YouTube Ads: An Untapped Opportunity for Ecommerce Businesses
It’s amazing how many ecommerce businesses aren’t advertising on YouTube. That’s not to say that YouTube advertising is for every business, but it’s a great channel for awareness that ecommerce businesses should consider.
YouTube is a great channel for top-of-funnel marketing, even if you can’t always track conversions directly back to ecommerce YouTube ads. Remember, all your advertising is connected. People who end up buying from you have likely interacted with your brand across several platforms through your ads, so look at your efforts as a holistic advertising program.
YouTube has grown tremendously, even launching its own paid streaming service. Despite the advent of Tiktok, YouTube remains popular and hosts unplumbed depths of unique content you can’t find anywhere else. This draws a broad audience, so you likely have potential customers waiting for you there.
The catch about YouTube advertising is that you need to make your ads entertaining, almost like they’re actual platform content. Eccommerce YouTube ads have the tricky job of persuading viewers not to smash that “skip” button after the requisite five or 10 seconds pass.
On the plus side, marketers can create catchy videos that work well as ads and also entertain well enough as content to gain organic viewers. That’s good for advertisers and viewers alike!
Ecommerce YouTube ads present an enormous opportunity. Unlike other social media marketing channels, YouTube isn’t oversaturated — yet. And when done right, YouTube ads can yield outstanding results for ecommerce brands.
Ecommerce YouTube Ads: Top Opportunities
TrueView Discovery Ads
With TrueView ads, you get 30 seconds of viewing time for free, but a user can skip those ads at any time within the 30 seconds. You only pay for these ads when a user watches past 30 seconds. That’s a huge amount of time to get for free for brand awareness, especially if you make videos that grab attention on the front end.
Skippable Video Ads
With these ads, you get five seconds free before the viewer can choose to skip your ad. So take advantage of these five free seconds!
Get your main point across before the five seconds are up. You only pay for viewers who are so interested that they opt to watch the rest of your ad, which is money well spent.
Remarketing TrueView Ads
TrueView ads let you dynamically retarget people with specific content. So, if a site visitor views a specific product, you can show them a YouTube ad based on that product to close the sale. Again, you only pay if they watch more than 30 seconds or five seconds, depending on the ad type.
One other important note on ecommerce YouTube ads is that a paid video view is still a video view. These count on your videos as views, just like organic views, so ads can be a great way to build credibility and organic engagement.
Prerequisites for Ecommerce YouTube Ads
First, make sure you have a great video. If you aren’t creating great video ad content, don’t waste your time or money.
Next, make sure the first five seconds are truly spectacular. Great YouTube advertisers create an amazing video, and then they create dozens or even hundreds of variations of the first five seconds to find the best way to snag viewer interest.
Finally, use ecommerce YouTube ads as more than ads; use them as part of your content strategy.
Think of your videos as entertainment. Check out some ads the Harmon Brothers have done for Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri, and more as inspiration. Aim to make videos that can go viral.
Your ads should be entertaining enough that people want to watch and share, even if they aren’t a good fit as a customer.
