YouTube Retargeting – The What, Why and How

YouTube is a great network for businesses, allowing you to market directly to your
customers or potential customers and reach a large number of people quickly.
It's the second largest social network in the world for a pretty good reason.
Let's find out how you can use YouTube to your advantage in the retargeting game.
Hey guys, it's Liv here from Neighbourhood
where we help brands find, sell, and keep their people.
Did you know that over 2 billion people
watch 1 billion hour of YouTube videos every single day?
Sure, that might not be a healthy habit for our already Internet saturated brains,
but that's not a statistic to be laughed at. By posting organic,
entertaining content to YouTube, we can start to generate more video
engagement and achieve potentially millions of viewers.
And I think we can all agree that this will mean potential sales too.
If you're after the best results,
we recommend that YouTube videos should be posted as part of a long term marketing
strategy, complete with retargeting ads for added ROI, or return on investment.
Up to 90% of people say that they discover new products and brands by YouTube.
And, did you know that 62% of businesses post video content on YouTube as well?
And perhaps to no surprise, YouTube is used by 55% of marketers.
So with that in mind,
we're going to introduce you to the world of retargeting ads and how YouTube fits
into the mix to help you create a killer retargeting campaign for your business.
In a bit more detail today we're going
to be answering what YouTube retargeting actually is, how it works,
why you should be using it, how to retarget YouTube content,
top YouTube remarketing strategies and best practices.
Just a quick side note as well.
I'll be mentioning remarketing
and retargeting quite a bit, but they're essentially the same thing.
So let's get started.
What actually is YouTube retargeting?
Well, it's not just a YouTube marketing strategy.
It's actually a well known method designed
to remind your website or YouTube visitors in this instance about your business's,
products and services before they walk off without making a purchase.
Almost think of it like a gentle pro
in the back that says, oh, where do you think you're going?
We're not done here yet.
Retargeting is based around the idea
that prompting your target consumer with videos, ads and other relevant
content will encourage them to make a purchase.
YouTube video marketing is just one way
to retarget your customers and is seriously effective.
YouTube turns marketing and advertising
into a multimedia, visual, interactive experience for their video viewers.
It's the ideal platform for remarketing products and services to your customers.
You'll be able to grab their attention
and show them exactly why your product is something that they want.
Plus, the upside is that you won't be constrained by the limitations of text
based advertisements with a static imagery and restrictive character limits.
Your target remarketing audiences are all
over YouTube watching all those famous cat videos, lockdown fails and viral videos
so catch their attention and direct them your way.
An example would be utilising the platform to connect directly with customers
and offer them engaging product explanations and demos
in a short clip. The ability to remarket
to your consumer via this channel is a direct route to quality qualified leads.
Let's take a step back.
I'm sure you're thinking that all sounds
great, but how does this retargeting magic actually work?
Well, let's get into it.
Once you've got a business YouTube channel up and running and have a Google ads or
AdWords account, you'll be ready to create what's known as a remarketing list.
A remarketing list is simply a collection of website visitors gathered via snippets
of code that are then added to your website application.
It's like a seriously ramped up business
equivalent of stalking your ex on Facebook.
The list is created by linking your
YouTube channel with Google ads or your AdWords account.
Within your remarketing campaign
your list will comprise of people
who have interacted with your brand in any of the following ways:
if they've watched a branded video, subscribed to your brand channel,
visited your home page, liked your video content,
added your video content to a playlist, or shared your video content.
Clearly, it's quite a list, but it's worth asking:
why should we even be using YouTube retargeting in the first place?
Well, it comes with a healthy stack of benefits.
When you start reaching out to people
who are already interested in your products and services,
you'll start to increase those all important conversions once and for all.
But some noteworthy benefits include improved ROI, increase in scope,
flexibility, better pricing, location targeting, and higher engagement.
Now we've ticked off the benefits.
Let's get down to the nitty gritty of how to remarket your YouTube content.
I'll outline a step by step guide that will tell you exactly how to start remarketing
your YouTube content to start boosting your conversions.
Step one, create video ads.
The first thing you want to do is actually create the ads themselves.
It's recommended that you create around three different videos to spice up your
video advertisement campaign and keep prospects more engaged for longer.
Aim for brand aligning, new, engaging content that your clients haven't
seen before but can still identify as yours.
The type of content is pretty important.
You'll want your content to be engaging and exciting but never pushy.
Realistically, it never works because if
you're getting a product forced on to you, you're more likely to hit it for six.
Now, the duration of the campaign is just as important.
You want your videos circulating for between two and four weeks: any less,
and you won't make much of an impact. Any more, and you risk boring or irritating
your prospects into an Internet induced rage.
As a checklist, here's what we recommend to include:
make your customers a clear promise and stick to it;
highlight what your brand or channel has to offer;
what do they already like about your videos and content;
include an end screen asking viewers
to click and subscribe; and involve your audience by asking for their feedback,
like how you can improve or what they'd like to see from you.
Step two: Create your retargeting lists. Next, you want to set up your lists,
which basically means defining your target audience.
These lists will contain your custom
audiences, helping you direct your ads towards people who have previously engaged
with your brand channel but failed to convert.
For example, Kathy might have watched,
liked, or shared your video, but then disappeared off the face of the Earth -
pretty slack if you ask us.
This is where a YouTube remarketing list comes into play.
To create your YouTube remarketing list,
you'll need to do the following: link your YouTube and Google Ads account,
click the Tools Icon,
navigate to Audience Manager,
click the plus button,
click YouTube users, name your audience, click the List Members Drop Down menu,
and choose which users you want to include in your retargeting audience.
For example, those who have subscribed to your channel or those who have
previously watched one or more of your videos.
Then select a YouTube channel linked to your Google Ads account.
Navigate to membership duration,
and select the number of days that you want someone to stay in your audience up
to a maximum of 540 days, and then finally, click create. Step three:
add your YouTube remarketing list to your campaign.
Once you've successfully created your retargeting video and set up your audience
lists, you'll need to combine them into a final, intriguing ad campaign.
We recommend making sure that your
campaign is set with a frequency cap, which will limit the frequency
with which your audience sees your remarketing ad so they aren't bored
to death from over saturation of repetitive content.
To add your YouTube retargeting list to your ad campaign,
you'll need to do the following: in your Google Ads account, Select Audiences.
Click the pencil icon, select campaign or ad group from the drop
down menu, click select a campaign, then select the ad group or campaign
that you want to add your remarketing list to. Choose targeting or observation.
Then select the audience that you want to target and then click save.
Next is step four: tracking your performance. So you're good to go!
All that's left to do is track and monitor performance of your new retargeting ad
campaign, and we're not just talking about video views, either.
We recommend selecting some targeted KPIs
to measure how effective your advertising campaigns proving to be.
For example,
you could start out by measuring your ad spend, which is the amount spent
on delivering your ad against the return on ad spend.
Some other metrics I'd recommend comparing would be impressions,
clicks, the click-through rate, cost per thousand impressions, cost-per-click, cost
per acquisition, view-through conversion, and click-through conversion!
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Alrighty, so you're now ready to embark
on your very first YouTube retargeting campaign. Before we leave you to your own
marketing agenda, we'd like to offer up some additional tips and tricks.
We're going to first share some of our most effective retargeting strategies
and best practises to help you get started. To kick-off, we recommend to make use
of various ad formats. To get the most engagement out of your ad campaign.
It can help to make use of a variety of different advertising formats.
Today we've been talking about YouTube, but you don't have to stop there.
Why not support your YouTube campaign
with corresponding textbased or image-based media ads?
This means getting up on Instagram,
filling up your Facebook feed and stirring up some discussion on Twitter.
Next is being mobile optimised or mobile-centric.
Not everyone who is targeted in your
retargeting list rewatching your YouTube video from an HD screen or laptop.
In fact, the majority of your target
customers will be engaging with your brand via their mobile phone,
so make sure that your video is optimised for mobile viewing.
Lots of people watch videos on their phone on mute.
In fact, a whopping 83% of viewers will watch with the sound off.
So including closed captioning is a real
must. In terms of what else is an absolute must,
we say customise, customise, customise -
customisation is key. When it comes to YouTube
retargeting, customising your remarketing
lists is one of the most effective ways to reach an engaged audience.
After all, there's no point in targeting
individuals who haven't shown any interest in your brand.
By targeting to those who have had previous interactions with your content,
you'll be more likely to achieve those all important conversions.
Next, limit your retargeting frequency.
It's easy to think that the more your ad
gets seen, the more effective your campaign will be overall.
But this isn't always the case - when remarketing there is actually a point
where you can over saturate your target audience with repetitive content.
And that's a big no.
This is something that you really want to avoid.
Displaying the same ad to the same person
multiple times in a row is sure to give them the ick.
Luckily, this can be easily avoided by setting a frequency cap to your ads.
For example, you might set your ad
frequency to a maximum of two or three impressions per person, per day.
Next is creating both in-stream and in display ads.
There are two types of advertisements that can be mobilised on YouTube.
These are in-stream and in-display ads.
In stream ads or YouTube.
Trueview ads are those that appear before or after YouTube video content.
In display ads on YouTube are slightly different.
These appear in the right hand corner
over the viewers video player and overlay with the video content itself.
Mobilising both methods will help you
reach and engage with more of your audience.
Finally, create more skippable ads
when starting out. It is possible to create nonskippable ads
on YouTube, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that that's the only way to go.
But in the early days, you might not want to go Gung ho for the compulsory viewing.
Starting with skippable ads will help you
collect data about the performance, quality, and reception of your video.
Then you'll be able to make any tweaks and changes as necessary to make sure
that future viewers have a superior experience.
You can also check out how your videos
performing by looking up your viewing percentage. YouTube will tell you how many
people viewed your video to 25%, 50, 75, or 100% of its duration.
Again, equipped with this metric, you'll know if your ad is doing well or if
it's a bit of a bust and needs some optimisation. And that's a wrap!
If you found this video helpful, then feel free to share it with someone
that you know that needs a hand with their retargeting strategy -
specifically on YouTube.
You can also subscribe to our blog,
where you'll find a bunch more tools, tips, and templates to help you find,
sell, and keep your people just like Neighbourhood does.
But for now, that's it from me. Happy marketing!