YouTube TrueView Ads: Anticipated Results & Tips
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Advertising, Social Media, YouTube | Tags: content, content promotion, facebook, social advertising, social media advertising, trueview, youtube 5 Comments »
There are many great sources of information about what Google TrueView ads are, about the value they offer, the various types of TrueView ads, and generally how to use them. However, after the searches I recently conducted, there aren’t a great number of sources to inform you about the results you can achieve with TrueView ads.
This is the information gap I’m hoping to help fill by sharing my recent experience with these ad units, and I’ll share a few tips toward the end of this article.
Admittedly, I don’t have worlds of experience with Google TrueView ads, but I was recently challenged by a friend to help to generate relevant views on their small business’ video content and we decided together to put them to the test.
For context, this business is just getting started strategically utilizing social media and currently does not have a huge community. Also, their presence on YouTube is virtually non-existent, meaning they have literally zero subscribers (yet).
RESULTS
Here are the results of our test-buy of YouTube TrueView ads:
Investment – $250
Views – 5,500
Cost per view (CPV) – $0.045
Impressions – 32,500
Click-throughs – 437
Cost per click (CPC) – $0.57
To achieve these results I really didn’t do anything overly special. I spent a bit of time working through the targeting options – which are robust – and set up my campaign to run through my budget as quickly as the network would allow. I ended up spending the $250 in roughly 2 hours.
Overall, I was fairly happy with the results. The CPV seemed reasonable, I was happy to achieve a CPC that is competitive to Facebook’s suggested bid for my targeting selections, and I was very happy with the targeting options.
On the flip side, I was a little disappointed with the lack of engagement by way of likes and comments, though the content we were pushing could probably be optimized to encourage increased engagement, so I’m eager to test these ads with different content.
TIPS
Despite having limited experience using these ads, I do have a few tips or suggestions to consider when diving in:
1. You can burn through cash
If you want to run a campaign with a longer duration, set your daily spend to allow for it. Otherwise, you’ll burn through your dollars in no time.
2. Google will charge you more than you want to pay
If your campaign is successful, Google will automatically run your ads to exceed your daily spend by 20%. This doesn’t make much sense to me, but you can account for this by setting your maximum daily spend to a total that is lower than your budget.
3. Not all ads are created equal
Of the various types of TrueView ads, there’s something about the ‘in-slate’ ads that makes them feel less valuable to me. With the promise of a 10+ minute video on the other end of viewing an ad, I think consumers are more likely to put up with watching an ad and aren’t necessarily openly opting into watching your video content. When setting up your ad buy, all options are automatically selected, so if you want to avoid running ‘in-slate’ ads, you’ll have to deselect those manually.
4. Give your video content a fighting chance
Don’t feel guilty for promoting your content with paid advertising. I find that particularly with small business owners, they feel a sense of pride or obligation to grow their audience organically, without the help of paid ads. The reality is that most video content that garners a huge view count has a number of traffic and view drivers including paid media, supporting advertising campaigns, PR, influencer support, seeding programs, and on. Use the tools at your disposal to give your content a helping hand.
There you go. I hope this article helps you out with predicting the results you can achieve with TrueView ads. Also, if you’ve got some killer video content to promote for your business or brand, I recommend at least experimenting with these ad units.
Do you have any experience with TrueView ads to share?
Is there a particular TrueView ad unit you’ve had particularly good success with?
It’d be awesome to chat with you about your experience in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
Invest In Traditional Media To Produce Non-Traditional Social Media Results
Posted: March 14, 2013 Filed under: Advertising, Marketing, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, community growth, content, content promotion, marketing, media, social media marketing, traffic driver 1 Comment »
I’m noticing a bit of a trend;
What I’m noticing is that with an increasing number of business owners and marketers buying into the power of social media, that there is also a bit of a trend away from traditional media.
And by traditional media, I’m including online ads, mobile ads, and other similar media options, not necessarily just newspaper, print or other such archaic media.
Are you noticing this as well?
Clearly, there are some really simple explanations for this occurrence. Budgets are budgets, so if you increase your spend toward your social media efforts, you’re going to have fewer dollars for traditional media. Also, you have limited capacity to think about and focus on your business – there are, after all, only 24 hours in a day – so if you’re focusing your attention on social media, you have less attention to give to media and advertising. I’m sure there are more, but I’ll stop there.
This said, planning and investing in social media and traditional media shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. In fact, there can be huge benefits to planning the two in tandem. Even if your focus has dramatically shifted toward your social media and content marketing efforts, I urge you to consider how traditional media and advertising can help you achieve your social media goals, which remember, should be linked to real business goals.
Promote your content
You can be producing the best, most relevant and meaningful content imaginable, but if nobody consumes it, it will have literally zero impact. Promoting your content with traditional media can drive incredible traffic to your content, and can probably be more targeted and efficient than you might think.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: When developing creative to fill your media placements, be sure to showcase or clearly indicate the value that you are offering in the specific piece of content you are hoping to promote. Pair this with a compelling call to action and you’ll be well on your way to generating a huge influx of traffic to your content.
Establish your business’ positioning and grow your communities
Advertising through traditional media can be an amazing way to establish your business’ positioning. If your positioning is meaningful to your targeted consumers, this can increase the conversion of your media impressions to social media community growth.
Additionally, a result of the investment required to purchase media space, for many businesses a proportionate investment in advertising creative is also justifiable. The benefit of this is that with a few dollars at your disposal, you might find that you’ve got production options available that will help you further solidify your business’ positioning, thus increasing the aforementioned conversion even further.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: Try to think of your business’ advertising in the same way you think about social media content. Make sure it adds value to your consumers by making them feel something, think something, or learn something. If you can accomplish this with your ads, you are again going to be able to increase your conversion of media impressions to social media community growth and exposure.
Increase the ROI of your social media efforts
Social media marketing is an investment. For many businesses, they are lured to social media with dreams of overnight international fame and wild success. The reality, as you know, is that it takes an incredible investment of time and resources to build and sustain meaningful activity on social media.
Driving traffic to your social media properties with traditional media can be a great way to put the growth of your audience into overdrive, which will give you more people to engage with, to share your content, to provide their input and feedback, and generally it will make it easier to accomplish your goals. Yes, you will be making an investment in traditional media, but your existing investment in social media will yield greater returns.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: Ensure that your traditional media dollars are being spent wisely by creating a media plan that is laser focused on your target demographic. You can broaden the reach of your media, but if the audience you are advertising to falls outside of your target demo, overall efficiency will be low and returns on the influx of traffic to your social media properties will be hurt.
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So, don’t discount the value of traditional media and advertising just because you’re having a bit of success with your social media marketing. As discussed, traditional media can contribute significantly to your social media efforts by promoting content to broader audiences, establishing your business’ positioning, and can increase the ROI of your social media marketing efforts.
Don’t think of social and traditional media as being mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, incredibly complimentary, and when used together properly, can yield results greater than what will be possible independently.
How do you use traditional media and advertising to enhance your social media marketing efforts?
It would be amazing to discuss this with you further in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
One Tip To Save BIG On Facebook Ads
Posted: January 10, 2013 Filed under: Advertising, Facebook | Tags: digital marketing, facebook, facebook ads, social advertising, social media marketing 4 Comments »
If you are going to invest time in monitoring and optimizing your Facebook ad buy, it is my recommendation that you virtually always opt to pay for impressions (CPM) versus clicks (CPC).
There it is.
After much experimentation with Facebook ads, what I’ve consistently found is that with nurturing – monitoring and optimization – it is fairly easy to create ads that outperform Facebook’s recommended bid rates for CPC ads with a CPM buy, and outperform them significantly.
If you’re used to purchasing CPC ads, at the beginning of your next buy, do a test and purchase all of your ads based on CPC and CPM, and let them run for a day or so. When you review the analytics at the end of day one, do the simple calculations to determine how much you are paying for each of your CPM ads to accrue each click:
(Total Impressions / Total Clicks) / 1000) * CPM
What I think you’ll find is that the ads that naturally perform well will be more efficient to run paying for impressions than clicks. After your analysis of the performance of your ads, eliminate any under-performing ads from your mix and place increased budget behind those that are yielding great results. Continue this cycle of monitoring and optimization for the duration of your campaign.
If you’re finding that paying for clicks across the board is more efficient, my guess is that there is something about the ads you’re running that isn’t resonating with your target, and they could use some adjusting. Revisit your ads to ensure the basics of high-performing Facebook ads are covered – that you’re using an eye-catching visual, strong headline, and compelling call-to-action. I’m all but certain that with some adjustments you’ll be able to reduce your cost to accrue a click to well below Facebook’s recommended bid price.
For more on running a successful Facebook ad campaign, read more here.
In your experience, which do you find to be more efficient – CPC or CPM?
Do you have any experience or ideas to share on how to run an effective Facebook ad campaign?
If so, please share in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
Image Credit: Veer (Photoshopped and put in layout)
It’s About Time For Your Print Advertising To Be More Social
Posted: November 22, 2012 Filed under: Advertising, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, digital marketing, foursquare, rgb social, rgbsocial, social media, social media marketing 3 Comments »
Reality today is such that social media should be considered when executing virtually any corporate communications program. Opportunities to drive traffic to your social properties, promote your content, integrate technology, and more, should not be overlooked.
Despite this, my experience has shown that there are some media channels, such as print, that seem so antiquated that marketers don’t think about how social media and technology can be influenced by the medium, or vice-versa.
Well, lets aim to make this a mindset of the past and start encouraging our coworkers, clients, leadership and partners to think ‘social’, even when producing print ads and printed collateral. Following are a number of ways that your print advertising can be more social and be better integrated with technology:
PROMOTE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS
Print advertising can drive a huge amount of traffic to your social media promotions. If you’re running a photo or video sharing contest, print advertising can be particularly effective because you’ll be communicating with your consumers while they are away from their computers living life in the real world, which is probably where you’ll want them taking photos or video for your contest.
GET CREATIVE AND INSPIRE SOCIAL AMPLIFICATION
Dazzle your consumers with print ads that are so incredibly creative that they feel compelled to share their experience with your ad with their social networks – Carlsberg created the print ad bottle opener, Volkswagen gave you a virtual test drive, and Lexus amazingly added audio and video to their print ad. Argue all you want about how many readers actually interacted with these ads, but without a doubt those that did, found them impactful, were left with a lasting impression, and shared their experience with their friends.
PROMOTE FOURSQUARE CHECK-IN SPECIALS
You can significantly increase redemption and participation with your Foursquare check-in specials by promoting them in print advertising and collateral. If your offer is compelling enough, you might even convince non-Foursquare users to register an account. Also, because of Foursquare’s increased commitment to cross platform integration, consumer check-ins, reviews and tips are going to be seen by an increasing number of people on other social media networks.
GRANT ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
There is an inherent perceived value in just about anything that is exclusive, or gives people the sense that they have insider knowledge; so tap into this. If you are creating compelling content for your print advertisements or advertorials, you might want to consider granting access to exclusive bonus content to your consumers on social media, only available to those who have seen your print-based advertising.
DRIVE TO A COMPLIMENTARY MOBILE WEBSITE
If you’re able to successfully create an emotional response to your print ad, or feature compelling enough communications, think about how you can extend that experience or further educate with a mobile website. Consumers are never far away from their mobile devices, and after engaging with your print ad could be a perfect opportunity to drive to your mobile site, that should feature social integration.
INCLUDE A COMPELLING CTA
All too often I find that advertising features a social media call to action that really falls flat. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Find us on Pinterest. Come on, give consumers a reason to get involved with your brand on social media. Give them a sense of the value that you will provide them in exchange for taking time to hunt you down on their computer or mobile device. Tell them how you’ll educate them, entertain them, or provide utility in your CTA.
When creating print advertising, do you think about how you can make it more social friendly?
How have you used print advertising in support of your social media marketing?
Have you effectively integrated technology with your print advertising, or seen a particularly great example that you’d like to share?
Let me know in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial, it’d be great to hear from you.
Photo Credit: Veer (Photoshopped and put in layout)
One Simple Step For a Stronger CTA
Posted: October 22, 2012 Filed under: Advertising, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, call to action, CTA, digital marketing, rgb social, rgbsocial, social media, social media marketing 1 Comment »
It’s common for businesses and brands to add a call to action on their advertising collateral in hopes of driving traffic to their social media and digital properties. By doing this, you can raise awareness and bolster the growth of your communities, which will mean there are more people to view your content, interact and engage with, and amplify your brand’s story to others.
If you’ve ever included, ‘Like us on Facebook’, or, ‘Follow us on Twitter’, on any of your advertising collateral, you could be missing an opportunity to achieve better results.
Telling consumers to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ you is akin to saying ‘buy my product’. If the only thing you communicated in your advertising was a message that essentially said, ‘buy this’, nobody would. Consumers need to have a compelling reason to make a purchase decision, and they might even be put off by your boldness if you fail to give them any supporting information. The same goes for a social media call to action.
In your call to action, give people a reason to check out your business or brand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or blog, such as:
- Like us on Facebook to learn about how you can save on insurance.
- Follow us on Twitter to find out how to get the most out of your smart phone.
- Follow us on LinkedIn to check out our latest job postings.
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly fashion tips.
- Check out our blog to learn everything you need to know about mortgages.
- Follow us on Pinterest for home renovation inspiration.
- Follow us on Google+ to ask the pros how you can be a better hockey player.
Making this small adjustment to your call to action can yield fantastic results. By giving people a reason to follow, interact or engage with you on your social media and digital properties, you can experience many benefits including attracting a more relevant consumer group, decreased community churn (unlikes, unfollows, etc), increase your conversion rates, and increase interaction, engagement and amplification rates.
The next time you’re producing advertising collateral, remember to include a relevant and compelling call to action, giving consumers a solid reason to check out your social media properties, instead of a shallow plea.
How do you drive traffic to your social and digital marketing channels with advertising collateral?
If so, have you had success doing this?
Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @RGBSocial
Photo Credit: Veer (Photoshopped and put in layout)
