Leveraging YouTube shopping ads can help brands offer customers an enhanced shopping experience.
Online shopping has rapidly become a favourite way for consumers to try new products, source items they need and discover new brands. The trick for marketers is to figure out how to stand out among all the online ads consumers see each day.
YouTube ads are one way to do this. They are surprisingly effective, with 75 per cent of viewers agreeing that YouTube enhances the traditional shopping journey.
Marketers competing for the attention of these shoppers can explore different types of YouTube ad campaigns to come up with the most effective way to engage viewers and encourage them to become customers.
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Getting started with YouTube shopping ads
It’s not just about entertainment. People see YouTube as a source of information and helpful solutions, and intentionally use the platform when shopping. In fact, 68 per cent of users surveyed watched YouTube videos to help them make a purchase decision. Marketers are eager to turn these viewers into customers by creating shopping ads that help engage relevant audiences.
To get the most impact from your advertising budget, you’ll want to try to get your ads in front of people who are most likely to purchase from you. With YouTube, you can target ads to reach viewers based on their Google search history, increasing the chance that they are already interested in your products or services.
Other tips to help boost your success with YouTube ads:
- Review your marketing strategy to plan relevant campaigns.
- Use high-quality images that show off your products.
- Choose images with a person rather than just a product.
- Keep the amount of text to a minimum.
- Collect audience insights from other social platforms.
- Do keyword research to ensure your targeting is accurate and updated.
- Create a budget to support your campaigns.
- Be prepared to give campaigns time to gain traction.
These tips can help you create impactful ad campaigns that align with your current marketing strategy, and use the data and insights to refine your targeting and goals.
3 types of YouTube shopping ad campaigns to try
How can your brand take advantage of this platform to draw interested customers your way? Let’s look at how you can get started with YouTube ads and grow your reach once you get rolling.
There are three types of YouTube shopping ads you can use to create targeted campaigns that place your products in front of the right audiences. They differ in where the ads will appear for YouTube content consumers and how the campaigns are created. Many brands find a combination of ad campaigns can be an effective strategy.
1. YouTube video action campaigns
Video action campaigns (formerly called TrueView for shopping) stream video ads. These are effective in driving more conversions while keeping costs low, improving campaign performance, and scaling campaigns across multiple devices.
These campaigns can generate multiple ad campaigns that will figure out the most impactful ad format for a specific viewer and deliver it. You’ll be able to select a goal for your campaign, with options ranging from sales or leads to website traffic. From these selections, YouTube will optimize your conversions to keep your costs low while still converting viewers to customers.
Video action ads are displayed across the YouTube home feed, watch pages and connected TV, and in search results. To helps get them in front of new viewers. To increase the impact of these ads, try adding product imagery to your ads that direct viewers to the product pages on your website where they can complete a purchase. These product feeds can dramatically boost conversations.
2. YouTube Discovery video ads
Discovery ads are shown in viewers’ personalized feeds, which means potential customers could see your ads in their home and “watch next” feeds, plus Discover and Gmail. The placement is deliberate, helping the right people see your content.
These ad campaigns allow you to showcase your brand or products with high-quality visuals and inspirational messaging. YouTube’s built-in campaign manager will help you create your settings and notify you if your selections will likely affect your campaign.
Discovery ad campaigns can boost brand consideration and help you connect with audiences actively consuming relevant content and, therefore, more likely to engage with your ads. Targeting these relevant audiences can help encourage viewers to watch, share, and even subscribe to watch additional content you promote.
3. YouTube BrandConnect creator campaigns
YouTube BrandConnect pairs advertisers with relevant content creators to launch authentic ad campaigns that are especially meaningful to viewers. With the support of this built-in platform, brands can connect with creators, run campaigns, and accurately measure performance and return on their investment.
The BrandConnect platform pairs you with creators based on search terms used by your target audience to ensure a perfect fit. These campaigns have features that allow you to showcase your products to engage viewers and even encourage them to return to your business via remarketing outreach. The BrandConnect team can create videos from your custom content to use in other YouTube ads, helping you make the most of your marketing budget. Measurement tools will keep you in the loop so you can make informed decisions about your campaigns.
Bringing campaigns to life through the influence of online content creators can be a game changer for brands wanting to stand out in competitive markets. Creator promotions have a unique appeal that can create memorable brand experiences for consumers. They also allow you to tap into the established and loyal audiences these creators have curated over time.
Which YouTube ad format is right for your business?
Your target audiences may respond well to certain types of ad campaigns but ignore others. You can try different YouTube ad types to see which are most effective.
With some trial and error, you’ll find the perfect combination of YouTube ads and campaigns to provide the most significant impact to the most valuable audiences. As with any advertising campaign, the best solution is to test and measure your results. Then, repeat and build upon what works.
YouTube offers data to marketers to help measure ad efficacy, which is critical when allocating resources to ad campaigns. You can view ad performance, how users engage with your ads and cost-per-conversion in its data attribution models. Regardless of your ad campaign type, remember to track and measure the analytics so you can gain insights into where you should invest your advertising dollars.
YouTube ads can be an effective means of reaching audiences with memorable shopping experiences. When leveraged correctly, these audiences can drive sales and brand recognition for companies ready to jump in. For more benefits on how Youtube can help your business click here. To learn more about how Postmedia can assist you with this, please visit our contact us page to receive a free consultation with one of our expert media sales consultants. Just complete the contact form and we’ll get right back to you. We are here to help your business grow.
