Last updated on June 15th, 2024
How can you test out titles and search terms with AdWords for Video, and why does it help? How and why to get viewers to click rather than skip ads in the first five seconds? How can you grow subscribers with TrueView Remarketing?
HOSTS:
- Dane Golden: VidAction.tv | LinkedIn
- Matt Ballek: VidiSEO
- Matt Gielen: Twitter
Tip #1: Test Titles and Search Terms with AdWords for Video
Matt Ballek likes to test titles via YouTube TrueView using an old SEO pay-per-click tactic that transfers over nicely to the video world. By paying to have a combination of titles, descriptions and thumbnails put in front of a statistically significant audience via In-Display video ads, you will get enough data to help you find the versions with the highest click-through rates. Then you can change your title to match the best title from your paid media testing. This increased click-through should continue over into organic traffic sources such as search results and related videos.
Matt Gielen says he uses In-Display TrueView to track thumbnail click-through performance. They do A-B testing using very similar text but different thumbnails to see which will perform best. In two-and-a-half years at Frederator, they’ve evolved through six distinct types of thumbnail templates until they found the type that works the best.
Tip #2: Get Viewers To Click, Not Skip Ads In The First 5 Seconds
Dane Golden says that experts such as Jake Larsen, Gideon Shalwick and Tom Breeze agree that the timing of TrueView In-Stream ads is key to getting the highest conversion rate. Today we’re just going to sum up how to optimize the first five seconds of the video.
Audience Targeting
First – properly narrow down the audience you’d like to show your ad to. Your goal will be to get the highest clicks possible (sending them to the landing page of your website) per ads shown.
Clicking vs. skipping
Sometimes it’s better to get people to skip rather than click. Today we’re using an example from RealTrucks.com, one of the clients of Jake Larsen and Video Power Marketing. Why would you want someone to skip right away? Two reasons:
- They’re not going to buy from you anyway
- If they skip before 30 seconds, you the advertiser don’t have to pay for the ad they watched.
Let’s just be courteous and save everyone a lot of time and get this ad over with. They’re not going to buy because they don’t like trucks.
Pre-qualify Advertising Viewers
Jake will sometimes prequalify viewers. Instead of begging them not to click the “Skip Ad” button, he says quickly in the first five seconds that, 1) this is what we’re selling, and 2) if you’re not interested, please skip this ad here. That way, he’s going to have a much higher likelihood of only paying for views of people who might be interested. But there’s a flip side. In the RealTrucks.com video in our example Jake has the presenter saying these words right at the start: “Make your vehicle stand out from the crowd while keeping bug splatter off your hood and click the shop now button.” And she’s actually pointing to a physical-looking button at the top of the screen. It’s big and yellow and says “Shop Now.” She’s also standing in front of a truck in a garage, so you know right off the bat that this is about trucks, and if you’re not interested, you can leave at any time.
So the shoppers have been prequalified by quickly telling them what the video is about, and they’ve already seen a call-to-action with a very tactile-looking button. This means that even before the first five seconds are up (and before they’re able to skip), there will already be some customer conversion. And importantly, the advertiser pays nothing for these clicks because it’s before 30 seconds. You never pay for clicks before 30 seconds unless the ad is shorter than 30 seconds.
Now in an In-Stream ad it doesn’t actually matter where you click. If you click anywhere other than the “Skip ad” button it will take you to the landing page. But if you target your ad to the right audience, and then make a specific request with a specific place to click, a lot of people will do just that.
And whether the viewer skips or clicks “Shop Now,” by giving them clear options, you’ve saved the viewer time, and they probably appreciate that and they can do whatever they are going to do several seconds faster. And you’ve dramatically increased the click-through rate on the ad and received some free clicks besides.
Tip #3: Grow YouTube Subscribers with TrueView Remarketing
Matt Gielen says that remarketing, also known as retargeting, is advertising to people who have already been exposed to your brand in some form. In YouTube these campaigns can include someone who has watched your video, subscribed to your channel, liked, commented or have been somehow exposed to your content.
Matt Gielen says that you should begin your TrueView ReMarketing campaign by first linking your AdWords account to your YouTube account. This gives you deeper insights into how your campaign is working.
Someone who has been exposed to your brand is more likely to click on one of your ads on YouTube, because they already know what it is. Title and thumbnails combinations help users decide whether to click on a video by having an expectation of what they will see when they click. If they’ve already been exposed to your brand, and your thumbnails make it easy to recognize your brand, they’re more likely to click, and you’ll have fewer errant clicks as well.
At Frederator they focus on viewers who haven’t yet subscribed to one of their channels. So they may serve the video anywhere someone is on YouTube. The ad will show up at the top of the right-hand column of related videos. The user is reminded of content they’ve enjoyed, and by clicking they return to the Frederator ecosystem on YouTube and will be more likely to subscribe. It’s the same as when you’ve seen a movie trailer more than once, you’ll be more likely to see the movie because it’s top of mind.
Matt Gielen says that once someone has subscribed, they’ve indicated to YouTube that they want to see more from your brand. Then YouTube will serve them more videos in their feed, email inbox. And they’re more likely to return and become superfans and download the app, and like on Facebook and be engaged and continue watching. This is much more effective than just paying to get someone to watch once.