How soon do you decide to skip an in-stream video on YouTube? In three seconds….and as an advertiser,you don’t pay for advertising unless the video is watched for 30 seconds. It is pretty surprising that many advertisers don’t seem to mention the brand or URL till about the end of the video, by which time the viewer has skipped the ad. Hence this post.
YouTube is the second most searched website on the web with some interesting YouTube stats:
- 1 Billion views a month.
- 80% from outside the US.
- More US viewers in the 18-34 age group can be reached by YouTube than any cable TV network. If they actually watch your video for 30 seconds or more, you pay between 6-12 cents- if they skip before, you pay nothing.
- A million advertisers using TrueView In-Stream Videos with 75% videos that are skippable.
If you got your brand in front of your audience, before they skipped, there is data that supports that many YouTube viewers would simply search the brand later and arrive as organic visitors on your website. In other words, folks would simply skip the Ad in 5 seconds and get to the video content that they want to watch. If you can get your brand and URL to them in the first three seconds, it would help- a lot.
The way to add the 3 second brand infront of every video on your video channel is rather simple, and is explained on this how-to video here.
Given that it is really difficult to reach the younger US audience on TV, it seems like a great idea to advertise on YouTube when your goal is to generate brand awareness. Brand awareness is the early part of the sales funnel and starts the customer engagement process.
The best part is that even as viewers skip your in-stream video ad you can get your brand name out there.- for free. Remember you do not pay for most video advertising unless the viewer watches 30 seconds.