TV & Audio

YouTube: 4 Ways to Narrowcast TrueView Campaigns

By Tinuiti Team

With over 1 million advertisers clamoring to get in front of 1 billion YouTube users, competition is stiff. The good news is you don’t need to talk to everyone, only the people who relate to your product/service. Even after finding the perfect combination of Interests, Topics, Keywords and Placements, you aren’t seeing the engagement you expected, or worse, your budget isn’t cutting it. Luckily there are some levers we can pull to reach the right people, watching cat videos at the right time and place.

Below are four commonly overlooked YouTube settings and adjustments to consider when planning a TrueView campaign.

Content Exclusions

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With the exception of Placement targeting, controlling where your ads are being served on the YouTube and GDN networks isn’t precise (until it’s too late!). Uploading a Blacklist of pages you don’t want to associate with and adjusting the Content Exclusions settings prior to launch are two ways to increase your share of voice, and regulate Brand safety.

Linking Your YouTube Channel — Remarketing

Channel your inner Shia — just do it! The benefits of linking your YouTube channel to an AdWords account will only make your YouTube advertising experience better; the most notable benefit is everyone’s favorite – Remarketing!

Who better to target than those who are already familiar with your Channel? Access and layer lists based on users who… to reengage with your Brand.

  1. Interacted with (ie. liked/disliked) or viewed videos
  2. Subscribed/unsubscribed from your Channel
  3. Viewed your TrueView in-Stream ad (only available if you’ve run in the past)
  4. Channel visitors

Device Targeting

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With the buzz around Mobile video ads getting louder, it’s important to consider where you’re reaching your audience. How engaged are users? How Cost efficient is it? Are you benefiting from any earned actions?

Ideally you’ll want to reevaluate your Mobile bid adjustment after enough meaningful data is collected, however, there are other resources you can use if you’re not comfortable keeping your bids the same or higher than Desktop.

In general, users might start their journey on one device but end on another, making the relationship between Desktop and Mobile a little more complicated than “which device performed the best”. Utilizing the Cross Device Reports in Google Analytics, you can get a snapshot of how users from other mediums are arriving and interacting with your site. Extrapolating that information to YouTube, you can set a Mobile bid adjustment early on in your campaign.

Geographic Targeting

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Where in the world is your YouTube ad the making the biggest impact? Similar to other campaign types in AdWords, you can pivot your performance to pin point the most successful areas. No historical performance to reference? Don’t fear – Paid Search data can provide insights on where to narrow your targeting.

In general, Search and YouTube behavior isn’t always 1:1, but it’s a great place to start if you have a limited budget.

Bonus Tip:

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Take a peek at your Advanced Locations Options — by default you will be serving ads to “People in, or who show interest in my target location”. This will show ads to users who are in your target area and those whose searches, viewed content, and location settings are related to your target location.

Switching your settings to “People in my target location” will ensure you’re getting your ads where they need to be. Here’s more information on how each setting will impact where your ad is shown.

Advertising on YouTube can quickly rack up Spend with no meaningful results. Employing these tactics should help you smartly reach and engage your audience.

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