YouTube marketing as an effective brand marketing tool

YouTube has over 2 billion users worldwide, making it the second most popular social network after Facebook and the second-largest search engine after Google. However, no company in the video segment can hold a candle to YouTube, which today is the driving force of the Internet advertising market. YouTube marketing is a very powerful way to increase organic traffic and to establish and maintain relationships with viewers.

YouTube marketing – table of content:

• Why is YouTube marketing worth it?
• How to run a YouTube channel?
• Discover the intricate workings of YouTube’s algorithm
• YouTube marketing – summary

Why is YouTube marketing worth it?

The platform offers a variety of ways to interact with users, allowing both the establishment of partnerships with influencers, content marketing activities, as well as advertising your products using formats offered inside the service. That’s why YouTube marketing can be a very effective way to reach those customers that are difficult to bring in through other platforms, like for example Facebook.

Making a name for yourself on YouTube is not easy, however, due to the immense competition. Success with YouTube marketing, therefore, has to be earned solidly by preparing a well-thought-out strategy that takes into account the characteristics of this particular service. Yes, you can publish a video on almost any platform, but each platform is governed by its own rules, which have to be respected if you want to engage your audience.

Still, it’s worth putting your heart into your YouTube marketing efforts because:

• It helps in creating the company’s image,
• YouTube marketing enables to reach viewers, who by typing in specific keywords, directly express their intention (so there is no randomness that is characteristic of other social media platforms),
• It allows you to increase recognition among niche target groups through collaboration with influencers.

How to run a YouTube channel?

How to set off? Of course, by creating a YouTube Brand Account. A channel created with a regular Google account can only be managed by one person – the owner of the Google account. However, when creating a channel using a branded account, you can simultaneously sign in with multiple authorized Google accounts and create a channel with a different name than your Google account.

How to create a YouTube Brand Account?

Google’s Support page points out the following directions for people who want to set up a YouTube channel:

What kind of videos to upload on the company’s YouTube channel?

Creating the channel may be not enough. To succeed, it is necessary to provide high-quality content. YouTube is surely moving towards professionalization. It wants to attract to the platform brands which are able to constantly invest in improving the quality and in this way maintain the interest in the service.

Does that imply, that small-timers are left behind? Not at all! For “professionalization” does not mean regular TV quality. Fine content does not have to be prepared with sophisticated equipment and processed with expensive software. To record a video, all you need is a phone, decent lighting, and an idea.

The latter is undoubtedly considered to be the greatest challenge in the endeavor. Marketers are busy looking for ways to stand out, a few even believe in the existence of a miraculous YouTube marketing recipe for going viral, but – although it is worth taking care of both – it is better to focus on meeting the needs of your target group first. Then, as you gather data about them, it will be easier to exceed their expectations and positively surprise them.

Determine the target and audience for your videos

Before you click “ADD”, take some time to think about who you want to speak to and what goals you want to achieve with your YouTube marketing activities.

You can increase your company recognition, sell products and services, or build the image of an expert in a given field, but – regardless of the goal – your videos must provide tangible value for the user. Thus, you need to focus on their interests, and you will find out who they are.

Targeting a narrowly selected group is the surest way to gain their engagement. This is postulated by YouTube, which suggests watching out for specialization by creating, e.g., a gaming channel that is focused on one title or game genre, or one created with specific demographics in mind, e.g., moms in big cities.

Analyze views and react

However, these are only general guidelines and without data showing the real needs of your target group, they won’t help you much. To fully reach YOUR audience, you need to know and understand them, and the fastest way to do that is by using the right tools.

YouTube Analytics will provide you with valuable information, showing the elements that make people watch your videos and even share some with friends. You will be able to analyze the time spent watching your videos, you will also see when users lose interest in them, which parts attract the most attention, which videos engage viewers the longest compared to other videos on YouTube of similar length.

What’s more, you can also see views from the last 48 hours and the last 60 minutes on your entire channel or for specific videos, which will help you detect spikes in traffic and link them to real-time events.

YouTube Analytics is a veritable source of information that will allow you to see which YouTube marketing activities actually work. It’s hard to imagine real-world video marketing without this tool.

Discover the intricate workings of YouTube’s algorithm

You should also think about your presence on YouTube similarly to your presence in Google’s search results, because just like there, on YouTube, it’s important to be found in the first place.

How does the algorithm rank search results?

Unfortunately, there are plenty of aspects, each governed by a concern for the user experience. YouTube, like Google, cannot afford to have suggestions appear in search results that do not match their intentions.

To appear at the top of the list displayed in response to given phrases, you have to make sure the algorithm knows what phrases you care for. Video titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails and hyperlinks are all important signals that can and should be used to get more traffic.

The title is also crucial. Apart from being catchy, it should clearly indicate what is lies beyond the link. And, as in the case of Google search engine optimization, filling it with keywords at a push is pointless. A neat description that contains as much information as possible will perform much better and will look natural.

Which videos on YouTube engage the most?

Although creating long videos seems to contradict the thesis of limited attention span, today the matter gets more complicated, especially on YouTube. In the past, shorter videos were indeed considered better, but now it all depends on the topic and audience. On the whole, it is worth experimenting with longer materials. Longer videos mean longer viewing time, weighting YouTube algorithms to favor them.

However, common sense is recommended here to not drive viewers away. Long introductions, inconsistency, deviating from the main point simply bores, so keep them to a minimum, concentrating as much as possible on what you want to convey. To avoid distractions and keep the momentum, you can and even should use “cinematic” tricks such as engaging music or quick cuts. That proves the assumption that editing the material you want to publish is just as, if not more, important than the recording itself.

To not only retain viewers, but also convert them into customers, it’s a good idea to take advantage of the native features YouTube offers, e.g., placing interactive graphics on end screens that lead to another video, playlist, channel or website, or CTAs to encourage channel subscription.

You can add end screens in the last 20 seconds of the video, so it’s worth planning where they will appear. Editing the video in such a way that there is enough time for them to appear or adding a picture with an image or logo where you can place the end screens are definitely great ways to engage your viewers even more.

YouTube marketing – summary

The keys to success on YouTube are the viewers and the algorithm, but videos shouldn’t be created with only the former in mind, as the number of clicks and time they spend on your channel is enough to automatically win the favor of the algorithms.

As YouTube marketing is a modern media channel, you have to keep in mind that it will require constant learning and discovery. That’s why we prepared 10 ideas for increasing your YouTube views.