YouTube Advertising: What should you not do?

The number of YouTube advertisers had increased by 40% year on year by July 2015. Has your business added video advertising to its digital strategy? Ensure that you are not making these common mistakes.

Poor video description

Having a description that does not accurately reflect the content of your video can often lead to a lower click-through rate. It is important to remember that the description is what is usually seen in results from search queries on both Google search and on YouTube.

This is not to say that you have to write four or five sentences if your content is complex or detailed, but providing a description with relevant keywords and an incentive to click through is of utmost importance.

Irrelevant title or tags

Possibly one of the most important factors to consider when thinking about your YouTube SEO, the title is an element of YouTube advertising that can businesses can easily get wrong. It is often the case that advertisers choose to rely on keywords that have worked for them on other digital platforms in their video titles. This is the wrong approach to take if the keywords are not relevant to the video content.

Alongside optimising your title with relevant keywords and phrases, remember to add tags to target any other keywords you think represent the video. Take advantage of the Google Keyword Planner Tool for inspiration.

Irritable annotations

If used properly, annotations can compliment a video by providing links to web pages relevant to the video content. They can make a significant contribution towards viewer engagement.

It is often easy to fall in to the trap of creating annotations that come across as intrusive and distract the viewer from the advert leaving them with the simple choice of clicking on the ‘Skip’ button. Placement of the annotation is also vital – if it is placed in the centre of the video, expect very little engagement as a result.

Ensure that your video takes centre stage whilst creating an annotation that has a discrete white or grey background, is small in size and short in duration (roughly 5-7 seconds).

Staying idle

Even if you are not planning to implement video advertising in the long-term, choosing not to share the link to your video across your other digital platforms will ultimately prove harmful to your YouTube SEO. Embedding the video on to your website as well as sharing across your social media platforms can improve your video rankings on Google.

Along with getting users to engage with the advert you’ve created, think about your channel authority. You want your YouTube channel to be seen as one that creates engaging videos and advertisements that are tailored to the search queries of your viewers.

No calls to action

Whilst they should be kept to a minimum, creating an advert without a call to action is bad practice for video advertising. This is especially true if you are targeting millenials who can often lose focus and are bombarded by online advertising.

A key best practice for calls to actions is to place them towards the end of the video to ensure that the viewer can take in the information being given to them and enjoy the content first. They are more inclined to then subscribe; like or visit a web page given in the description.

It is important to note that what your call to action is will depend on what you what to direct your viewers to do next, be that viewing other content from your channel or visiting a specific landing page.

Importance of the thumbnail

The video thumbnail plays a large part in making viewers click-through to your advert, as it provides a quick snapshot of the video content. You have the option of either choosing from an image automatically generated by YouTube or uploading your own custom thumbnail if you have a verified account.

Ensure that the message being conveyed from the title and the thumbnail is consistent, so you tell a story about both your brand and the video.

Contact us

Looking to make YouTube advertising a part of your PPC activities? Drop us a line today via hello@minttwist.com to discuss video advertising.