One of the first steps to a successful marketing campaign is combining your efforts across multiple channels for one cohesive campaign. YouTube advertising is a serious contender in the digital marketing arena, and it could really take your business to the next level.
The best part? It’s extremely effective and extremely affordable.
How affordable? You can typically expect to pay less than a dollar per video view, depending on a few key factors.
Keep reading to see the real cost of YouTube advertising and what factors should go into your YouTube advertising budget.
Watch our video on the topic for a quick summary:
First Things First: Why Advertise on YouTube?
Picture this: It’s time to set your marketing budget. The big man really wants to hit it out of the park this year, and you’ve already invested in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and standard forms of traditional advertising. You’ve got a standing allotment for cable ads, but you’ve heard that YouTube may be a better contender for the younger generations.
Or this: You’re a (really, really) small business. You need to find a way to creatively use a minimal budget to get the word out to local residents about your services. You can’t afford many forms of traditional advertising.
The answer to both of these scenarios: social media advertising, in particular YouTube ads.
Why?In the time it took for you to read the headline of this article approximately 5 hours’ worth of videos have been uploaded to YouTube. That’s right—every five seconds 25 hours of video is uploaded, and 400 hours of video is uploaded every minute.
The user base is 1.9 billion and counting, and guess how many hours of video those 1.9 billion people watch every day?
Over a billion.
If you’re not convinced by the sheer logic of being where your customers are, think about this: millions and millions of people already flock to YouTube to watch videos, and therefore may be more inclined to watch your ad than other digital mediums.
Here’s How YouTube Ad Cost Works
With YouTube advertising, you pay per video view. So how much does advertising on YouTube cost? A typical video ad runs between $.10 and $.30 per view, depending on your video quality, your targeting, and your overall goal.
How that works out is that if your ad campaign had a $0.10 video view, you would pay $1,000 for every 10,000 people that watch your video ad. Next, we’ll take a look at how quality and targeting can affect that cost.
Video Quality: It’s Important.
It’s so important I didn’t even elaborate in the heading above. Think about it; the only reason you stay and watch the entirety of an awful video is to laugh at how awful it is.
You can have the best targeting and the largest budget in the world and your ad still won’t take off it looks like it was shot by your uncle in the back of a van with a digital camera he hasn’t quite figured out yet. If you want to drive down the cost of a YouTube ad, you need to have a quality video. And that’s not just production. You can pay 20k for a recording studio and still have an ad flop if your content is quality.
That’s right, in order to have a successful ad campaign you not only need pro production, but you also need creative storytelling skills as well. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea I strongly suggest hiring a YouTube advertiser and videographer. It will pay off in the end, trust me.
Check out our channel on YouTube >>
Targeting Options for YouTube Advertising:
There are a few methods of ad targeting you can choose on YouTube, including:
Demographic groups – Age, gender, income, or parental status, for example.
Interests – Reach people interested in certain topics. This includes more granular affinity and in-market audiences.
Video remarketing – Reach viewers based on past interactions with your videos.
Placements – You can show your ads on certain channels, videos, apps, websites, or placements within websites.
Topics – Target your videos based on specific topics on YouTube.
Keywords – Show your YouTube ads based on words or phrases related to a YouTube Video. This targeting option depends on your ad format.
The more methods you choose, the narrower your audience gets, which can be both beneficial and detrimental depending on the campaign. An audience that’s poorly targeted will drive costs up because of irrelevance, so it’s incredibly important you choose the precise targeting that will get the exact results you want.
Another piece of the YouTube advertising cost is the type of ad format. There are a few different ad formats you can choose from:
Different formats typically cost different amounts, with in-display ads tending to cost more and in-search ads costing less.
Choose a YouTube Advertising Marketer for Lower Cost Ads
It’s a lot, right? That’s why we always encourage business owners to use a qualified marketing partner for YouTube advertising campaigns. Contact us today to get started on yours!
This post was originally published in 2017. It has been updated to reflect current statistics.
Blue Corona's Editorial Staff is determined to help you increase your leads and sales, optimize your marketing costs, and differentiate your brand by passing on our tribal knowledge. The team vigilantly stays on top of the latest in digital marketing, bringing you the top insights with expert commentary. Want to see something on our blog you haven't seen yet? Shoot us an email and our marketing team will get to work.
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The user base is 1.9 billion and counting, and guess how many hours of video those 1.9 billion people watch every day?
Over a billion.
If you’re not convinced by the sheer logic of being where your customers are, think about this: millions and millions of people already flock to YouTube to watch videos, and therefore may be more inclined to watch your ad than other digital mediums.
The user base is 1.9 billion and counting, and guess how many hours of video those 1.9 billion people watch every day?
Over a billion.
If you’re not convinced by the sheer logic of being where your customers are, think about this: millions and millions of people already flock to YouTube to watch videos, and therefore may be more inclined to watch your ad than other digital mediums.
