A recently released feature from YouTube, allows video clip owners to promote their YouTube Video Channels via sponsored listings/ads. Although these are displayed on the YouTube network, the advertising arrangements are made through your Google Adwords account. As a result, you can compare and contrast traditional Keyword Cost Per Click activity alongside these new sponsored video placements and their results.
The placements work very much like Adwords, whereby you are bidding on keywords, submitting text ads (copy) to be displayed and paying on a per click basis. The major difference is that the Destination URL is not a page on your website but your YouTube Channel page, which highlights any videos you have uploaded to it. (If you don't have a channel page created, you can direct ads to an individual video, but there would be other videos surrounding it on the page, unrelated to your company).
An example of one of these pages is our own, MoreVisibility Video Channel page.
These sponsored ads are only appearing on keyword searches within YouTube, which although not a "Search Engine", per se – has increased substantially in search queries this past year, surpassing Yahoo in May of this year, according to a Comscore study.
There is LITTLE to NO competition right now in this advertising platform given how new it is. I am sure this will change as word spreads and Google starts to promote it more heavily to existing Adwords account owners. Take a look below at how the Sponsored Video Listings appear in the Search Results within YouTube:
At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago — there was a lot of discussion surrounding the importance of companies within online video, as it is the #1 source of Social Media participation. Some things to consider:
- If you have a corporate You Tube channel, make sure it is optimized and branded to the best the website allows for.
- Embrace comments, even the negative ones, to maintain your brand standards and image.
- Check out YouTube Insights to learn more about how people are interacting with your videos and video channel. This free tool offers detailed viewing statistics about the videos you have uploaded.
The videos your company submits do not need to be complex or intricate; actually the opposite is preferred. Videos should be engaging to attract an audience and video channel following – "How to" and "Viral" videos seem to work best for this.
Many times companies already have these types of digital assets, on a bigger (lengthier) scale, which can be cut down or edited to accommodate the typical online video viewing submission requirement of 10 minutes or less.
Maximize the power of Video – open a YouTube account and create your corporate video channel today!
