SMX Overtime: Broaden your reach with YouTube campaigns

During my “YouTube success stories for marketers” session at SMX East, attendees asked questions about how to leverage video assets to engage customers and broaden the reach of YouTube campaigns. Below I answer a few of the questions asked during my session.

Q: We want to test paid ads on YouTube for performance, but our client contract restricts us from using TrueView for Action. What advice do you have for alternative approaches to driving conversions through YouTube ads?

Even with regular TrueView ads, you can run call-to-action overlays that will appear over your ad and help drive clicks. From a targeting standpoint, leverage lower-funnel targeting like Customer Match and Similar Audiences to limit your audience to those most likely to convert.

Q: What are the best practices for video length? Four minutes?

Short answer: there is no optimal video length because it depends on the creative. I’ve run 30-second versus 3-minute and 15-second versus 30-second tests and seen both long and short videos as winners for driving more conversions or higher brand lift. The best practice is to have multiple video lengths in an ad group so that you can optimize for the creative that has a better view rate/click-through rate.

Q: Do you see six-second bumper ads help with performance?

For brand awareness, bumper ads can be extremely effective at driving brand lift and at a much more efficient cost (i.e. lower cost per lifted user), since you pay on CPM. These also work well with the new video ad sequencing product. You can create sequences where you retarget videos of a long video with a short bumper ad to “echo” your original messaging.

Q: How have you utilized video ad sequencing? Or test with sequencing?

There are various approaches you can take with video ad sequencing depending on the narrative you are trying to achieve. I’m a fan of starting with a long-form ad followed by short ads to reinforce the message or driver users to take action. However, this approach won’t work for everyone and you should experiment with different sequences to find what works best with your creative.

Q: Can the tips you shared today to be applied to B2B businesses or is it most beneficial to B2C businesses? If not what tips do you have for B2B?

Absolutely! As long as you can tag and track conversions like a lead form fill or even a landing page view, you can leverage TrueView for Action’s automated bidding to drive qualified traffic from YouTube. I recommend optimizing to a conversion that is upper or mid-funnel conversion and happens frequently because you need consistent conversion volume (30/week is preferred) for the algorithm to perform well and find other people likely to convert.