WHY YOUTUBE IS KEY TO YOUR ONLINE STRATEGY

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world and is currently the most cost-effective way to distribute your business or brand’s video content at scale. So if your marketing plans do not include this mega platform, you could be missing a serious trick!

Since its launch in 2005, and acquisition by Google a year later, YouTube has grown from the home of amateur videos and wannabe musos to the biggest online video platform worldwide. As of May 2021, Statista has pegged YouTube as the 2nd most visited website on the internet behind Google.com. In South Africa, 24 million people log onto the platform monthly. These monthly visitor numbers have grown on the platform north of 40% in the last 15 months, since lockdown began.

Google has priced the YouTube ad unit incredibly competitively with the average cost per engaged view (your ad was watched for 20 seconds or longer) coming in at as little as R0,20. Did you know that the first 5 seconds of every video is unskippable? And Google doesn’t charge you until the user watches 20 seconds or more of your ad? Think of the amount of free marketing exposure you are missing out on if you are not present on this channel.

As we find ourselves managing periods of lockdown, social distancing and embracing remote living, people are streaming more video content than ever before – from ‘how to cook great meals at home’ to ‘DIY renovation tips’. Consumers are watching more of what matters to them which gives your business a significant opportunity to reach potential customers at their most engaged. But how does your business use this channel most effectively and stand out?

YouTube has proved to be a powerful brand awareness building tool which, when coupled with an omnichannel display advertising strategy, can drive in-bound leads in a customer’s moment of intent. Google Data suggests that YouTube users who watch ads for more than 5 seconds experience higher brand awareness, higher ad recall, and higher consideration.

YouTube provides a multitude of audience signals to ensure you deliver the right marketing message, to the right audience at their moment of intent. These include people who have visited your website previously, users in a specific location or on a specific device, or can be as granular as an aspiring chef watching a Siba’s Table episode. SearchKings™ can help constantly refine that audience based on data we collect and the conversion goals we aim for.

It may sound obvious but having the right content is key and, contrary to popular belief, this content can be created relatively inexpensively. At SearchKings Africa™ we can create emotive, YouTube ready content of any length but specialise in maximising every second in a 6 sec bumper ad or 15 sec skippable pre-roll ad. Using our proprietary video creation software, we can create video content from as little as R2,999 excl. VAT.

These are just a few of the ways you can use YouTube Marketing to win online. At SearchKings™ Africa we can help you optimise this platform exponentially, as we have done for so many customers. See some of our creative work in action here.