One of the greatest things about the internet is the ability to share videos. Though it’s not strictly true that other forms of media are obsolete, with the death of printed books regularly prophesied, one third of all online activity is spent watching videos. The demand for data storage grows every day, as approximately 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and there is no reason to believe that such trends are going to change.
YouTube is a soaring monopoly, with a reach far beyond traditional television networks in most demographics and a more than a billion active users scattered across the entire online world. Not only that, but, because it’s essentially a massive database, it also functions as the internet’s second largest search engine, which means that any investment in marketing and advertising using it will increase SEO as well as ordinary brand awareness.
So, basically, you really should consider having some kind of presence on this platform.
If you have the means to produce and publish content on a daily basis, setting up a YouTube channel is a complete no-brainer; it’s straightforward to do, offers opportunities to create a customized user experience, and free. There are also options for optimizing your videos for searches and ranking, like adding captions, targeted descriptions, and metadata. However, nothing beats daily posting for getting the attention of a search engine, and, if you can afford a structured and consistent content production plan, you’ll get your content in front of more viewers just by posting a new video every day. Since there are many aspects of the customer experience to discuss, there is also critique value in committing to such a campaign, as you’re likely to discover strengths and weaknesses of your business as you engage with your viewers.
On the other hand, you may merely want to get your product ads in front of viewers; though the average viewer skips ads so often that many begin with a ‘don’t skip!’ section, and popup ads will typically receive a judicious dismissal, there is still significant value in getting a product link in front of a viewer for a split second. One great advantage is that YouTube charges for ads on a pay per view, so if your ad is skipped you won’t be charged for it.
You’ll also be able to select target demographics, just like on other social media advertising like Facebook, and it’s easy to engage a specific audience with content tailored to your objectives, whether you want to build brand awareness with video ads or get clicks to product pages with popups.
It may seem that the market for advertising is flooded, but Youtube is specifically designed to make it easy to share and digest content, so it’s still a very good idea to get involved in the flood rather than just spectate.
If you can produce as much as you consume, you’re ahead of the game.