How To Build & Scale Profitable YouTube Ad Campaigns?

A lot of digital planners and brand custodians I have come across complain that Youtube Advertising does not work because it does not give them business results or advertising on Youtube is very expensive.

Well, in that case, I think you are missing out on a huge platform that has 1.3bn users that are consuming 5bn views/day each session with an average view time of 40 mins. Youtube is the second-biggest search engine with many opportunities for advertisers.

For those people who say that Facebook is giving me better ROI. It may be true in your case, but you might be missing out on a vast audience chunk that is untapped.

WHY???

If you have not yet realized let me tell you Youtube is more intent-based platform for advertising then Facebook where you start from Interests.

How can you target users on Youtube?

For all of you who are not aware of how you can target your audience on the platform, there are primarily eight ways by which you can target your consumers.

1. Affinity Audiences
2. Similar Audiences
3. In-Market Audiences
4. Custom Intent
5. Topics
6. Keywords
7. Video & Channel Placements
8. Website & Video Remarketing

Why people visit Youtube?

To take maximum advantage of Youtube, you need to understand audience behaviour on the platform. As an advertiser, you need to focus on moments that matter.

People visit Youtube because they want:

1. To Know
2. To Do
3. To Buy

These are your opportunity areas because people are always looking to know more about their current problems and are looking for solutions for their need (How to cook a particular dish, Gift ideas, etc.). They are trying to do new things (Renovating their house, learning to drive, etc.). They are also evaluating their top brands in mind (can be a new smartwatch or booking a hotel)

Every behaviour on Youtube is a separate intent, and if you understand the consumer intent, correctly you can then effectively target your audience with a tailored message for that user communicating (basically helping) them exactly how you are the solution.

HOW TO FIND YOUR CUSTOMERS ON YOUTUBE?

NORMAL KEYWORD RESEARCH” DOES NOT WORK WELL FOR YOUTUBE ADS.

You need to find Youtube friendly keywords for that you need to research about what users are searching.

Just think about your brand and its consumer journey and research what and how your audience/consumers might use Youtube to find you or your competitor.

You need to divide the keywords than in;

1. Want to know KEYWORDS
2. Want to do KEYWORDS
3. Want to buy KEYWORDS

For instance, if you are selling baby products that help parents to make them sleep.

How will you structure your keywords?

• WANT TO KNOW (Slightly Broad but relevant Keywords)

“Parenting Advice”

• WANT TO DO (Action-Oriented)

“How to get my baby to sleep.”

• WANT TO BUY (Showcasing reason to buy with clear CTA)

“Baby Sleep Product Reviews”

Of course, you will need to think of more keywords that you can use for each moment.

Few tips for Keyword Research:

Type keywords that your consumers might type to find the solution of whatever you sell.

For instance, in this case, it is "How to get my baby to sleep."

Step 2

Copy the top 10 video titles exactly and think of other search terms your consumers might search for and repeat this step.

• Tips to get your baby to sleep
• Baby to sleep through the night
• Baby sleep training
• How to put a baby to sleep
• Lullabies for babies

Now You’ve Got some YouTube Friendly Keywords!

Use these titles as keywords for your campaign.

Think of around five such relevant search terms and repeat the same step.

Even if you are going to get 5 Youtube titles per Youtube search, you will get 25 Youtube friend Keywords.

If you think you do not have enough variations yet.

Wait a minute

You can go to Youtube's search bar and just type these 25 Youtube Keywords one by one and then you will find suggestions in the form of phrases. You can copy the top 8 from them.

After completing this step you will have a list of 200 relevant Youtube keyword list.

How?

5 Brainstormed Keywords x 5 Edited Titles x 8 Auto-suggested Keywords

One of the most basic blunders that most advertisers make is that they do not understand that at what stage they need to shift gear on any platform.

There are 4 Main Steps of any campaign.

1. Build
2. Optimize
3. Scale
4. Expand

and then you need to leave it to Machine Learning.

This means when you are staring off the campaign, please drive it like you are driving a manual car. In this case, Machine Learning is Self-Driving Mode.

So you cannot directly set your campaigns on Self-driving if you have not fed in enough data in your ads platform. Basically, your audience data or conversions is fuel for machine learning to identify who your audience is if your platform does not understand whom to target or who your consumers our, you are in for a disaster. That is why initially you need to build your campaign usually with more controls in your hands.

Once you have enough campaign data switch to machine learning.

Google’s AI knows a huge amount.

? Feed your key conversion pixel with quality and volume. (Train your pixels)

? Google will learn who is converting and will help you find more.

? Simply give Google a little guidance, and this can help lower CPAs and increase scale in a big way!

For further details, you can check out fantastic Youtube course at CXL

Important Considerations:

• Make relevant content for every step of the consumer journey so they can relate better.
• Have clear CTA so you can generate more actions from your ads.
• Keep testing and learning by experimenting with a different variation of ads. Just one ad will not work for you. You need to test, optimize and learn.
• Implement Conversion tag across your website and use define conversion actions clearly. (For instance, if it is Purchase or Lead)
• Use Frequency capping it will save you much money plus you will reduce the list of haters significantly.
• Develop a solid Naming Convention and use it throughout it will help you in collecting data, insights and reporting for the future.
• You also need to jot down a checklist of optimizations that you need to review after every week or 14 days as a ritual.
• When you shift on Machine learning your transition will not be smooth so don't worry, first 72 hours to week will be very expensive.
• Start using all targeting options to target your audience better.