Jake Larsen

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hate YouTube Ads

June 17, 2019 by Jake Larsen

Are you one of those people that’s always saying “I hate YouTube ads!”? We understand that not many people necessarily enjoy ads, but of all the ads out there, YouTube ads really aren’t the worst. So before you leave this page to try and find out how to block YouTube ads, take a second and consider a few reasons why you shouldn’t hate YouTube Ads.

1. You Can Skip Ads On YouTube

Skip ad on youtube
Is your life really so incredibly jam-packed that waiting 5 whole seconds before the skip button comes up is a significant inconvenience for you? If it is, then why are you wasting your time entertaining yourself with YouTube videos anyway? Think how excited we would be if they introduced a skip button on TV or Radio Ads. We really should be thanking Google for that one.

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2. YouTube Ads Are More Relevant

Thanks to the modern miracle of the interwebs, advertisers are able to target very specific audiences with their ads. Don’t be one of those paranoid people who think that with “all of our information” advertisers are going to be able to stalk you and find out all the dirt on your past relationships or something. With that information advertisers are able to say “I want to show my ad to women in Washington who are between the ages of 18-35 and have watched videos about running”. That way, viewers don’t have to watch ads that are irrelevant to them. For example, that same audience of women in Washington probably wouldn’t see an ad for the new Call Of Duty game that they could care less about, but a male between the ages of 18-24 probably would.

3. YouTube Ads Force Advertisers To Get More Creative

Ads on YouTube are very different than TV advertisements. TV advertisers rely the fact that you’re already so absorbed in that episode of Game of Thrones or The Bachelor, that your eyes are too glazed over to blink and you’re too comfortable in that personalized butt imprint on your couch that you won’t leave the room. You’re not going anywhere. Ads on YouTube are different. Advertisers have 5 seconds to catch our attention or we’re already getting started on that new “fails compilation” video. Because of that, we have started to see more videos like this:

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4. YouTube Might Not Even Be Around Without Ads

GOOGLE SERVER FARM

These days a lot of people have just come to expect certain things for free. You can watch TV episodes online, you could stay entertained forever playing free online games, Google provides a bunch of software and services that other companies would charge good money for. But here’s a business secret for you: businesses don’t last long if they aren’t making money. What other choice does YouTube have but to allow people to pay for ad space? I guess the alternative is that you could pay a monthly subscription (don’t act like you’ve even considered YouTube Red). Have you ever seen one of Google’s server farms? They don’t look cheap.

5. YOU Can Make Money Off Of Them

How To Make Money On YouTube

Everyone knows that TV stations make their money off of advertisers. But the cool thing about YouTube is that you can pretty much be your own TV station. Google has leveled the playing field so that it’s no longer only the big networks who can make money. All it takes is a video camera, some creativity, and a little dedication and then you can be the one getting checks from Google.

Don’t know where to start? We made a course here at Video Power Marketing that teaches you all about making money on YouTube called “How To Make Money On YouTube”. We know it works because we’ve done it and we also have customers who have started to make real money using what they’ve learned in this course. Don’t miss out on this opportunity, because it won’t be like this for long.

Next time you Google “How to block YouTube ads” or complain that you have to wait a whole 5 seconds to skip an ad on YouTube, think instead about how lucky you are that you aren’t watching some super irrelevant ad that’s 90 seconds long on TV that you can’t even skip. Take advantage of YouTube and start getting paid yourself.

3 Things You Need To Know Before Advertising on YouTube

June 6, 2018 by Jake Larsen

We have discovered three indicators that can tell us if a YouTube Campaign will be effective for your company.

There is a question that exists in our industry niche; a question that you as a business owner, or a marketing manager may be asking yourself at this very moment. “Will advertising on YouTube work for me or my business”? The question derives from the great unknowns of YouTube. Long thought to be a place where the luck of the viral video rules, it is now a place where you can target, measure, and see guaranteed results.

There is no way of knowing exactly if something will work until you do it. However, through a little bit of research we have discovered three indicators that tell you how well a campaign will work for your company.

1) What Is A Customer Worth To You?

Any business that wants to grow needs to know their numbers. If you know what a customer is worth to you, that says you are ready for growth. In TrueView, as in most forms of marketing, being prepared to grow is maybe the most important quality a business can have. Without knowing your numbers, you cannot set goals. If you cannot set goals, your campaign has no direction or purpose.

In every phone call that we take, one of the first questions we ask is “What is a customer worth to you?” In our experience, we’ve found that those who cannot answer this question are going to be a headache. They are not prepared for a TrueView campaign, or any type of marketing campaign. It is like trying to cook a chicken before it has hatched from the egg. If you don’t let it hatch you are not going to get your desired outcome. Instead of a big plate of fried chicken, you’re gonna get one very scrambled egg.

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2) What Are You Willing To Spend To Get A Customer?

What is your desired outcome? Anyone that says anything different than customer acquisition is fooling themselves. That is why obtaining your desired CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) should be your number one goal.

Everything in TrueView campaigns is measurable, and the adjustments you make while managing a campaign should be predicated on reaching this goal. Your desired CPA gives a campaign purpose. Without it you are just blindly paying for traffic and views, and what is the point of getting views if they do not lead to customers?.

When we take calls and someone has no hesitation when answering the question “What are you willing to spend to get a customer?”, it goes from a good call to a great one. A couple weeks ago, we had two calls back-to-back. These calls were on completely different sides of the spectrum, one being great, the other not so much. The first call was the bad one, and we knew it was going to be bad right when we asked about their desired CPA, and the “umm birds” came out. They were not prepared for paid advertising and the whole phone call felt like we were walking in circles.

The second phone call was a breath of fresh air because they knew their numbers. When we asked, they had the answers. Calls like these breed our best campaigns. It was not that one product was better than the other, in fact, the product for the crappy phone call had been developed for a couple years and had already made money. The other product, however, had been prepared for growth and success.

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If you’re reading this saying, “I know my numbers”, or “my business meets all of those indicators”, then you should definitely consider TrueView Advertising. Fill out our Opportunity Brief and we will get in touch with you to see if we are a good fit for each other.

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3) Have You Successfully Used Google Adwords or Facebook Ads?

Advertising on YouTube is the perfect bridge between TV Commercials and PPC Advertising. The ultimate goal is to get potential customers off of YouTube and onto your website. When they get there, you have a landing page with a goal that makes the click successful. Whether that means someone buys your product, or gives you their contact information, the goal is up to you to decide.

While the strategy between AdWords, Facebook and YouTube are all very different, there is a strong correlation of success between the three. When someone tells us that they have had success on one of these platforms and have passed the first two indicators we get really pumped. We know that they can have a successful TrueView Campaign; one that drives in customers and a high return.

3 Killer Targeting Strategies for YouTube Ads

June 6, 2018 by Jake Larsen

So, you have a new, beautiful video ad that is optimized for YouTube and you’re pumped to plug it in and watch those conversions start rolling in. Have you considered yet where you are going to place this ad? (No, “on YouTube” is not an acceptable answer). You need to know who you are going to target and where on YouTube these people are looking so that you can place your ad on their computer screen.

All online platforms have a different way of targeting. YouTube ads are no different. You can’t just copy and paste your PPC campaign into YouTube. It will fail.

Let’s take a look at a couple of things you must know before setting up targeting for your YouTube ads…

1) What Targeting Options Do YouTube Ads Provide?

Content Keywords:

This is one of the most important targeting options. It will place your ads based on relevant keywords. These are the keywords found in video titles and descriptions You’ll want to do good research and a lot of keyword testing.

Remarketing:

These are

generally the best converting targeting groups so make sure you have them! There are two ways you can set up remarketing for your YouTube Ads. The first is website remarketing, where ads will be placed in front of anyone that has been to your website. The second is video remarketing, where your ads will be placed in front of anyone who has seen your YouTube videos.

Placements:

This can also be a very strong targeting group if you do it right. But it takes the most amount of prep time and research to create. You can take your ad and place it on relevant videos and channels that you choose (as long as they are monetized/allow ads). Hint: this can (and should) include your competitors videos.

Topics and Interests:

When your YouTube ads target people based off topics and interests, it uses information YouTube has acquired about a persons video watching habits. Interests are shown to people who have been frequently watching videos that fall under a category that you specify. Topics will be shown on videos that are related to a Topic that you specify. These have usually been our worst performing groups. But they have been successful in some cases so always test them!

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2) What Should You Consider When Creating Targeting Groups For YouTube Ads?

Demographics:

Each targeting group that you make for your YouTube ads can be further segmented by demographics. It is important to know your customer and turn off the demographics you know will not buy. If you don’t you could end up trying to sell diapers to elderly men. Which, come to think of it, they might actually need…

Research:

My advice is to prepare first. Research your customer, the value of a customer, keywords, placements, and know your desired CPA (cost per acquisition). Here is the formula you should think about while doing your research…

Right Message + Right People = Right Results

Don’t ever just jump into your campaign and start making targeting groups without doing the research and putting some good thought into it. These campaigns are your money-making machines and you don’t want to start them up without knowing how to use them. They will most likely fail miserably and you will miss out on a possible gold mine. Maybe one like Scrooge McDuck’s on Duck Tales (that’s a young person reference).

The Most Important Thing To Remember!

You have to be patient and you need to test. These campaigns usually do not work right off the bat because there is no way of knowing what works and what doesn’t until you start trying. You will most likely be ad spend negative for the first month or two. That’s OK! Just remember to always optimize your targeting groups towards conversions and you will start to see results.

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3) What Do Our YouTube Campaigns Look Like?

We usually start with all of the targeting groups and work from there. Because, like I said, when it comes to targeting for YouTube ads you have to test. You don’t know what will work and what won’t. Don’t be afraid to have variations of these different targeting group options. This allows for A/B testing between different categories of placements, or different sets of keywords.

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Generate Over 100 Leads A Week With YouTube Ads | Case Study

June 1, 2018 by Jake Larsen

WE WENT YARD RIGHT OFF THE BAT (THAT’S A BASEBALL REFERENCE TO ANY CANADIANS READING THIS). SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE AND LOOK AT THE NUMBERS.

Rock Star Real Estate is a real estate brokerage located in Toronto, Canada. When they approached us looking to start a campaign we were excited, but also a bit hesitant. The purpose of their campaign was to generate leads. We believed a YouTube advertising campaign would be successful for a number of reasons, which I will discuss later, so keep reading.

However, there was also a great unknown that made us hesitate to take them on. The main reason for our hesitation was because they did not want to run a national campaign. They only wanted the campaign to run to people in the Toronto area.

We had run local campaigns before, but never for more than a week or two. We were entering the great unknown of the localized campaign. The results were better than anything we could have hoped for.

What Made This YouTube Ad Campaign Successful?

Their Side

There was one very important factor to this campaign that made it so successful and it’s the reason that I mentioned in the first paragraph. They had a proven sales funnel. Their funnel begins by giving away a free e-book. Doing so established trust and allows people to see they are experts. From there they have 3 more steps that allow them to gain more information about the lead, continually follow up with these people and convert them into a customer.

This system weeds out those that were not serious and allowed them to close the people who are. You can drive traffic to your site all day, but unless you can convert that traffic to sales, your YouTube ads are meaningless. Check out this blog if you want to know the three things we look for to judge if a campaign will be successful…

Why Are Rock Star Real Estates Videos So Effective?

They use our Video Ad Formula when creating
new ads for their YouTube Campaigns

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Here are a few quick tips we have learned about online sales funnels from this campaign…

Give people an initial offering. People love free stuff and will gladly give you an email for something free. And if we know anything it’s that email converts.
Have a way to follow up after each step. People are busy and their day does not revolve around you. Have the structure in place to always follow up.
Have a final step to maximize profits. You can make someone a customer once, or have steps in place to make them a lifetime customer.

Our Side

Rock Star Real Estate is able to convert. Its proven. That meant it was up to us to be able to generate leads for them. As we have seen from the numbers that is something we have been accomplishing. The most important piece for us when we start a campaign—and it should be for you too—is defining your metrics of success. Rock Star knew what they were willing to spend to generate a lead. By knowing their numbers, we had a goal. We were able to optimize everything including the video, the targeting groups, and the landing pages towards that goal because we knew what success looked like. Oh and by the way, we hit it by week 2.

Their Video

Rock Star Real Estate went out and followed our strategy to make their video. It is optimized to get conversions & gets people’s attention quickly, shows value, and has a strong call to action. This is everything your video should be. Don’t take my word for it though, see for yourself…

Can You Find The Same Success With YouTube Ads?

Yes, you can! I would very much recommend finalizing your sales funnels and defining your metrics before you dump heavy sums of money into advertising. Remember you always want to test small and scale. That is our motto every time we take on a new client. Once you have your funnels proven and you know your CPA then you too can generate leads with YouTube advertising!

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Here is what Tom Kardaza from Rock Star Real Estate said about working with us and their success about YouTube Advertising…

“It’s rare to find people who actually know what they’re talking about. Over the years we’ve spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on marketing so we wouldn’t consider ourselves new to online advertising and at this point it’s hard to impress us … but that’s what Jake and his team have done. We’re impressed with these guys – they act quickly, follow through on their promises and deliver results. We would highly recommend them to our closest friends.”

How To Come Up With New Video Ideas

April 27, 2017 by Jake Larsen

Do you ever wonder how to come up with new video ideas for a YouTube Channel? This could be a personal Channel or one that you manage for a business. Either way, we’re all familiar with the looming thought: “Crap. I need to come up with a new video for my YouTube Channel to post by tomorrow”.

Trying to be creative & original all of the time can be hard, & even lead to major burnout if you don’t find a way to lighten the load. You don’t always have to pull ideas out of thin air. We’re going to share a secret of how to come up with good video ideas for YouTube. This one simple hack will not only save you from creative burnout, but it will also take your video marketing skills to the next level!

YouTube Search Hack

To get started, open up YouTube and a text document to write down the video ideas that you come up with during this process. At the top of your text document, write a general search term that you’d like to find new ideas for. If you were an accountant maybe you would write something like “do your taxes” or “business taxes”. If you have Channel that teaches video production tips and techniques maybe you could write something like “Premiere Pro” or “how to make video”. For this example we’re going to use the term “how to come up with video”.

Take the term you just came up with and start typing it into the Search bar in YouTube. As you start to type, it will start to autofill suggestions. These are the most popular search terms with that search term on YouTube right now. Take the terms on this list that you think you can make a video of and write them down on your text document.

If you create a video for any or all of these terms, you’re going to have a much better chance of getting your videos seen. Another benefit of creating videos with these terms is that you’ll have a more recent version than all the ones that are out there right now. As long as your video is good quality and has good audience retention, YouTube will favor your video because it has the newest information.

New Video Ideas (Remix)

It’s been said that we live in the Remix Generation. Take this to heart when you’re trying to come up with new video ideas. We’re not necessarily talking about ripping off someone’s video and auto-tuning it into a song. To “remix” means to produce a different version by altering the original product. In this case, consider the “original product” as the video idea, not the video itself. You can get ideas from other people and then make your own version. Challenges are great examples of this technique. How many different “Mannequin Challenge” videos do you remember seeing?

While you’re looking up search terms, click on some of the autofill results. Once you do that, look at the kinds of titles people are using for each search term and add your own spin to it. For example, take “how to come up with video” and change it to “how to come up with video in 5 minutes or less”. If you have a plugin like TubeBuddy or VidIQ that will allow you to see the tags that people use on their videos, you can also use some of those terms to help you brainstorm new video ideas or search topics.

Make Great YouTube Videos

Using these methods you’ll be able to come up with a month’s worth of content in less than 30 minutes. Not only that but you’ll also dominate your search terms and rank better on YouTube overall. Another benefit of building a strong organic presence is that it will do wonders to help with your paid traffic.

If you’d like some help with making great videos for paid traffic, download our FREE Video Ad Formula. This powerful tool will teach you how to create a successful video ad that converts strangers into loyal fans and paying customers.

The Timeline of a High Converting YouTube In-Stream Ad

April 19, 2017 by Jake Larsen

The sequence and formula of your In-Stream ad are critical to the success of your YouTube ad campaign. If you get this wrong, you’re going to be wasting your time and money. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on ads, or how accurate your targeting is. If you’re promoting a bad video, it will fail every time.

It’s kind of like the saying: “You can polish a turd all you want, but in the end, it’s still a turd.” We don’t want you advertising a turd video.

If your video follows the correct sequence and formula, it will be able to accomplish 3 things:

Capture the attention of a complete stranger… stop them dead in their tracks.
Change the relationship of a stranger into a warm acquaintance.
Get them to take action by clicking on the video.

We’ve launched hundreds of video ad campaigns in all sorts of industries; Real Estate, eCommerce, Auto, Life Coaching, Business Development, Beauty, Health & Wellness, Electronics, Investing, etc. Although the message changes across industries, the video structure and sequence stay the same.

After years of consulting, we’ve seen people make the same mistakes made over and over. Finally, we created a simple graph so you can clearly see the timeline of the perfect YouTube in-stream ad.

In-Stream Ad Timeline

Capture Attention

The very first thing your video needs to do is capture the attention of the viewer. We’ve all experienced “the longest 5 seconds on the internet”. You’re about to watch a YouTube video that you’re really excited about, but when you click on it, an ad starts playing! You hover your mouse over to where you know the “Skip Ad” button is about to appear and start your countdown. “Five, four, three, two, one…”*click*.

As an advertiser, those 5 seconds are absolutely critical to maximize in order to capture your viewers attention. If you’re wasting time showing your logo or rolling a fancy intro you will lose them. However, if you address your target audience directly, they might pause for just enough time to allow you to hook them in.

Build The Problem

Now that you have their attention, you need to build the problem. They’re giving you their time, what are you going to do for them? What problem are they having that you are going to solve for them? If you just jump right into your sale here, you’ll probably lose them. This will probably take another 5-10 seconds.

Make A Connection

At this point you’ve basically said to your audience “Hey! Are you a [kind of person] looking to [solve X kind of problem]?”. In order to make a connection with your viewer, you basically want to let them know that you know how they feel. Relate to them. Tell them what makes you a credible source to solve their problem. This should usually take about 10-15 seconds.

Offer The Solution

Here you go. This is what you wanted to do right from the beginning. Now that your viewer knows that you understand their problem, they’re ready to hear the solution. Tell them. This is where you can talk about your product or service and all of its benefits.

Don’t drag this part on too long though. It should take about 15-20 seconds. Remember, they still have a video that they’re waiting to watch. The second you start boring them, they’ll be gone at the click of a button. Literally.

Give A Call To Action

The call to action is the goal of the whole video. Without a call to action, your video loses SO much value. We always say that if you don’t tell people what you want them to do at the end of the video, then that’s exactly what they’re going to do…nothing.

Most of the time you should use YouTube End Screens for your call to action. You can only put these in the last :20 of your video but they are clickable on both mobile and desktop.

Things to Remember

There are some key elements that you need to understand that lay the foundation of a great in-stream ad:

You only get charged per view. A view is counted when a viewer watches the ad for at least 30 seconds or to the end of the video (whichever is shorter) or clicks on a card or other elements of your in-stream creative.
The whole purpose of the video ad, is to get people to click. Period. You need to build the whole video around the click. The “click” could be a Card, CTA overlay, or End Screen.

Ninja Tactics & More

TELL PEOPLE TO SKIP YOUR AD: Invite the viewer to skip the ad if they’re not your target audience looking for specific guidance. This way you won’t waste your ad spend on people who aren’t interested.

SHOW & TELL: Make sure to give a verbal call to action as well as point to where you want your viewers to click. This will drastically improve your click through rates.

When you follow these guidelines on your video ad, it will have a bigger impact on the viewer. If you have a bigger impact on your viewers, you’ll be able to generate more leads and sales at a lower cost. And if you don’t want that, you probably shouldn’t be in business.

Keep this In-Stream Ad Timeline in mind when you create your next YouTube ad.

If you want to take your YouTube ads to the next level, download our “Video Ad Formula”. This free resource includes more useful tips, tools, and examples of how to make effective YouTube ads. You can download it for free by clicking the link below.