Don’t we all love the exciting pre-roll ads that take up 30 seconds of our Youtube watching experience. They are annoying, but for advertisers they can become very handy. Here are 4 simple steps to create amazing Pre-Roll Ads.
1. Don’t do boring pre-roll ads
Nobody wants to see your ad and the reality is you are interrupting their precious Youtube time. The same goes with TV commercials. We tend to turn off our brains when advertising comes on. But is doesn’t have to be this way. Just put in a little extra effort and create something that will grab their attention and entertain the audience.
Back of the Brain; Front of the Brain
Although people do not like advertising, they still have needs and wants. The front of the brain is always running and tends to control most things, but the back of the brain may have a serious problem that needs to be solved, e.g. a boss who needs an explainer video, or a presentation that she is worried about. A viewer may jump onto YouTube thinking of a music video, how to cook tutorial, basketball tutorial, or for entertainment. But without even knowing it they end up on Ydraw’s website looking at explainer videos. The same happens with Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and most news channels.
Here is the secret of a successful YouTube Pre-roll Ad: interrupting what’s going on in the front of a viewers brain to fulfill the need in the back of the brain. The video will seize upon a lurking fear or desire, and exploit it. It interrupts and keeps on interrupting until action is taken. Here are some great examples:
2. Don’t repurpose your video…
What do I mean by this? Many first time YouTubers believe they can get away with a video that was created for a TV commercial. This has to be the worst idea ever (says everyone). The audience has the choice to watch your ad or not. It has to capture the prospect’s attention within 5 seconds and maintain that attention for 30 seconds.
You want to communicate with an audience that suffers from ADHD. You have five seconds to hook their interest, and 30 seconds until they decide they’re done with you. How do you do it?
I am sure you have all heard about how humans now have the attention span of a Goldfish. This rumor is spread by marketers, because they get get people to sit down and watch their ads. The reality is we know what we want and we do not have to pay attention to things we do not like.
3. Your Pre-Roll Ad should be 30 seconds or longer
There is some logic behind this rule. 15 second pre-roll ads can end up costing you fortune. Google will charge you per 30 second view or until the end of the video. By creating a 15 second video you will be charged at 15 seconds. By creating a 30 second video you are going to get more qualified leads and not pay as much.
4. Send Viewers To A Landing Page With A Strong Call To Action
YouTube now allows you to associate your website with your YouTube videos. You are able to build YouTube cards, annotations, and call to action slides. You need to create a strong call to action and tell the audience exactly what you want them to do. Drive them away from YouTube.
If you can’t link video marketing to leads, sales, customers and revenue…you’re doing it all wrong!
So there you have it.
If you need help creating YouTube video ads, just contact us.
You know those annoying little commercials that pop up in front of YouTube videos? I know you have seen them.
The ones that you hate and can’t see to skip fast enough. Those special little creatures are what we like to call YouTube Pre-Roll Ads.
I’m still trying to figure out if I hate them or love them. They are just so convenient for lead generation and business owners.
What are YouTube Pre-Roll Ads? (often times call Truview ads)
They are 30, 60 or 90 seconds of pure bliss and opportunity for your business, as long as you create a good one.
The Pre-roll Ad Opportunity
• YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine.
• Internet users watch almost an hour of web video every day
• Web video is growing and will continue to grow
• Everyone watches YouTube videos
• Video is the fastest growing form of ad format
I could keep listing things to try and convince you to get Pre-roll ads, but I will save the theatrics for another day. If you are not running them you should be, because in a couple of years the marketers will of ruin this medium like we do all the other ones.
Think Adwords back in 2001.
Targeting options with Pre-Roll ads
What makes pre-roll ads powerful? It’s the ability to deliver your story to a target audience. You can decide between location, demographic, placement, and keyword.
They also provide reporting to see what is working and what is not working. This will only getting better with time. Google continues to improve the platform and tracks everything consumers are doing which makes it better for us.
For example.
Lets say a personal injury attorney needs to find customers in the Las Vegas area. They would be able to run a video ad to people in the Las Vegas area, ages 35 to 65, on a YouTube video talking about personal injury.
Or
Let’s assume you have a Hotel in San Francisco and you would like to run your Video in front of 45 year old Males who have been searching for 5 star hotels in San Francisco.
This can be done.
This is not a perfect science yet, but over time the targeting is only going to improve. We can also track those who have watched our videos and run them banners ads or other videos ads as they browse around the Internet.
This is what they call remarketing. It’s another way you can build lists and keep track of those who have interacted with your product or service in one way or another. We will bring this up again
There are a couple of things you will need to consider when generating the perfect pre-roll ad.
Here are 7 Ways Video Pre-Roll Ads Can Generate Business
1. The Video
You can’t do boring nor should you. There seems to be this idea that any video will work. We strongly disagree. Bad videos or a poorly produced script is not going to help you. In fact, it could do the exact opposite.
The last thing you want is to make a poor first impression or damage your brand.
Like anything, you want to put your best foot forward. Don’t be careless and cheap. Yes we understand that your Uncle just bought a new camera and is willing to shoot your Companies video for free. Resist the temptation to be kind and cheap. Your video really does matter and needs to be customized for the YouTube setting.
We have found when a customer creates junk they tend to not use it because they know deep down it does not represent them well.
Here is a good example
We ran a simple little test on this bad boy and here are the numbers.
2. Have remarketing in place
2015 is the year of the pixel and the bigger lists you can build the better. Remarketing allows you to send a pre-roll ad or banner ad back to a visitor.
You do not just have to sit around and wait for your visitors to come back. Go get them and bring them back, because you can.
Here are your Video Remarketing options.
3. Target The Right Audience
There are a couple of tricks that will save you a lot of money with Pre-roll ads. You can’t just dive in without targeting your audience.
You have age, gender, topics, interests, location, and placement. You also have the ability to exclude certain demographics.
There are a lot of different choices that you will have to play around with.
3. Tell Your Story
By telling your story people are able to see a different side of your business. It’s personal and a great way to let others know what you’re all about.
4. Limit Mobile (have caution)
Although mobile is popular and continues to grow it can be a big click waster. I will reduce the cost per view by 30% on pre-roll ads.
5. Build Out Your YouTube Channel
This last year Google allowed you to link your Website up to your YouTube Channel, which in turn opened the door for, better lead generation.
Treat your YouTube channel as an extension of your website.
6. Set Up Annotations (links out)
Drive your traffic away from YouTube to landing pages with Annotations.
Every video you create needs to have a purpose and a Call To Action. Make them an offer and drive them to it.
7. Test And Track Conversions
You want to make sure you have some sort of tracking in place. I understand that companies have different goals. Some of you may need leads others may want to increase brand awareness. Both will work.
We have found some unique results with YouTube Pre-roll ads. One of our clients did not get a lot of leads, but they saw a nice increase in their search traffic.
So don’t give up too quickly.
By running and creating YouTube Pre-roll ads your able to drive video shares, new channel subscriptions, and create a lot of buzz about your product or service.
Try It.
You might find out that you love YouTube Pre-roll ads.
