If you are a pre-YouTube business the company is offering lots of incentives to join the video revolution. Open a new Google Adwords account and you’ll get a $75 credit for use on YouTube. That’s right, the company is offering $50 million in free advertising to businesses. You may have noticed ads appearing before viewing a video you searched for. YouTube has been running a beta version of Google Adwords since September of last year and now has opened this opportunity to everyone.
You control the cost. You choose how much you want to pay per view and how much you want to spend per day. You can also pause or stop any time you want. You pay only when someone decides to watch your ad. So the viewer of the ad is most likely interested in knowing what you offer.
Targeting an audience is easy. You decide where you want the ads to appear. YouTube is providing analytics reports so data is available for measuring your campaign success.
Here’s a video released by YouTube describing the Adwords program.
The company has just released a comprehensive Advertiser Playbook filled with information on how to plan, create, edit and publish a video on YouTube. It shows how you can track performance and target viewers using keywords and demographics. The Playbook also describes shooting techniques, how to publish to the site and how to share the video on other social media sites.
What kind of video ad should you create?
An Informational video ad often includes background on your business, or testimonials and product demos. Educational videos may include how-to’s, presentations, or product instructions. Sales videos include direct sales or promotions.
Now may be the time to get started with YouTube video ads. Lots of companies have grown their business with videos. YouTube is proud to show testimonials from companies that once served only local customers that are now distributing their products worldwide based on their successful use of video.
Are incentives enticing you to create video ads?