Why Video

Superbowl Advertising Facts | 40 Superbowls Happen Everyday on YouTube

January 31, 2014 by Jake Larsen

The Superbowl is one of the largest sporting events in the entire world. This year, it’s estimated that 100 million people will be tuning in to watch. Because of this massive number of viewers, Superbowl advertising is notorious for being an extremely aggressive and costly.

I like to say: Where attention goes, ads will show. This year advertisers are going to be paying about $3.5 million for a 30 second ad. That’s over $100,000 for each second.

You can’t always out-spend your competitors, but you can outsmart them using YouTube Advertising

One hundred million is a LOT of people. But let me put that into perspective for you for a second. Each month on YouTube there are 1 billion active users. That’s ten times the number of people who will be watching the Superbowl this year!

Now, you might be saying “You’re only spinning this to make YouTube look cool. That’s a whole month worth of users and the Superbowl is only one day of the whole year”. If that’s what you’re thinking then think about this: YouTube gets 4 billion views everyday. That’s like having 40 Superbowls happen every single day on YouTube!

But like I always say: Where attention goes, ads show and money flows. So why isn’t YouTube a bigger deal than the Superbowl as far as advertising goes? Believe me, it’s heading that direction.

Advertisers are seeing how many people are watching video online and are starting to adjust their sales. But right now YouTube advertising is cheap (especially compared to Superbowl advertising), so now is the time to take advantage of it before the majority of advertisers dollars are being spent online.

Want a better way of getting your message in front of a specific type of person? Learn how to use YouTube Advertising

Something to think about…

What happens when Google gets the advertising rights to the superbowl? What if the only way you could watch the Superbowl was on YouTube? Mark my words, YouTube’s “skip after 5 seconds ads” will become the industry standard that will replace traditional tv commercials.

TV Commercials Vs YouTube Ads Explained

December 12, 2013 by Jake Larsen

How You Can Take Advantage of the Disruption in Advertising

When I worked at Fox Entertainment in LA, I was able to talk to several executives and leaders in the television industry. They were worried of the future because of the massive disruptions that’s been going on in advertising. Believe it or not, advertisers are willing to pay big money for your attention. TV stations make billions of dollars by renting out your attention to advertisers. When you watch the Bachelor, Breaking Bad, the Walking Dead or (Insert your favorite TV show here) These TV stations sell your attention to advertisers through commercials. So when you start fast forwarding the commercials, the TV stations no longer have your attention, thus making the advertisers’ commercials worthless.

Our attention has been transferring from TV to YouTube. YouTube is doing to TV what TV did to the radio. Slowly killing it. I’m not saying that YouTube is replacing TV because there will always be a need for it. Even radio is still around and has it’s place. But the value that TV brings to consumers and advertisers is decreasing.

Their problem is our opportunity.

Gone are the days of forced advertising watching and seeing ads that we don’t want to see. The tables of power have turned from the advertisers to consumers.

TrueView (YouTube) advertising allows consumers to skip an ad if they’re not interested. It also allows advertisers the ability to hyper target their ads at an affordable price.

The billions of dollars that are being so carelessly spent on TV will inevitably flow to YouTube.

Everything that YouTube ads are, is everything TV commercials aren’t; Engaging, Targeted, Affordable, Trackable, Relevant and the Future. The ability to hyper target an audience in Trueview is unreal. For example, anyone can create an ad that…

Targets males,
Are 25 years old
Interested in technology
Who use an iPhone
Live in San Francisco

To top it off you, the advertiser only pays if the viewer watches half of the ad or 30 seconds. Whichever comes first. It’s performance based advertising. No longer a shot in the dark hoping to hit something.

The analytics learned from the advertising campaign is just as amazing as the targeting ability. Advertisers can know…

Number of times the Ad was played
Number of times the Ad was clicked
Where the Ad was shown
When the Ad was shown
How much of the Ad was viewed
If a product was purchased afterwards
What the Cost Per View is
What’s the conversion rate
What’s the Cost Per Conversion / Customer Acquisition

Compare this to the TV Model. Give us $200,000 and we estimate that your message will be shown in 500,000 households. Whether people actually watched your Ad we don’t know. They may be in another room when it airs. We also don’t know if the viewers actually did anything after the commercial. Did they drive to a store and purchased your product? Probably not.

There’s so much valuable data gained in online advertising that just isn’t possible with old media (TV, Print, etc)

For this reason, I’ve been calling YouTube the Wild West for a while now. It’s new online real estate that is high in demand but low in supply.

The CPV (Cost Per View) in YouTube is now where the CPC (Cost Per Click) in Search was 10 years ago. Low cost real estate that will grow by 1,000% in the next 5 years. Since Google owns YouTube this is all done in the Adwords platform.

Think of the massive dent that Google has placed in the universe in the last ten years. What Google will accomplish in the next ten years will make this dent look like a small scratch.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think YouTube will take out TV commercials? Why? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Especially if you disagree. Please voice your opinion in the comments below…

How To Profit From Your Passion on YouTube | YouTube Monetization

September 21, 2013 by Jake Larsen

I was asked to speak at the Weber State Tech Expo last week and spoke about how you can profit from your Passion on YouTube. I’ve put my slides from my workshop on Slideshare.

I spoke after Devin SuperTramp’s Keynote Speech so it was awesome to have speak as a perfect example of living a life of passion and being paid for it too.

YouTube Advertising has forever changed video advertising. People’s eyes and ears are not where they used to be. (TV) The billions of dollars that are spent on TV advertising will flow to Youtube, thus allowing creators to monetize their channels with ads. If you can gain people’s attention and build a viewership it allows you to live off the videos you create thanks to YouTube monetization.

Here’s My SlideDeck from the Presentation.

How To Profit From Your Passion on YouTube from Jake Larsen

How Online Video Is Disrupting TV Advertising

September 7, 2013 by Jake Larsen

Look guys, I’ve told you before. YouTube is changing TV forever. In this next part of my interview with Austin Craig, we talk about how it is changing and what you should do to take advantage of this revolution.

For decades TV has followed very specific rules. Your favorite program is on once a week and starts either on the hour or the half hour like every other show on TV. It either runs for 22 or 45 minutes with 8 or 15 minutes of commercials. The commercials are all 30-60 seconds a piece and all of them have to comply with FCC regulations. I know in the last segment we talked about how important consistency is, but what if these TV rules don’t fit what you’re producing? What if you want a 5 minute ad? Or a 5 second ad? You just can’t do that on TV.

YouTube has completely broken down the barriers set by TV. You can try out whatever format you want. Like I always say, it’s the Wild West. The land is cheap and there’s lots of it out there, but it won’t be that way for long. When Google AdWords first came out about 10 years ago the cost per click of an ad was as cheap as around 10-15¢. Today if you are promoting an ad for Insurance you can pay up to around $80 PER CLICK!

Google has recently come out with AdWords for video and it is at that same point that AdWords was at 10 years ago. It isn’t that uncommon to pay 10-15¢ per view on an in-stream ad with TrueView. And if you can get your audience to click through to your site or skip the ad in the first 30 seconds (or before the end of the ad, whichever comes first) it costs you nothing, nada, zip. You’re getting for free what a company would pay $4 million for in the Super Bowl.

How much of what you watch is on TV vs online? Viewers are going online more and more often for their videos. Eventually companies are going to reach a point where it actually becomes more profitable for them to spend their dollars on online video. When that happens the billions of dollars being spent on TV advertising every year are going to flood into the online space. Things will get competitive and CPV will skyrocket. So get some cheap real estate in the Wild West while you still can.

Another benefit of online advertising that seems like a complete no brainer for me is the the amount of details you get in analytics. I know who is watching my video for how long, where they’re from, what device they’re watching it on, if they clicked my ad, etc. Then I can select my ad to only play for 18-24 year old women from Chicago if I wanted to. The best broadcast advertising can do is say “Ok there were this many TV’s on when your commercial ran. We think there might have been 2 or maybe 5 people watching. Or maybe not.” They can’t know anything for sure!

Mass broadcasting is like a megaphone in a crowd; you can give one big fat message to everybody. What web advertising allows you to do is have a specific message for each individual’ -Austin Craig

Here’s a nice infographic that shows a little bit about how even online video ads may still be a much smaller chunk than TV ads, online ads are catching up fast:

7 Reasons How Video Helps Explode Your Online Presence

July 8, 2013 by Jake Larsen

How does your brand survive the flood of competition? With all the advertising flooding the minds of potential customers, how do they choose which message to listen to? Noah was able to predict the future, he knew a flood was coming. To prepare, he build an Ark so that he could survive while the rest drowned in the flood of their ignorance. What if Noah never built the Ark? It’s not enough to predict the future, you have to be able to use the tools that will grow your online presence. Here are seven tips on why you need video for your ark.

1. Best Medium for Storytelling

There’s power in telling story through images, motion and music. Video is the only medium that uses all other mediums; images, songs and words. When you use motion and apply it to the other three of these mediums correctly it can create a beautiful alchemy of a video medium that brings out powerful emotions in people. If you have a product that people will buy after using it, you need video. It’s the best experience someone can have with out playing with the product. Its no coincident that when someone watches a video on the product page of ZAGG.com it increases the chances of buying by 65%.

2. SEO Benefits

YouTube is the second largest search engine. Since video and YouTube is newer media, it’s not saturated like the google search engine which makes it easier to rank higher. Video adds a 50% higher rank in SEO for websites that use video. The Google algorithm places a higher importance on sites with video than the sites with no video. Not only do videos show up in the google search engine, but they show above the other highly ranked sites giving your brand valuable online real estate.

3. Brand Awareness

Video is one of the best ways to tell the story of your brand. If you really want to add stickiness to your message or story, using video with YouTube is a no brainer. YouTube not only allows others to easily embed your videos on other sites, but also allows people to easily share your message with others. If you provide valuable content, people will do marketing for you by sharing your message in their networks, thus exposing your brand to more people. Let’s not forget that YouTube is one of the top 3 social media sites as well as a search engine.

4. Video Creates Value

If your website has video, you’re website is legit. That’s a fact. When someone comes across your homepage for the first time and see a video that explains what you do and the features of your product, they’re instantly thinking, “Wow, we’re dealing with some high quality shit here.” People online are freaking lazy, they don’t want to read about your company or product, they want to watch what your product does. Please don’t take the laziness away from people, reading is too much work for people these days. Help contribute to their laziness and entertainment by creating videos for them.

5. AdWords for Video

Google recently released Adwords for Video, which is a marketing tool that allows you to targeted potential customers based on keywords that they search in YouTube. We at ZAGG were one of the first companies to start using this in its beta version and we love it. If you want to get a message out there to a relevant audience this is the tool to do that. As a YouTube Marketing Ambassador I recommend you sign up for free and start experimenting.

6. Your Own TV Channel

YouTube is doing to TV what TV did to the Radio. It’s replacing it with better technology. I grew up watching sesame street on TV everyday, my kids are going to be watching Sesames’ YouTube Channel on the iPad everyday. This transformation is rapidly taking place and brands better be doing the same if they want to last.

Think of the value of a weekly show that your potential customers subscribe to and watch every week on your YouTube Channel. It cost no where near the amount of having an actual TV show too. The beautiful part is the analytics of it. You can see who, where, when and how they’re watching it. Good luck getting that detailed of information from a TV channel. This leads perfectly into the next point…

7. YouTube Analytics

The amount of information google knows about people is disgusting, it should be illegal. Now you can find out more information about your audience than the CIA has on file. YouTube provides its creators with in depth data of their videos. Some of the benefits include…

Knowing who’s watching your videos
When are they watching
How did they find your videos
What site sent them to your video
Traffic referrals
How old are the people watching
The demographics of your audience
Where in the world are they watching
Get Analytics on each specific video or on your Channel as a whole.

As a marketer this information is so valuable. You can optimize your channel by customizing your videos based on the data that YouTube provides.

Takeaway

What would have happened if Noah never built the Ark? We know what the future is, what are you doing to insure your survival? The floods of competition are here and will continue to pour down. Video is the Ark that will insure your success in reaching your customers. Predicting the future is only half of it, building the tools to take advantage of our knowledge is the other half. If you brand wants to survive you need video as part of your marketing. It’s going to keep growing and growing so you better get on the boat now before you drown. YouTube is the wild west… It’s new open territory with no rules. It’s first come first serve and you need to act now to claim your land. There’s so much opportunity in YouTube and it’s reserved for those who act.

The Power of Your Attention & Why TV Execs Are Panicking

July 8, 2013 by Jake Larsen

There is a massive revolution going on in advertising. Every day 30 Billion Ads are served on Google and thirteen million of those ads are clicked and customers are gained. People’s time and attention are leaving TV and going to the internet. We’ve has so much success with online video advertising, Google asked us to be YouTube Marketing Ambassadors. I’ve personally seen the massive benefits that both online and TV advertising can have a product launch. If you want to reach people and promote your brand there’s no better way than using Google Adwords or Facebook Ads to get your message across.

There’s a reason why Google dropped their TV Advertising program, TV is losing it’s power and influence to the Internet and YouTube. More than one third of ad spending is online. Internet beats TV in advertising on so many levels.

Analytics:
By advertising on the internet you get valuable information about your customers. Marketers can find the where, when, why and how they click. Some of the information they have access to are…

Who watches your Ads
Where people see your ads
When people see your ads
How they see your ads
How they got to your ad
Where they click after they see your ads
Get personal information about your customer (Name, Address, Email)
Option to buy immediately

The only truly trackable information marketers get from TV is knowing when and where the ads were displayed.

The biggest benefit that advertising online is the ability to purchase right after seeing the ad. When you’re online it’s as if you’re in the world’s biggest mall. So when you see an Ad online you can click it and buy it. You don’t even have to be wearing clothes. Compare this to TV; after viewing the Ad you have to put your clothes on, get in the car and drive to the store.

Targeted Views
Advertising online allows businesses to get super targeted in reaching customers. Not only can they target by location, but they go into gender, age and even interests. Never before have marketers been able to pinpoint ads so accurately and effectively.

Google allows you to target ads based on what people search for. If someone searches for, “Bear Lake Monster,” local companies can bid on those keywords to show their website at the top of the search results.

Facebook goes a step beyond and allows you to target based interests and what people like. If you’re selling iPhone 5 accessories you can target people who “like” the “iPhone” or “Apple” pages.

So which is more effective, Google Ads (Adwords) or Facebook Ads? Each platform has positives and negatives. Facebook and Google Ads can be likened to a party and a store. Facebook is a party and Google is a store. When people are in a store, they’re looking for something to buy. When people are using Google, they’re searching for something specific and are in a buying mindset. Parties, on the other hand, exist for people to enjoy themselves and interact. People go on Facebook to connect with their friends, not to buy products. People go on Google to find what they’re looking for, whether it be people, information or products. This isn’t to say Facebook ads don’t work, there’s been many success stories with Facebook ads but it’s not for everyone.

Technology
I grew up watching Sesame Street on TV. My kids are going to be watching the Sesame Street YouTube Channel on an iPad. The internet is doing to TV, what TV did to radio; replace it. Smartphone sales crushed desktop computer sales for the first time last year. Even Google executives are predicting the desktop computer to be replaced with tablets and mobile. Out with the old and in with the new. The newspaper industry is quickly declining and will soon be non existent, TV is slowly headed down the same path. More people are starting to spend more time on Apps than the internet.

Technology is changing faster than a cheetah on steroids. “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They’re doing exactly that. We now have access to everything and everyone. We can access the world’s information within seconds with a couple of finger swipes. We can talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Twitter, Facebook & others allows us to connect with anyone we want. Google + Hangouts goes a step beyond and gives us the ability to see and communicate through video.

We live in amazing times. Marketers are able to reach potential customers like never before. The information obtained by online advertising becomes invaluable to companies. This targeted information is something that is not possible through TV ads.

The Internet has eliminated excuses. We can no longer say, “I don’t know how,” or “I don’t know who.” With the technology of smartphones and tablets we now have access to the world within seconds, and it even fits into our pockets. True there are some things humankind was never meant to know, but for everything else, there’s Google.

Don’t be afraid of this new media or the world will leave you behind. Embrace it, invest in it, love it and enjoy the benefits of living in a world with no limits.