What YouTube Marketing Tips Actually Hold Up? (Archive, 2021)

Recorded in April 2021 during Simon's s.media agency era — a team compilation answering the questions clients asked most. Published as part of a dated historical record; costs and platform details are as they stood in 2021.

How much does it cost to advertise on YouTube?

The question we're asked all the time — and it depends on the market you operate in, where you are in the world, and the product or service you offer. What we found across the board: running a discovery campaign, you could get brand awareness at as little as one to two pence per view (or one to two cents in the States). Conversion costs depend on many more variables, but using the IDA software we developed in-house, we typically drove campaign spend down by 20 per cent. The sensible starting point is a discovery session, from which solid recommendations follow on starting budgets and how a campaign scales over time.

Should you move your ad spend to YouTube?

Let me set the stall out: we are not saying stop all your other online advertising and move everything to YouTube — that would be completely the wrong thing to do. The right frame is a YouTube-first mindset: use YouTube's low-cost entry point to reach the masses, build brand awareness and warm up audiences, then use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to market back to those warm audiences. That's where the value of pivoting your strategy — rather than just your budget — shows up.

How do you attract more views?

A couple of key rules that are really wider common-sense marketing. First, understand who your customer is: who's going to engage with the videos you're making, what are their needs, how do they live their lives — do your research and do it well. Second, be true to your brand values and vision, and how they align with your customers' needs. It's all too easy to throw content out without really thinking about it; if what you're talking about genuinely relates to your customers, you've a far better chance of driving views because it's relevant to them.

Should you pay to promote your videos?

How long is a piece of string? You don't have to go crazy — but putting a little spend behind a video helps in two ways. Google likes it, and if it's targeted well, the right people watch it, comment, like and share. That compounds: more visibility begets more visibility. But it has to be part of a wider YouTube strategy, not a single tactic on its own.

Why is YouTube targeting so strong?

YouTube is owned by Google, which means you get access to Google's targeting metrics and methods. The main benefit: you can run ads to the right people at the right time — when they're interested in your product, or at the moment they want to buy. You're not wasting time and money on people who aren't interested; you're advertising to people who are more likely to convert.

How do you build the sales funnel?

Start at the top: cold traffic. You need brand awareness to generate leads and clicks, and YouTube advertising is exceptional for it — A/B test your creative here to learn which version converts. Then plot the stages of the buyer's journey visually: if the ad sends people to a landing page, what happens next?

Once traffic is warm, remarketing comes into play — and so many people miss this. Build a deliberate remarketing loop: from the landing page into email marketing, back into YouTube ads (you can remarket to people who watched a certain amount of an ad and clicked through), and Google display advertising as well. Use multiple channels rather than relying on one — a combination of YouTube and Facebook plus email works really well. Hit people when they're cold at the top, and again when they're warm further down, and get them over the line.

When does collaboration beat spend?

Brand collaboration is vital for YouTube marketing because it's a win-win. As a brand with budget you might go for a bigger YouTuber — but micro-influencers with fewer subscribers tend to have more loyal, trusting audiences. It works the other way too: smaller channels banding together gain followers for both, and a big-channel-plus-small-channel pairing gives the big one a new audience and the small one access to a large following. Either way, collaborating gets you better content, more followers and more exposure.

How does YouTube compare with television on cost?

On YouTube you can drive views for a couple of pence each. On TV you pay for a guaranteed placement, heavily marked up by entrenched media-buying companies — thousands upon thousands of pounds — and you don't learn much about where the money went, because views can simply be wasted. Not everyone watching television is engaged with it; most people switch off during the adverts. On YouTube, where the ad breaks into content the viewer chose, there's more opportunity for genuine contact — a two-way conversation with the audience you could never have through traditional advertising.