According to eMarketer, 61% of American Internet users watched TV programmes via Netflix in 2019, followed by 52% via YouTube, 37% via Amazon Prime, and traditional TV viewing i.e. watching a programme when it’s aired on TV, came in fourth at 36%, confirming that audiences increasingly watch what they want, where they want, and when they want. To advertisers, regardless of the size of their advertising budget, this sends a strong message: the era of investing heavily in TV commercials to reach the mass audience is nearly at its end, and video advertising is the way to move forward…
Within the context of global Internet traffic (see above), YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and Netflix are all among the top 20 most visited websites; some of these websites are recognised as video platforms and some as social media. Importantly, there is an overlap between video advertising and social media.
Let’s have a closer look at video marketing by going through some examples on the YouTube platform. Like any other marketing campaign, your video campaign will have goals based on the results you want to achieve for your business at any given time. You might need to increase awareness or drive an action such as purchase or sign up. Focusing on actions, there are several video ad types to drive this goal and one of them is ‘Trueview for Action’. The ad format is skippable, so advertisers shouldn’t be worried about frustrating their audience by making them watch the entire video ad. This video ad should be at least 10 seconds or longer in length. As is illustrated below, because there is a Call to Action button appearing close to the ‘Skip ad’ button, it will encourage audience engagement/ click on the CTA button. More detailed instructions as to how you can set up this type of video campaign can be found here.
For example, Marley Spoon, the Berlin- based meal kit (delivering pre-portioned ingredients for the recipes their customers love), ran a couple of YouTube ad campaigns to achieve an increase in brand awareness and sales. The latter was managed via a ‘Trueview for Action’ campaign and it was done by encouraging viewers to click on a ‘Try Now’ CTA button and directing them to Marley Spoon website. Read more, if you’re interested to know how their video advertising campaign performed.
