The goal of marketing and advertising is visibility. The more people who see your ads, the more likely you will achieve a sales conversion or desired action. YouTube is one of the largest and most profitable advertising platforms available to businesses, but only if you understand YouTube advertising optimization.

Optimization and the Promise of Profitability

When a company understands the platform and embraces the unwritten rules governing advertisement creation, it can experience significant gains. Gatorade experienced a profit of $13.50 for every dollar it spent on its “We Love Sweat” campaign. However, for every success, there are countless failures.

Advertisement optimization comes down to understanding the platform and its users. Some companies believe they can blanket websites with one ad and expect positive results, but that is rarely the case. Profitability stems from research and commitment to effective strategy, which comes from trial and error.

Thankfully, YouTube is an established platform. With years of advertiser experience, several companies, including YouTube and its parent company Google, understand the common strategies that result in success for most marketers. While no strategy guarantees success or profits, optimization is the cornerstone of all successful campaigns.

7 Steps for Successful YouTube Ad Optimization

There are many ways to create effective YouTube ads, but optimization is a little different. Optimization is about making the most out of existing ads, tweaking them or analyzing their performance. There are several ways to optimize your campaigns, and the strategies follow from inception through the lifecycle of an ad.

1. Identifying and Defining Metrics and Objectives

Every advertising campaign, regardless of platform, has specific goals, such as increasing sales or creating an email list. Metrics are the tools that help you understand how well an ad is meeting proposed objectives. There are several metrics to consider when analyzing an ad’s performance, including:

  •   Views and impressions
  •   View rate
  •   Audience
  •   Conversions

2. Evaluating View Rates and the Health of a Campaign

The view rate represents the number of views and people your advertisement experiences. Experts look at the view rate as a representation of the health of your ad campaign. The higher your view rate, the lower your overall costs.

There are ways to increase your view rate to improve the cost-efficiency of a campaign. A business needs to identify targeting methods and ad assets. Some approaches to improving view rates include:

  •   Shortening advertisements
  •   Creating multiple ads for a single campaign
  •   Rotating ads to avoid ad fatigue

3. Reviewing Click-Through Rates To Maximize Budget

The click-through rate represents the number of people who click on your ad versus the number of times the ad played. CTR also shows how engaged viewers are with your message and brand. Using video action campaigns can improve CTR, especially when combined with a visible and prevalent call to action.

4. Revising Bidding Strategies

Considering shifting focus to in-feed video ads. In-feed ads typically show to only those viewers who are interested in your brand or service.

However, the bidding should depend on the overall strategy. In-stream ads are likely better options for advertisers looking to increase web traffic to their site or spread brand awareness.

In-feed ads increase the likelihood of viewers watching the entire ad. In-stream is more about casting a wide net, knowing that many viewers will only watch a portion of your ad.

5. Considering the Effectiveness of Remarketing

If you do not already use remarketing, it is a game-changer. Remarketing is the process of taking viewer data and creating specified lists for targeted marketing. Remarketing analyzes viewer interaction, subscribing, and watching habits to determine the most effective ways to reach each consumer.

6. Evaluating Your Costs-Per-View

Cost-per-view is the average price per view of your video ad. The CPV is not stagnant and will fluctuate based on several campaign factors. There are several ways to adjust your cost-per-view, including:

  •   Re-evaluating bidding strategies
  •   Expanding your target market
  •   Relaxing campaign restrictions
  •   Create effective ads

YouTube ad optimization takes time to master, and it is something many business owners and busy professionals do not have time to deal with. In many cases, it is better for a business owner to contract a professional digital marketing company to handle the analysis and metrics of campaigns. If you need a marketing strategist, contact Sprout Media Lab online or call us at (800) 617-6975, today!