Q: "AdWords for video offers a terrific opportunity for businesses of all sizes to make a genuine connection with potential customers due to its cost effectiveness and ability to reach targeted audiences at very large scale. Can you share some tips to help advertisers create effective AdWords for video campaigns?"
A: AdWords for video enables you to display video ads on YouTube and across the web via the Google Display Network. When you consider that every month more than 1 billion people visit YouTube and watch over 6 billion hours of videos, then the fantastic opportunity that AdWords for video offers becomes obvious.
However, because of such a large potential reach, running an AdWords for video campaign can be intimidating. This is especially true for the inexperienced advertiser. Below are five tips that will help advertisers maximize the return from their AdWords for video campaigns.
1. Shorter Is Better
With the average attention span growing shorter every day, it is imperative that you keep your video short and to the point. As play rates drop off significantly after 45 seconds, you should deliver your most important messages early in the video. This is particularly important with in-stream ads where users are offered the option of skipping your ad before watching the video they originally selected.
2. Inspire the Viewer to Act
Ideally, your video must be so compelling that it not only educates and entertains, but also inspires the viewer to act. To do so, make sure you communicate to your customers what you'd like them to do, such as visit your store or site, call a phone number or complete a purchase.
3. Maximize AdWords for Video's Targeting Capabilities
If you aren't presenting your video to the right audience, then no matter how compelling your content is, your video campaign will not be successful. This means you need to be ultra-focused when it comes to targeting your video to the right audience. In AdWords for video, you can target by demographics, topics, interests, and keywords.
4. Ongoing Optimization Is Key to Success
Even if you target your video to the right audience, your campaign will not be successful without ongoing optimization. Make sure you add exclusions to irrelevant topics or demographics and, depending on their performance, you can adjust the bids on your ads. You can also add call-to-action overlays, which can increase viewer engagement.
5. Link Your YouTube Channel to AdWords for Additional Statistics and Insights
Linking your YouTube channel to your AdWords account is a must, as it will allow you to access additional video view statistics, call-to-action overlays, and remarketing and engagement statistics. In particular, the ability to create remarketing lists based on viewers' past interactions on linked channels can offer an unprecedented level of targeting capabilities.
Video ads represent a terrific opportunity for businesses of all sizes to cost-effectively reach targeted audiences. Follow the tips above to ensure your AdWords for video campaigns successfully get the most out of your marketing dollars.
