There’s a trick to creating videos for advertising, and that’s to not create video ads…create movie shorts.
Reel SEO posted about why videos that weren’t made as advertisements can work so well as advertisements. I watched their examples and thought ‘Hey, that’s pretty good…Ima write a blog about it.’ So here ya go.
We’re a pretty cynical crowd nowadays. It doesn’t matter if you are the older generation who “used to walk 8 miles in the snow to and from school each day,” or if you are the new generation who has grown up with a cell phone in their hand, we all know when we are being “sold” to.
And we hate it.
It’s the reason we can fast forward television, the reason we don’t stress about being late to the movies–we know the first 15 minutes are going to be local advertisements–the reason we get so angry when YouTube displays an ad that we aren’t able to skip.
You know what ads I skip the least on YouTube? Movie trailers. Why is that? Because they tell stories, because it’s something new–a new movie, a new story–that I haven’t heard or seen yet. And if the trailer is cut correctly, I will sit and watch it because it doesn’t feel like an advertisement to us. It doesn’t feel like we are being sold to, rather, that we are hearing part of a story that we want to hear more of.
This is what we should keep in mind when we create video marketing content. Don’t create marketing content. Create stories. Have good audio. Play on the wide range of emotions we have as humans. Don’t over brand.
#1. Dumb Ways to Die
The most shared video in the world is a video titled Dumb Ways to Die. It’s a simple song with simple animations of some of the dumbest ways people have died. You don’t know who even created it until the very end, and it was Melbourne Metro. While I’m sure Melbourne Metro has a large number of people who know what it is, I’m sure it wasn’t relevant to the majority of the people who shared and watched the video. But that’s because it wasn’t viewed as an advertisement or a PSA message, it was just a funny video with a funny tune that caught people’s attention. And in fact, accidents and deaths were decreased the following year by 21%. The video came with a game and public ads that led to it being the most shared public service announcement in history.
#2. LG Meteor Prank
Have you seen the LG Meteor prank? If you haven’t it’s worth watching. Basically a room is set up filled with hidden cameras, and a television is hung behind a desk. However, it’s framed to look like a window and the cityscape is displayed on it. They bring in new people to interview for a “job” and as they are interviewing a meteor cuts into frame and hits the city. After the lights cut out and I can only imagine the individuals are thanking the high heavens they are still alive, the pranksters reveal themselves and the fact that the “window” was just an amazing LG television. Some handled it well, others…did not.
#3. The Red Button (TNT)
Have you seen the red button? Some nice, quiet, little town in Belgium became the scene of an action movie with the click of a little red button that said “push to add drama.” An ambulance shows up, drops the patient, then loses him out the back of the vehicle. A biker runs into the ambulance and starts a fight, there’s a shootout, and at the end an American football team shows up to carry a body back inside a building. At the very end a banner drops that promotes “your daily dose of drama” from the network TNT. Genius.
#4. Chipotle Scarecrow
Everyone has seen the Scarecrow video for Chipotle, right? It’s beautifully animated and set to Grammy Winning artist Fiona Apple’s “Pure Imagination” a cover of the famous song from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It didn’t hurt that the video was created by Moonbot Studios, an Academy Award winning studio. This video does everything right. It pulls you in with amazing graphics and an actual story that we all can understand. We all know the horror of our food industry. The way this video plays to our emotions is perfect. It’s not until the very end that you even know that you watched a Chipotle ad. They did everything right.
#5. GoPro
Firemen and kittens. Is there more of a cliché? Maybe not, but GoPro did it perfect. A camera attached to a fireman inside a burned house, finds a kitten on the floor, unresponsive. He takes the kitten outside and puts an oxygen mask on it and cleans it off with a bottle of water. The whole time we are glued to our computers rooting for that little kitten. And then the cat starts moving and mewing. I’m not crying, you’re crying. It tugs on our emotions. And it shows the great thing about a GoPro, you can stick it anywhere and capture amazing moments. At the end of the video the link to two other GoPro videos along with a subscribe. This is a great call to action that the other videos were missing.
All in all, these 5 videos are amazing advertisements because they weren’t created like normal advertisements. You sit and watch them and you don’t feel like you are being sold to. Keep that in mind when you are creating your next video advertisement, don’t create it as an advertisement, create it like a short video.
Normally I will tell a story or shoot the breeze for a bit before I jump into the meat of my message. But we do not have time for that because I am about to show you something amazing.
Not Kidding!
This is the ultimate lesson on how to reach the right audience with YouTube Video Ads. When I say “right audience” I mean those people who are looking for your product or service.
We are not just talking about clicks or cheap traffic. We are talking about conversions.
You can target certain groups that are interested in your product or service and I am going to show you how.
Note…there are some options for big brands who like spending a lot of money for top of mind purchasing, but I really want to focus on in-market audiences. In other words…Conversions
Let’s jump in.
Finding people who are interested in your product or service
Choosing the right audience in ad groups can make or break your campaign. Google Display Network provides you with a lot of options yet you have to be careful. Listen to what Google says. This is how they collect so much data on people and what they are searching for.
[xt_blockquote author=”Google”]“When someone visits a Google partner website, we may use the content of the page or website to show contextually relevant ads. We use the main topics and themes from the page as well as data from third-party companies to associate interests with a visitor’s anonymous Cookie ID. This takes into account how often people visit sites like those, among other factors.
“Google may use information that people provide to these partner websites about their gender, age, and other demographic or interest information. We may also use the websites people visit and third-party data to infer this information. For example, if the sites a person visits have a majority of female visitors (based on aggregated survey data on site visitation), we may associate the person’s cookie with the female demographic category.” [/xt_blockquote]
Basically you’re being tracked. Everything you are doing on the internet provides Google with information so that they can run you targeted ads.
This includes YouTube ads otherwise know as Trueview ads.
Back in February Google made a big adjustment to Trueview Video Ads. They divided the audiences into to groups.
1. Affinity Audiences 2. In-Marketing Audiences
Affinity Audience (broad)
If you are going to use Affinity Audiences you will want to make sure you have a nice chunk of money sitting around. This audience is set up for big brands who would like to extend their TV campaign to an online context. They can also do some targeting, but everything is more broad.
We do not suggest this, but to each their own.
Here is how to limit the affinity audience. For example, instead of reaching hotel lovers, a hotel located in San Francisco may want to reach a certain tech audience that will fit their hotel style. Or instead of reaching Women, a Women’s clothing story may want to reach women who love a certain style of dress. You can do this by:
-Using free form interests entered as keywords -And/or using URLs as proxy for interests
In-Market Audiences (more Defined)
When you use In-market audiences you are able to reach customers who are actively searching for your product or service. Once again, Google uses all of your search history and browsing data to determine if you are actively searching for a certain product or service.
The biggest difference…this audience is close to completing a purchase. This will help us get more conversions.
Isn’t that what we want?
Here is an example from the almighty Google.
Say that you own a car dealership and want to advertise on AdWords. Here’s how you could use audiences based on your goals:
• When to use “affinity audiences”: Your goal is to reach as many people as possible and drive awareness of your dealership, so that when people need to buy a new car or have their car serviced, your business comes to mind. You’re probably running ads on TV stations and want to complement this campaign with an online campaign to expand your reach. With affinity audiences, you could go beyond car enthusiasts, and reach “green living enthusiasts” with ads about hybrid cars, “bargain hunters” with ads about a big sale coming up, and “luxury shoppers” with ads about high-end cars.
• When to use “in-market audiences”: Your goal is to reach people who are actively considering buying a car and have narrowed their decision down to a handful of brands or types of cars. These customers are open to various options or dealers, but intend to make a decision soon. You could complement your search campaign or display keywords campaign with “in-market audiences,” and reach people who are looking for “new sedans” or “new luxury vehicles.”
So there you have it. Now lets jump into the video ad campaign and see where this is located.
Here is another side note. Getting the right traffic to your website is expensive, bringing them back is not. So you want to make sure you have your remarketing pixels in place.
This is a key to getting the maximum amount of leads. Start building lists of people who visit your website. Once they land on your site, watch one of your videos, or click on an ad you can put them into your remarketing list. By the end of the year you will want to have thousands of people cookied.
I know I am going to get this question…
“What is the difference between interests and topics?”
Heck if I know! It’s not like I am a video marketing genius…or am I?
Wait, I think I am so I am going to answer this question for you.
In a pumpkin/nutshell, the big difference is context. Topics will place you video ads on websites or videos that are directly related to the topic.
For example
Sports products would go on espn.com
That is fine, but we still want to make sure we get the In-market interests dialed in. This is the big one. In-market allows you to find people who are actually searching for your product or service. It doesn’t matter what website or video the person is on.
Why not try both?
I am testing that right now to see happens. Google tells you to not do this because it might restrict your audience, but their motives are a little different than mine.
I have found that when Google suggests something, it will usually increase my cost per lead. Their goal is have us pay the maximum amount per lead, so be a little weary of their suggestions.
Finally, I must warn you that this is a new thing Google came out with February 17. Be tight on your budget until you have proven the concept. This is exciting because Google is only going to get better at it.
Also make sure you are tracking conversions. Set up the conversion pixel so know that the money spend is bringing you in leads. Until next time this is Jace Vernon signing off.
One other thing…if you run the right ads, you get these types of comments. How long as it been since a person say they enjoyed your marketing ad?
I should get something for giving you guys such amazing content…oh wait, I do. Look for our next Video Marketing Tip. Hope you enjoyed.
Have you checked out the latest and greatest interactive video ads created by Ydraw?
If not, you should…
I have been running some video marketing test on YouTube to see what type of engagement I get with interactive video compared to other styles. First you might want to watch the video to get an idea of what an interactive video is.
Many of you know that I am a big fan of YouTube ads (trueview ads). I think they provide an amazing opportunity for you to get in front of your target audience at an extremely low price. Plus if you create the right video you can increase your engagement 10 fold. So let’s look at some numbers.
On February 18th I started a simple test and here are the numbers.
Those numbers are looking awesome. I kept the budget extremely tight because I wanted to show you guys that YouTube ads do not have to cost you a fortune plus I wanted to restrict Google. You do not see these types of numbers with YouTube ads, but I did a couple of things differently.
1. I created an Interactive Video that would get my audience engaged.
2. I targeted my Remarking Audiences.
Interactive Videos
Trueview ads continue to supply more and more features that will drive YouTube visitors away from YouTube to your landing pages. You can use annotations, Overlay Call Out, Logo, etc.
Here is an idea
Lets assume you are going to be selling Dish Network or DirecTV. We all know how the game is played among sellers. If you have Dish Network, they will try and get you over to Direct. If you have Direct, they will try and get you over to Dish. We can use this to segment our audience and run them ads.
Step 1: Create a video that gives your audience a choice. Below is a simple example of what you can do to give you audience a choice. This is not a video, it is a simple gif because I didn’t care to create a whole video to show you (sorry, next time).
Why would you want to do an add like this?
Because you do not want to pay for viewers who are not really interested in your product or service. When they see your add you want them to either click it or move on before 30 seconds hits. That way you are not charged.
Now if they click on your add and they choose DirecTV then you send them to a landing page that talks about Dish and the benefits they can get by switching…plus you put a remarketing pixel on there computer to run them more ads throughout the internet. This could be much more cost effective compared to Google PPC ads.
Step 2: Select the right target audience. For the interactive video ad I used the Remarketing feature. I had a small list built up from earlier views plus I let Google create similar audiences.
Which brings me to my next point.
Last week I had the chance to attend the Traffic and Conversion summit in San Diego. One of the “Big Ideas” was that 2015 is going to be the year of the pixel. Meaning that you need to start building audiences. In other words you capture and pixel as many people as you can. If you are going to spend the money to drive people to you website, why not put a cookie on their computer so that you can run ads to them later on.
It can be done on YouTube also. Basically YouTube will cookie anyone who has watched your videos. This allows you to run video ads to them later on. It’s cheap and very effective.
So there you have it…I hope you can see the big benefit to running interactive videos. So far the numbers have been amazing and we are just getting started.
[xt_callout style=”minimal” title=”Do You Need Help? Want to Join The Group?” href=”http://marketinghy.com/contact/” btntext=”Sign Up Now!” icon=”tags” btnstyle=”flat” btnsize=”large” btncolor=”blue” target=”_blank” btnpos=”right”]
Are you struggling to get the traffic or revenue necessary to grow your business? We have a limited number of spots open for future clients. If you can not implement this strategy, we would love to do it for you. Everything we do is based off of ROI and will help your business. Sign Up and we will get you started right away. We will manager your Video Ads Campaigns, Email Campaigns and Autocomplete Services. They Work and we use them. Sign Up and see if we are a good fit. We may not be…but it’s worth seeing. This could change your business.
Small companies or startups are always looking for a way to compete against the big corporations that have thousands, if not millions of dollars to spend on PPC campaigns.
Lets say you only have a budget of $500 a month and your competitors have a budget of $500,000 a month. How are you going to be able to compete?
They are Goliath and you’re David. There is just no way to compete against Goliath.
Most of you know that David did win, but it wasn’t by facing Goliath with a sword and shield. He brought a sling, which is basically like a gun. He fought with brain…not brawn.
“The same misunderstanding happens in David vs. Goliath fights in business. Most fail to recognize the advantages an underdog brand has when it faces off against a competitor who has strength, size, and wealth. And that’s exactly why nimble, upstart companies, with their new solutions to old problems, often can best Goliaths.”
Inc magazine
This applies to PPC ads. You don’t have the budget so you have to be quicker, more creative, and extremely observant. You need to know what is taking place on your Campaigns.
Let’s take a look at Adwords.
If you have an extremely tight budget you have to be so selective. Most small businesses will run hundreds of keywords to their account. You can’t do this. It’s like going head to head with your competitors…Which is a bad idea.
Here is what you need to do:
1. Focus on a limited number of keywords
2. Watch it like a hawk (ad negative keywords)
3. Focus on a certain area
4. Create amazing ads. (this is a big one.)
5. Create better landing pages
6. **Use Facebook, YouTube Ads, and Bing (much less competition)**
1. Focus on a limited number of Keywords
Keyword research is the beginning of all ads. Lets look at the hotel real-estate industry.
If you want a chance to get some leads you have to go after long tailed keywords in certain areas.
“Find a home to purchase in Salt Lake City Utah” (long tailed keyword)
vs
“Real estate Salt Lake” (you’re going to get crushed)
What you lack in funds you have to make up in brains. Make sure to do your keyword research. It pays big dividends.
You can use the keyword planner tool or you can use other resources.
2. Watch your PPC Campaing like a hawk
Do not set and forget it. You have to make adjustments according to the results.
Example:
You might be getting clicks for “Real Estate Rentals.” You will need go into your account and add a negative keywords.
“Rentals”
You will also want to make sure you check your Ads often and see which one is producing the best results.
3. Focus on a particular area.
Even though you do business all around the globe you still need to focus in on an area. You do not have the budget to compete globally so you will need to compete locally first and then expand as revenues grow.
4. Create amazing ads.
Here is another place where you have to spend time. You can afford to be like everyone else because you can’t blow your budget. Every click counts.
Take a look at the ads below.
The first one shows you a bunch of ads. Everyone is the same.
These two stand out because they use everything that is available plus they add in a lot of numbers and symbols
5. Create better landing pages.
I wrote an entire article on landing pages so I am not going to go into it here.
6. **Use Facebook, YouTube Ads, and Bing (much less competition)**
This is big…Really BIG
More often then not the best strategy is to not compete. Go elsewhere.
Facebook is way cheaper and it is only getting better. You can spend 10 dollars a day on facebook and get better results. Some of my campaigns are 1/10th the cost of Adwords.
YouTube is another one of my favorite avenues. It costs 9 cents a view and can get you a lot more traffic. Just last night I decided to rank a video for a long tail keyword.
It took me 10 minutes to hit page one of Google and the top spot of YouTube. Best of all…It was free to do. Check out the proof below.
Bing is also another great source. Although it has less traffic it still produces results at 1/5th the cost of Google.
There you have it. If you have an extremely small budget you really should consider fighting the battle a little differently.
[xt_callout style=”minimal” title=”Do You Need Help? Our Offer To You” href=”http://marketinghy.com/contact/” btntext=”Sign Up Now!” icon=”tags” btnstyle=”flat” btnsize=”large” btncolor=”blue” target=”_blank” btnpos=”right”]
Alot of times people we find they are too busy or they just do not have the technical skills to implement our strategies. If you can not implement this strategy, we would love to do it for you. Everything we do is based off of ROI and will help your business. Sign Up and we will get you started right away. We will manager your Video Ads Campaigns, Email Campaigns and Autocomplete Services. They Work and we use them. Sign Up and see if we are a good fit. We may not be…but it’s worth seeing. This could change your business.
[/xt_callout]
Thanks for reading.
How To Compete In PPC (pay-per-click) With A Small Budget
