YouTube Video Marketing Strategy: Reach More Internet Users and Lower Ad Costs

Mobile App Growth

November 29, 2018

Watching YouTube video on iPad

Yes, these may seem like fantastic numbers, but we assure you, there is evidence to back this up. Of course, keep in mind that individual results will vary…this is just one example.

But we are sharing this YouTube video marketing strategy case study because we want to show you what is possible.

…and no, it does not involve cat videos.

The Tools You Need for this YouTube Video Marketing Strategy

First, here are the things you will need:

  • YouTube Channel
  • Adwords account
  • The ability to make videos and display ad creatives (either DIY or hire someone to do it)

Now let’s get into the exact 5-step process that you will have to go through…

Step 1 – Setup Your Adwords Account

Setup Adwords account

If you don’t have an Adwords account already, set one up here. Then link your YouTube channel to your Adwords account and you are good to go!

Once you have all the basic setups worked out, you can there for now.

However, keep in mind that you will be basically building a list of people who have done any of the following actions on your YouTube videos:

  • Watched any of your channel videos
  • Liked, shared or commented on any of your videos
  • Viewed your TrueView ads
  • Visited or subscribed to your YouTube channel

Once you start building these lists, you can start retargeting any of these segments separately.

At this point, you should decide if you are going to only target organic traffic (people who watch the videos on your channel), only target TrueView ads…or you are going to do both. This will determine the type of video content you will create.

To learn more about TrueView ads, watch this video:

 

We will get back to Adwords after this…

Step 2 – Research Your Market

Next, do some research on what kind of videos will appeal to your potential app users. Maybe you know what that is already, or maybe you don’t.

Either way, research what seems to be working in your market. Also step outside of your niche and get ideas from other niches.

But remember that at the end of the day, it is YOUR brand strategy.

So own it and make it unique.

A little creativity can go a long way, especially in niches that are pretty straightforward. Business apps is one example that comes to mind.

If you need some ideas from the biggest YouTube publishers in the world, read this post. To get more ideas, you can also read about the 5 different styles of YouTube videos or visit the YouTube Creators Channel.

Step 3 – Create and Optimize YouTube Videos

Now it’s time to start making some videos. If you are only going to create TrueView in-stream video ads, then your options are somewhat limited. Just remember that you need to “front-load” your video and put the exciting stuff in the beginning, so people keep watching.

If you are going to create videos for your channel, then your video creation strategy will be different. First of all, if you are wondering what the ideal length of a video is, here is what the data says.

But again, you should try different things, it’s not one-size-fits all.

If you need to record app footage, be sure to read our post on how to record your iPhone/iPad screen. To record an Android screen you can either go through this whole process or use one of these screen recording apps.

Once you are ready to publish your video, be sure to do some optimization. Read this post to learn how to do it.

Now comes the fun part…

Step 4 – Remarket to People Who Watched Your Videos

Now it’s time to go back to Adwords and setup your app install campaigns. This video will show you how:

 

Advertising on YouTube with TrueView ads can get expensive. But if you want to reduce your advertising spend, you can use the list you built on YouTube and retarget them with the Adwords Display Network.

Estimates will vary of course, but the general consensus is that Adwords has the ability to reach about 90% of the internet.

That’s pretty crazy, if you think about it.

In this specific case, this means that when someone does any of the actions we listed in the first section of this post, chances are very high that they will visit another website that runs Adwords ads and you can show them a display ad.

Since display ads generally cost less than video ads and you can target people outside of YouTube, it’s really a no-brainer to at least test this strategy.

Step 5 – Review Your Analytics and Iterate

Once you have run a few ads, it’s now time to review your results. Since you setup conversion tracking in Step 4 above, you can see exactly how well your display ads are doing. If you aren’t getting clicks, here are a few tips for improving.

 

If the issue is that people are not watching your videos or video ads, you will have to revisit Step 2 and try another approach. With any type of marketing, there can be a lot of testing involved, so don’t get discouraged if your first try doesn’t work out.

Keep at it!

The Case Study

Alright, now that you know how the process works, you are probably wondering where we got those stats in the title. It comes from a great 3-part podcast series from Digital Marketer.

Digital Marketer podcast

In this episode, Tom Breeze talks about how he was able to reduce the advertising spend for one of his clients by 74%, by using this remarketing strategy. He also says that Adwords reaches 92% of the internet, which is in line with the other post that we linked to.

Again, these numbers are specific to this case study and results will vary greatly. But it shows you what is possible.

We highly recommend that you listen to the whole episode and the others in the series because they have a lot of great information.

Bonus Adwords Marketing Strategy

Want to add even more people to your Adwords marketing list? You can also upload a list of customer emails and target your ads that way.

This is why it is important to have a website and an email list. There are some restrictions to uploading emails, so be sure to read Google’s guidelines closely.

Conclusion

So that is how you can leverage YouTube to start building a list of people who are highly likely to be interested in your app. As it was mentioned in the podcast episode above, people who are highly engaged with your videos have a much higher probability of being good long term customers.

Sometimes they just need a little nudge to finally download your app. That is where display ads can be invaluable and allow you to do it at a lower cost that using in-stream video ads alone.

If you want to implement this strategy and need a few videos, contact us and we can get you started.

 

Got anything to add? Let us know in the comments below…

 

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  1. Very Informative article, Hugh!
    Got to know much more information about YouTube Video Marketing Strategies. YouTube is an excellent resource for companies & businesses to promote & advertise their business brands. These tips boost organic traffic.


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