Is it easy to launch an ad campaign on YouTube? Yes and no. To organize all of it can be really easy, but there is a high chance of spending money in vain. Yana Bashlykevich, mediacube’s Head of Influencer Marketing, has done her own research and now shares the results, tells about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to running brand ads for influencers.
At first glance, there is nothing complicated: the brand simply connects with the appropriate channels, specifies the cost, offers options for creatives for native integrations, sets deadlines, and everything is done. To launch an ad campaign on Youtube, you don’t need to be able to set up targeting, run multiple A/B tests to determine the most performing creatives, or manually optimize your ad campaigns. On one hand, launching ads for youtubers is simple, but the cost of the experiment can be very high when compared to launching ads in social or advertising networks. Another problem is that brands often do not clearly understand their goals.
A few years ago, at the dawn of influencer marketing, the main indicator of the effectiveness of launching an advertising campaign on YouTube was solely the number of video views. No one has conducted a deep analysis of the results of advertising integrations. Brands can’t afford it now. Now you need to actively forecast ROI, eCPM, and evaluate other parameters of the channel where you plan to release ads, including, for example, their ER. Deep placement analysis and forecasting are needed to reduce the cost of running advertising campaigns on YouTube.
What can reduce the potential cost of running ads for YouTube bloggers? A correctly selected launch strategy. It is important for the brand to determine what goal they want to achieve in order to choose which approach to follow.
7 approaches to test launching ads for influencers on YouTube
1. Launching ad placements for everyone and everything.
Roughly speaking, the purchase of advertising from the authors with any geo-data, working in any genre.
The main goal of this approach is to achieve the greatest coverage in all territories. What this approach does: retargeting using the look-alike channel’s audience (which can be considered a minus, since the brand pays twice for the same audience).
It is available and relevant for brands that have unlimited budgets for influencers, as well as for companies that are ready to conduct such large-scale tests to truly determine their TA. Now this approach is no longer relevant, as more and more brands are forced to make accurate calculations of the effectiveness of each placement and evaluate organic growth in the course of an advertising campaign.
2. Purchase of publications from channels from the most paying language groups / genres.
For example, an advertiser tested several genres or language groups and found out which groups were most interested in their product during the initial test run. Next, the strategy is to purchase placements from all channels of a certain type without taking into account the size of the channels.
This approach guarantees high performance and ROI from placements. Also, thanks to this strategy, you can most successfully and timely occupy a certain niche and get ahead of all competitors. The disadvantage of this approach is that, as in the first case, there is a high risk of targeting the same audience within the same language group.
3. Purchase of placement on channels of language groups / genres that are not typical for the advertiser.
This is relevant for those brands that, after conducting analytics research on the TA of their product, going from the opposite and launch advertising campaigns on channels with completely opposite TA. For example, if the product’s TA is men over 25, the brand may launch ads on channels with a female TA over 18, simply because these channels may have the audience the brand needs.
4. Evaluating the audience’s reaction to the product before the official release or before launching targeted ads in a specific territory.
Sometimes a good strategy for conducting a test campaign on YouTube can be to place 2–3 ad integrations on channels whose geo-data are completely new to the brand. Moreover, you can have ads even before the first performance campaigns are launched and the first A/B tests of creatives are conducted.
What you need: with the right communication model and CTA, you can get real feedback from real people who will be the first to test the demo version of the product. If all territorial markets are already covered by brand advertising and the question arises as to which market to enter next, live feedback will make it much more clear than clicks on non-live banners and CR calculations.
5. Announcement of sales, promotions, seasonal discounts, giveaways, contests.
This can be considered not as a separate approach to conducting test advertising campaigns on YouTube, but as a support for any of the approaches described above.
The main goal is to attract the widest possible audience that is interested in the product by providing a benefit. Even testing now it is better to go with some nice free offer for the audience. This heats up interest and increases loyalty.
The disadvantage of this approach is that some of the audience will come only because of this bonus and will disappear later.
6. Growing your own bloggers, sponsoring, and being an Ambassador.
More and more brands are trying to grow their own loyal audience on YouTube from scratch, providing potential brand ambassadors with support in terms of traffic, creativity and content. Thus, the brand first popularizes its YouTube channel or channels of its representatives, and then proceeds to the approaches described in paragraphs 2 or 3. This helps to introduce the product to the audience natively before a massive advertising campaign in support of the brand is launched on YouTube.
7. Placing ads on niche channels of a given genre / language group.
Now it is really better to work out small channels with a loyal audience that are not oversaturated with advertising. The authors of such channels are trusted, and the audience listens to the advice of such bloggers much more willingly. Plus, the brand is always confident that the integration will be native to the main content.
One of the strategies for launching test ad integrations is to launch them from a variety of niche creators. This helps you determine which channel orientation is more suitable, and save money on the test run: many authors of small channels are willing to work by barter or for a nominal amount.
Identify brand needs and choose a strategy
To clearly define your brand’s needs and goals and choose the most appropriate advertising strategy, contact mediacube’s influencer marketing specialists. Experience and knowledge of all the pitfalls when launching campaigns with influencers on YouTube allow mediacube to conduct the most effective campaigns for any brand.
