Why should you advertise on YouTube? Read it!

According to Google, “Every month, more than 1 billion people watch more than 6 billion hours of YouTube video.” With such a large audience spending so much time on one platform, it’s no wonder that YouTube is becoming the preferred place to advertise for many businesses. From easily accessible statistics to a proven influence on purchasing behavior, discover these five reasons why your business can benefit from YouTube advertising.

1. YouTube’s Reach Is Enormous

As a hybrid between a search engine and a social media network, YouTube is uniquely positioned to reach an incredibly wide range of internet users. Forbes classifies internet users into two basic categories: those seeking information and those seeking social interaction. YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google, with more searches than Yahoo, Bing, Ask and AOL combined! It also ranks as the third largest social media network. This allows YouTube content to reach users in both of Forbes’ categories, which most other advertising platforms do not achieve. Google also reports that YouTube reaches more people aged 18-49 than any broadcast or cable TV network—and that’s on mobile alone. If you’re trying to communicate your business’ message to the widest possible range of customers, YouTube is the platform for you.

2. YouTube Influences Purchasing Behavior

Between advertisements, vlogs, and videos by prominent influencers, studies show that YouTube content has a significant impact on customer purchases. Entrepreneur cites a case study for a custom shoe retailer, Shoes of Prey, which partnered with influencer Blair Fowler to host a giveaway on her YouTube channel. As a result, Shoes of Prey permanently tripled its online sales. A recent YouTube Insights report also notes that 66% of beauty product purchasers, 72% of auto-vehicle purchasers, and 62% of smartphone purchasers indicate that YouTube influenced their buying decisions. If your business falls into one of these categories, then YouTube will directly impact purchasing decisions for the majority of your customer base. If your business falls into a different category, it’s still a great idea to take advantage of YouTube’s market influence with some well-placed advertisements or brand videos.

3. It’s Easy to Track Ad Metrics

Up-to-date metrics are key in evaluating your advertising strategy and ensuring that your ad dollars are being used most efficiently. YouTube makes this process easy and accessible. Google offers information about views, costs, and budget details through AdWords, while the Analytics tab of your YouTube account provides more in-depth information about your viewers. Although the available data depends on what format and pricing you choose for your ad, some examples include views, clicks, engagements, reach, and frequency. You can also track video viewership or quartile reporting, which shows how often an ad is watched to 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of its length. These metrics make it easy to evaluate where your ad is performing well and where it should be improved so that you can adjust your strategy and better meet your advertising goals.

4. Advanced Targeting Is Available

If you’re advertising to people who aren’t interested in your product, you’re wasting time and money. Correctly targeting your audience is crucial to getting the best performance out of ads. Through YouTube, you can target people based on demographics like age, gender, parental status, and interests. By targeting affinity audiences, you can ensure your ads reach people who have already demonstrated an interest in relevant topics. With custom affinity audiences, you can target even more specifically—for example, instead of targeting car enthusiasts, you could narrow your range to people interested in classic Dodge muscle cars. You can also target in-market audiences—people actively researching products and services like those you offer. Beyond targeting people, YouTube also allows you to focus your ads on specific channels or videos. This means that with some research, you can place your ads on popular videos that are relevant to your target audience, helping you make sure that your company message gets where you need it to go.

5. ROI Is High Across Pricing Options

A recent meta-analysis conducted by BrandScience, Data2Decisions, GfK, Kantar Worldpanel, MarketingScan, MarketShare, and others reveals that YouTube advertisements offer a higher ROI than traditional television ads, in almost 80% of studies. That’s a huge testament to the effectiveness of YouTube ads. However, before you can consider your return on investment, you have to consider your investment, and there exist a wide range of price points for running YouTube Ads. Search Engine Watch lists homepage ads, or YouTube Homepage Redzone, as the most expensive option, with interactive ads costing around $300,000 per day. A much more affordable option is TrueView In-Stream, which are 30- or 60-second pre-roll ads that viewers can skip after the first five seconds. In-stream ads are cheaper than traditional cost per click (CPC) or cost per view (CPV) ads, averaging only four cents per view. With such a wide range of pricing options, it’s up to your business to determine its ideal budget and take advantage of that better-than-TV ROI.

With a wide reach, influence on purchasing decisions, easily available metrics, advanced targeting, high ROI, and flexible pricing, it’s easy to see why YouTube advertising has gained popularity in recent years. Now is the perfect time for your business to take advantage of this platform’s many benefits.