YouTube Presents an Enormous Marketing Opportunity
As a hub for online videos and streaming, the second largest search engine next to Google, and the world’s second most popular website, YouTube is bigger, better, and more powerful than ever. So, why do marketers tend to overlook YouTube in their media mix?
When you think of YouTube, specific video categories, such as tutorials and vlogs, may come to mind. However, these two types of YouTube videos don’t even scratch the surface of the countless content categories racking up millions of views daily. Comedy, product and service reviews, musical performances, documentaries, and even full-length feature films are a few of the many territories YouTube covers for millions of people seeking information, entertainment, or both. Since 2005, YouTube has become a goldmine of content for high-volume, high-engagement viewing.
Video content is the most consumed form of online media today, and YouTube represents the most significant percentage of time spent with video content. This spans generations, with boomers watching YouTube to save time executing tasks, Gen X watching to reminisce on nostalgic memories, millennials to be informed by product reviews or educate their children, and Gen Z viewing to keep tabs on their favorite vloggers or be relaxed by soothing content.
Altogether, we watch 1 billion hours of YouTube videos per day – more than Netflix and Facebook videos combined. Instead of growing by the year, YouTube is growing by the minute, with YouTubers uploading 720,000 minutes of fresh video content daily.
YouTube: The Real Online Video and Streaming Giant
YouTube serves as a cornerstone for online videos and streaming, making it an indispensable platform for businesses in multiple industries. Despite its vast reach and influence, marketers sometimes overlook YouTube in their media mix and prioritize their efforts on a streaming platform like Hulu instead.
How does YouTube size up to streaming platforms, with streaming giants such as Netflix or Hulu? The answer is that YouTube is the single largest streaming platform globally. According to a recent Nielsen Gauge, YouTube represents the largest percentage of time spent with video content; none of the other platforms even come close to drawing the same volume of eyes and ears and time spent. For these reasons, YouTube can't be ignored when developing your connected TV and streaming strategy.
Benefits of Using YouTube for Marketing
- Reach and Visibility. There are more than 245 million active YouTube users in the US. This massive user base allows advertisers to reach a large and diverse audience likely to engage with their content.
- Cost Effectiveness. Advertisers only pay for clicks and views on their YouTube ads and can set budgets and bids based on their advertising goals without the concern of wasted impressions and ad dollars.
- A Variety of Ad Formats. Skippable, non-skippable, bumper, and display ads allow advertisers to choose the most suitable ad format for their campaign.
- Retargeting. Advertisers can re-engage those who viewed their videos or visited their website, leading to heightened interest and more conversions.
- Integration with Google Ads. YouTube advertising is integrated with Google Ads, allowing advertisers to manage multiple campaigns with the same targeting options and analytics tools.
- Control and Flexibility. With trackable results using YouTube’s analytics tools, advertisers can make informed decisions about their campaigns based on metrics such as clicks, views, watch time and conversion rates.
How YouTube Advertising Works
On average, YouTube advertising costs range from $0.10-$0.30 per view or impression, but the overall cost can vary based on a few factors.
- YouTube ads are measured in CPM (cost per thousand), and most businesses pay a CPM of between $4 to $10.
- The average business sets a $10 to $50 daily budget for its YouTube advertising campaign.
- It costs around $2,000 on average to reach 100,000 views of your YouTube ad.
YouTube offers a range of advertising options for businesses to promote their services effectively. The six types of YouTube advertisements include:
- Bumper Ad. These six-second ads must be watched before a user can watch their intended video.
- Sponsored Cards. These are display content that could be related to a video (like products or services shown in the user’s intended video, such as yarn in a knitting tutorial).
- Discovery Ads. Formerly known as in-display ads, these desktop-only ads appear below or to the side of the user’s intended video.
- Overlay and Banner Ads. These non-video ads, also desktop-only, appear on the bottom 20% of a YouTube video.
- Skippable Video Ads. These ads allow viewers to skip watching after 5 seconds.
- Non-skippable video ads. These 15- to 20-second ads must be watched before a video with no option to skip. These include bumper ads.
YouTube offers an immense opportunity for law firm marketing through its diverse content landscape, extensive viewer base, and powerful advertising options. By incorporating YouTube into their media mix, law firms can enhance their online presence, engage with a broader audience, and establish themselves as authoritative voices in their respective legal domains. In addition, YouTube advertising offers ample targeting options. YouTube is owned by Google and has all of Google’s innovative targeting capabilities for a YouTube advertising campaign. YouTube targeting options include:
- Demographics. You can define and fine-tune your ad audience based on demographics like age, gender, and location.
- Interests. In addition, you can also define your audience based on views that share interests related to your brand. For example, a cosmetics company might want to target those who are interested in makeup or skincare.
- Life events. This innovative targeting feature lets you target viewers based on a life milestone that may sway their interest in your business or service. For example, pet care company would want to target YouTube ads to those who just adopted an animal.
- Custom intent. Finally, you can target consumers who have recently done research on products or services relevant to your brand.
We Develop Custom YouTube Marketing That Makes an Impact
In the legal advertising realm, what worked yesterday may not be as effective today. So, investing in a marketing professional who works closely with YouTube advertising and is quick to adapt to the ever-changing digital marketing trends is the best thing you could do for your brand. At Legal Communications Group, we know the ins and outs of YouTube advertising, content creation, media planning, and more.
With decades of combined experience and expertise, we are ready to transform your marketing mix to make your brand stand out. We will work with you to position your brand as the top choice for your target audience, compelling them to call. The result? Your highest-quality caseload.
Give us a call at 215-364-8828 or submit a contact form below to get the conversation started.