On Monday I posted the 6 reasons why YouTube video ads are a better option for most small businesses than TV ads. You’ll see at the top of the list (#3) is Precision Targeting.
If you know exactly who you want to target, then chances are pretty good you’ll be able to reach them using YouTube ads. Of course, that’s a big assumption.
Do you know exactly who you want to target with your ad campaign? In other words, do you know who your ideal customer is?
This is the first step in any ad campaign, including YouTube ads. You must first create your customer avatar, which is the person who represents your target market. Imagine just ONE person and list everything you know about that person, including:
- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Marital Status
- Desires
- Interests
- Problems
- Frequently ask questions
Seriously, take some time and write this down. Then, only after you’ve completed this step should you move on to the YouTube Ad targeting options below. There are so many options that you’ll likely get overwhelmed unless you have a crystal clear picture of WHO you want to target.
I’ll trust you have your avatar together, so let’s move on to the targeting options.
Option 1: Demographics
Demographics is the most basic of the targeting options. You can target by gender, male versus female, or by different age ranges like 18 – 24, 25 – 34, etc. Obviously if your product or service caters more toward women vs. men, then you’ll want your ads to target women. Same goes for age ranges.
Nothing too exciting here, but worth setting up correctly especially if a gender or certain age ranges are not appropriate for your business.
Option 2: Topics
Topics allow you to target videos related to predefined topics. For example, if you know your prospects like to watch videos about Sports, then you could target all the Sports-related videos on YouTube.
Not only can you use the Topics for targeting, but you can also take this a step further and relate your video ad to these specific topics. In other words, you could have an ad that relates to the Beauty & Fitness topic, and another ad that relates to Travel topic. That way your ad more closely matches the interest of your prospect surfing around on YouTube.
Option 3: Interests
Interests are a form of behavioral targeting, which means they allow you to target based on the known interests of your prospect. For example, if I go to ESPN.com and other sports-related websites, then eventually Google figures out that I’m a sports fan. My online browsing behavior defines me and advertisers can then use that information to target me, along with everyone else who browses the Internet like me.
Again, this is why it’s important to have a clear understanding of your ideal customer before you dive into the targeting. If you know your customers’ interests then you should be able to find some logical interests to target for your campaign.
Option 4: Keywords
Keyword targeting is very similar to using keywords in the Google AdWords Display network (GDN). However, instead of targeting webpages on the GDN, we’re going to target YouTube videos.
Google can find all the videos that are related to the keywords you want to target. For example, if you want to advertise on videos about bathroom remodeling, then you would include the keyword “bathroom remodeling” in your ad account. It’s as simple as that.
Option 5: Placements
Placement targeting is also very similar to using placements on the GDN. Again, instead of targeting webpages, we’re targeting specific YouTube video URLs. So if you know a relevant, popular video, then you can target your ads to display on that exact video.
Option 6: Remarketing Lists
The final option is to target using your remarketing lists in Google AdWords. Remarketing is just Google’s name for retargeting. With retargeting, you’ll only display your ads to prospects who have already visited your website (or a specific page on your site). That means you know you’re only showing ads to people who have taken an action and expressed interest in your product or service.
If you’re overwhelmed by all of these options, then I recommend you test relevant keywords and interests first. Plus, a remarketing YouTube video ad campaign can be a good, low risk place to start.
Need More Help?
Join me this Friday when I’m presenting a live online training called, “The YouTube Ad Formula.” During the training, I’ll walk through exactly how you can create and launch a profitable YouTube video ad campaign from scratch.
Click here to learn more and reserve your spot.
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