Everything You Need to Know About YouTube Marketing Strategies (Archive, 2021)

Recorded in April 2021 during Simon's s.media agency era — a team compilation. Published as part of a dated historical record; figures are as they stood in 2021.

Why does YouTube belong in your strategy at all?

YouTube has over two billion viewers every single month, and it's one of the best ways to target new audiences. It's owned by Google, which makes the targeting very granular; it's great for remarketing on other platforms, so it works well alongside your other social activity; and with hours and hours of video added every day, viewers of all ages across the world use it to find and share new content — well beyond how-to videos and music. If you want to reach new audiences and convert them online, YouTube is a great route to market.

Video is also one of the best ways to communicate your brand's story. You can pick up the passion more than in other forms of communication, and YouTube is a platform that lets people be genuinely authentic — you show the real you, as an individual, a business, a brand. Brands that communicate an authentic story — the truth of what they're about, their values — come across really well on video, and people resonate with it in a way that's harder to achieve elsewhere, because other formats lose the subtle nuances.

Who is your target audience — really?

Start by outlining your ideal customer profile. Do you even have one? You might think everyone wants your product, but there are definitely people — and whole age groups — who don't fit. Narrow it down, but it doesn't have to be razor-thin: when advertising on YouTube we'd recommend going broader at first, letting the campaign test and learn, and then narrowing. And here's the interesting bit from client work: sometimes the audience that converts best on YouTube is not who the client thought their ideal customer was. Keep the profile in mind, but hold it loosely — the successful campaign may redraw it for you.

How does YouTube serve inbound marketing?

YouTube guides the customer at every step of the inbound journey. Someone has a problem, researches it, then compares competitors for the best offer. You can run an ad that shows the problem you solve and gets the cogs turning; you can fully inform them at the learning stage; you can see what your competition is doing and position your relevance against it — YouTube's recommendation system, and the way Google's back end surfaces videos, makes comparing easy, and with targeting you can even layer your ads onto competitors' videos. And then the step that's rarely covered: the follow-up. Build the constant connection through remarketing, the comment section and ongoing content, and you up-weight the value of your brand.

Which video format should you use?

You've defined your message; now you need the vehicle. Explainer videos, sponsored influencer videos, DIY tutorials, interviews, standard commercials — literally anything. How do you choose? Two ways: market research into what your audience already watches, and A/B testing — putting out different versions and finding which works best. Create multiple ads, see which performs, then focus your effort there. Because YouTube is pay-per-click, you're not wasting budget on videos that don't work — you put it all into the version you've tested and know converts.

What are the three Ps: production, promotion, placement?

With strategy in place, you have to get it made — in-house if you have the team, or outsourced. Either way, three Ps matter.

Production: it can be as simple as a phone or as elaborate as a full studio, depending on what your brand stands for. I recently saw a full cartoon ad on YouTube TV that can't have cost more than $250 on Fiverr — I've done similar myself. What matters most is the script: there's a specific way to write compelling scripts for YouTube, and great resources exist for it.

Promotion: what are you actually promoting, and to what action? If you're selling a car you're not trying to close in one click — maybe you want the email address to begin a conversation, or you're promoting an event, or a next step. Be crystal clear on the purpose: another subscriber, or a membership sign-up?

Placement: where does this go, and to which audiences? There might be a hard-to-reach high-end audience and an easier lower-end one that won't buy your high-ticket item. Look at your front-end offer — what are you having them do — and your back-end offer, what you ultimately want. If you're clear on all three, do it in-house. If it feels like there are five directions it could go, get someone to help.