from a client in the very competitive higher education space.
What is YouTube Marketing?
YouTube marketing is a strategy that involves the creation and distribution of video content to promote your brand’s products or services while drawing new awareness from your target audience across different channels.
Aligning a powerful YouTube marketing strategy with your existing Google Search and Display advertising strategy is a key step to stay ahead in today’s competitive digital world.
Video content adds humanization to your brand, supports simplification of complex ideas, entertains, and also amplifies your SEO strategy.
Components of YouTube marketing may include:
- Organic promotional video content development and distribution
- Advertising on YouTube and across other platforms
- Partnering with influencers to extend reach and further credibility
Is YouTube Marketing Really Worth It?
We could simply leave this section at a resounding YES, but since we are a data driven agency, we’ll bring some key insights and experiences to drive the point home.
You already saw above that YouTube is the world’s 2nd largest search engine, but some leaders still say “my audience is not on YouTube.” With 32% of the population on YouTube and 245 million active users in North America alone, we beg to differ.
Who is YouTube Digital Marketing Best Suited For?
If you are looking to accelerate sales and drive new traffic to your website, your business is a great candidate for YouTube.
In all honesty, given the range of demographics, the sheer volume of consumption, and the fact that video is the most influential type of content on the digital landscape, YouTube marketing is likely to create a win for anyone doing it well. 👈Therein lies the key.
While video marketing on YouTube will likely move the needle, there are critical prerequisites:
- The creation of video content that meets your audience’s needs
- A strong video marketing strategy
That’s where (un)Common Logic can help. One of our company values is ‘Always be Testing.’ With that in mind, we wanted to measure the impact that YouTube, Discovery and Display products could have on filling the top of the funnel for our higher education client.
Stick around to see how combining the success of Google search advertising lead generation with the power of YouTube allowed us to address the client’s branding objective through successful matched market testing.
How to Get Started with YouTube Marketing
Of course, some clear first steps to getting started on YouTube are to have a YouTube channel and to start creating relevant video content. Those how-tos are in great abundance (on YouTube, of course) so we’d rather use this opportunity to share our expert insights, client successes, and tips that are commonly missed in those functionality focused articles.
Tip #1 Research Your Target Audience
Creating content for YouTube video marketing means creating with your target audience in mind. Before you map out a content strategy it is critical you understand what your audience is seeking, what they need to drive important decisions, and how knowing the value you provide intersects with your advertising goals.
For our higher education client, understanding target audience needs went beyond the typical demographic layer of a university prospect. It was critical that our messaging met them at their stage of life, demonstrated career advancement potential, and showed our understanding of the need for ease of work-life balance in a post-covid world.
Your content must resonate with your audience and deliver a solution they can trust. Without this research, a business is creating video content for themselves, not their potential consumer.
Tip #2 Know Your Metrics
We love hearing about businesses eager to explore YouTube advertising strategies! But we also love hearing that they know exactly what KPIs they are trying to achieve so that we can guide the efforts with specific intention and a holistic approach, as we did for our higher education client.
For this particular client, the metrics that were important to measure efficacy across all site traffic and Google CPC were:
- Sessions (available via Google Ads interface and Google Analytics)
- Lead form Completions
- Application form Completions
- Google brand impressions
This allowed us to develop a YouTube marketing strategy that leveraged the location and audience focused search targeting in our Google Ad strategy to drive KPI success.
This additional Prospecting strategy ultimately led to a Google Ad enrollment increase of +109%, while reducing spend by -37%, for a -70% decrease in cost-per-enrollment YoY.
How did YouTube serve these improvements? Let’s take a look at our 3rd tip to see how this powerful partnership drove home a win.
Tip #3 Matched Market Testing
First, what is ‘matched market testing’?
Matched market testing is a form of controlled experimentation where geographic regions are selected as test and control groups that contain similar demographics. Keep in mind that even if your products and services are available internet-wide, this type of testing helps identify which markets do best for a certain type of targeting and will help make most effective use of your advertising budget.
For this particular client, we created a matched market test in which spend on YouTube was increased across 4 different states that we found had a similar long term performance as the rest of the country. We did not expand YouTube presence in other states as our “control” variable.
The results?
Our YouTube Video Boost Matched Market testing increased Overall Site Sessions by +31%, Google Sessions by +76%, and scaled Google Ads Brand Impressions by +17% when looking at the timeframe immediately before the test vs the testing period.
At the individual state level, 3 out of the 4 test states (with YouTube Expansion) reported traffic, lead, and application growth at a higher rate than the non-matched market (without YouTube Expansion) segment.
How (Un)Common Logic Can Support Your Video Marketing Strategy
Video marketing and advertising can be a daunting endeavor to many businesses trying to keep up with the rapid changes across the digital landscape. That’s why we are happy to help guide you along this new journey with strategies founded in data and experience.
Contact us to learn more about the (un)Common Logic approach to video marketing, including paid media best practices, and more!
Are you missing out on one of the most powerful partnerships in digital advertising?
Considering that 48% of content marketers admit they are not using video marketing to its fullest potential, while 87% of those using it are satisfied with the ROI it delivers, it is likely that the answer is yes.
This partnership we speak of is not simply about pairing videos with your content marketing strategy, but specifically, including YouTube strategies to power up your Google Advertising campaigns.
Think about it:
- Google is the most powerful search engine on the Internet
- Google owns YouTube
- YouTube is the 2nd most powerful search engine on the Internet
- Imagine the power when they play strategically together!
Are you ready to take your digital marketing advertising to the next level?
Read on for (un)Common Logic’s YouTube marketing tips as supported by a successful case study from a client in the very competitive higher education space.
What is YouTube Marketing?
YouTube marketing is a strategy that involves the creation and distribution of video content to promote your brand’s products or services while drawing new awareness from your target audience across different channels.
Aligning a powerful YouTube marketing strategy with your existing Google Search and Display advertising strategy is a key step to stay ahead in today’s competitive digital world.
Video content adds humanization to your brand, supports simplification of complex ideas, entertains, and also amplifies your SEO strategy.
Components of YouTube marketing may include:
- Organic promotional video content development and distribution
- Advertising on YouTube and across other platforms
- Partnering with influencers to extend reach and further credibility
Is YouTube Marketing Really Worth It?
We could simply leave this section at a resounding YES, but since we are a data driven agency, we’ll bring some key insights and experiences to drive the point home.
You already saw above that YouTube is the world’s 2nd largest search engine, but some leaders still say “my audience is not on YouTube.” With 32% of the population on YouTube and 245 million active users in North America alone, we beg to differ.
Who is YouTube Digital Marketing Best Suited For?
If you are looking to accelerate sales and drive new traffic to your website, your business is a great candidate for YouTube.
In all honesty, given the range of demographics, the sheer volume of consumption, and the fact that video is the most influential type of content on the digital landscape, YouTube marketing is likely to create a win for anyone doing it well. 👈Therein lies the key.
While video marketing on YouTube will likely move the needle, there are critical prerequisites:
- The creation of video content that meets your audience’s needs
- A strong video marketing strategy
That’s where (un)Common Logic can help. One of our company values is ‘Always be Testing.’ With that in mind, we wanted to measure the impact that YouTube, Discovery and Display products could have on filling the top of the funnel for our higher education client.
Stick around to see how combining the success of Google search advertising lead generation with the power of YouTube allowed us to address the client’s branding objective through successful matched market testing.
How to Get Started with YouTube Marketing
Of course, some clear first steps to getting started on YouTube are to have a YouTube channel and to start creating relevant video content. Those how-tos are in great abundance (on YouTube, of course) so we’d rather use this opportunity to share our expert insights, client successes, and tips that are commonly missed in those functionality focused articles.
Tip #1 Research Your Target Audience
Creating content for YouTube video marketing means creating with your target audience in mind. Before you map out a content strategy it is critical you understand what your audience is seeking, what they need to drive important decisions, and how knowing the value you provide intersects with your advertising goals.
For our higher education client, understanding target audience needs went beyond the typical demographic layer of a university prospect. It was critical that our messaging met them at their stage of life, demonstrated career advancement potential, and showed our understanding of the need for ease of work-life balance in a post-covid world.
Your content must resonate with your audience and deliver a solution they can trust. Without this research, a business is creating video content for themselves, not their potential consumer.
Tip #2 Know Your Metrics
We love hearing about businesses eager to explore YouTube advertising strategies! But we also love hearing that they know exactly what KPIs they are trying to achieve so that we can guide the efforts with specific intention and a holistic approach, as we did for our higher education client.
For this particular client, the metrics that were important to measure efficacy across all site traffic and Google CPC were:
- Sessions (available via Google Ads interface and Google Analytics)
- Lead form Completions
- Application form Completions
- Google brand impressions
This allowed us to develop a YouTube marketing strategy that leveraged the location and audience focused search targeting in our Google Ad strategy to drive KPI success.
This additional Prospecting strategy ultimately led to a Google Ad enrollment increase of +109%, while reducing spend by -37%, for a -70% decrease in cost-per-enrollment YoY.
How did YouTube serve these improvements? Let’s take a look at our 3rd tip to see how this powerful partnership drove home a win.
Tip #3 Matched Market Testing
First, what is ‘matched market testing’?
Matched market testing is a form of controlled experimentation where geographic regions are selected as test and control groups that contain similar demographics. Keep in mind that even if your products and services are available internet-wide, this type of testing helps identify which markets do best for a certain type of targeting and will help make most effective use of your advertising budget.
For this particular client, we created a matched market test in which spend on YouTube was increased across 4 different states that we found had a similar long term performance as the rest of the country. We did not expand YouTube presence in other states as our “control” variable.
The results?
Our YouTube Video Boost Matched Market testing increased Overall Site Sessions by +31%, Google Sessions by +76%, and scaled Google Ads Brand Impressions by +17% when looking at the timeframe immediately before the test vs the testing period.
At the individual state level, 3 out of the 4 test states (with YouTube Expansion) reported traffic, lead, and application growth at a higher rate than the non-matched market (without YouTube Expansion) segment.
How (Un)Common Logic Can Support Your Video Marketing Strategy
Video marketing and advertising can be a daunting endeavor to many businesses trying to keep up with the rapid changes across the digital landscape. That’s why we are happy to help guide you along this new journey with strategies founded in data and experience.
Contact us to learn more about the (un)Common Logic approach to video marketing, including paid media best practices, and more!