The past years undoubtedly belong to content and video. YouTube records more than 2 billion visits by logged-in users every month. So it’s an effective way to do business or reach more potential customers. But let’s not kid ourselves – you can’t reach everyone, so it makes the most sense to focus your efforts on reaching the group that is interested in the content you are presenting. How do you go about targeting my YouTube channel?

Targeting YouTube Channel – table of contents:

  1. Targeting YouTube channel or content tailored to the viewer
  2. How to determine your audience?
  3. YouTube targeting in practice – how to reach selected viewers
  4. Remarketing – or how to attract viewers to your other content
  5. Key questions – Targeting YouTube Channel

Targeting YouTube channel or content tailored to the viewer

Not every viewer will be attracted to the topics of your channel or the way you run it. Content such as advice, analysis, interviews or columns will probably have other audience than skits, pranks or humorous content. You will create various content, different for young people and for more mature audiences – although of course there are exceptions to this rule.

YouTube targeting is a feature built into the platform to precisely determine not only who but when links and marketing materials will appear for your content or channel itself.

More important than the available technical solutions turns out to be a precise plan of action – to fully define and reach the group interested in the created content. Careful planning of who and how you are going to reach will allow you to avoid unnecessary costs and precisely target the group that may you offer attractive.

Targeting_YouTube_Channel

How to determine your audience?

Google’s suggested “Audience Targeting Methods” and presented great guideline on what to look for when making a plan and determining your target audience. The owner of YouTube tells us to consider the following:

  • demographics – i.e. age, gender, the income of the family you want to reach or children you have. Taking into account detailed data concerning the portal’s users (such as taking into account common features – owned property, place of residence, professional or educational activity) provides for better selection of the optimal group,
  • interest – this is one of the most important elements that translates into importance in the content you offer, as well as the services or products you advertise. YouTube has tools to search and target audiences who are interested in material on similar topics (even outside the YouTube platform).
  • life events – some materials (e.g. about moving, looking for a new job or renovating an apartment) will engage people who are in a specific situation – right now. So if you’re creating this kind of content or promoting products that may have a use at a specific time, it’s a good idea to consider these issues when preparing your marketing campaign,
  • viewed content – it is very likely that a user who has already watched similar videos on the YouTube platform will like to see what else you offer,
  • remarketing – that is, reaching viewers who have already had some interaction with your channel or content you create outside the platform – especially if you use a Google account, it will be possible to redirect visitors to YouTube.

YouTube targeting in practice – how to reach selected viewers

If you already know who you want to reach with your content, you have the opportunity to take full advantage of the potential offered by the platform. YouTube lets you decide where you want your ads to appear to encourage people to visit your video or profile. You can choose which channels, blogs, apps or websites your ads will appear on.

Marketing on YouTube enables you to advertise your content on the homepage of a popular website or blog – not just in videos on the platform itself. Options include other YouTube channels, videos, your website in Google Ads, and even mobile apps.

However, the possibilities of personalizing marketing activities do not end here. Google also lets you target your ads strictly to viewers who are interested in a particular topic. An option called “Topic targeting” enables you to narrow down your ads to display only on sites and channels dedicated to a specific topic – such as the stock market, cryptocurrencies, automotive, or cooking.

To some extent, it is related to focusing on keywords, either in the video or in the content of the website. Keywords are still today the basis of positioning on Google and YouTube and it is certainly an issue worth getting to know better.

YouTube targeting can also use knowledge of what device a consumer is connecting from – whether it be a cell phone, a computer, or a smart TV, for example. This has an impact on certain audience behaviors, the amount of time they can spend watching a video and their expected reactions to the content being shown.

Remarketing – or how to attract viewers to your other content

A very effective feature to get higher returns on your advertising investment is remarketing. It helps to reinforce your advertising message by targeting people who have already interacted with the content on your channel. Such action gives a much higher probability of success, so it is also more cost-effective.

By linking your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account, you can easily create remarketing lists that let you target specific audiences – for example, those who have watched any of your uploaded videos, content you’ve selected, an ad you’ve created, subscribed to your channel, visited its homepage, or shared one of your videos. They are most likely to view the rest of the content you present, so targeting this group is one of the most commonly used marketing strategies.

Check out our previous article in the series “Running a business on YouTube” here.

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Running a business on YouTube: Targeting YouTube Channel mira bodhi avatarbackground

Author: Mira Bodhi

Knows all the pros and cons of working as a Freelancer and still makes the best of it. Time management and self-motivation are her biggest advantages. She is now a digital nomad and works traveling all over the world.

The most important questions

  1. What tools can you use to target the content on your channel?

    We have a whole range of options and functionalities available in the YouTube marketing section, as well as when you link your channel to your Google Ads account. You can, for example, optimize your audience according to device, demographics, interests or target those who have already viewed your content.

  2. Why should you learn about YouTube target audience?

    Although YouTube is the largest video platform in the world, to effectively reach viewers, you need to narrow down your marketing efforts to those who are truly interested. This is exactly what you can achieve by properly targeting both the content itself and the advertising you create for it.