Category: Blog

Video game content has always been popular on YouTube. From “Let’s Play” gameplay series to E3 presentations to live streaming, there are plenty of ways gaming content is presented.

The looming surge of competitive gaming in esports will only help legitimize the gaming world through valuable exposure, creating an even greater demand for gaming content. Let’s take a look at how gaming content will trend on YouTube heading into the coming years.

Gaming Trends on YouTube

Gaming is already a profitable industry, and it will only continue to grow. According to BestTheNews, the video games market is expected to be worth over $90 billion USD by 2020, up from $78.61 billion in 2017.

The large following that supports the video game industry is heading to YouTube to continue their love of gaming beyond turning on their console. YouTube has the most share of gaming video content viewers, taking up 44% of gaming video content viewers in 2017. There were over 20 million how-to gaming videos in 2017, and more than 40 million hours of gaming unboxing videos watched in 2016.

The stats on YouTube trends in gaming continue to support the platform as the go-to community for gamers:

• 2 of the top 5 most subscribed YouTube channels are gaming related
• 56% of gamers say YouTube is where they connect with their gaming community
• 74% of YouTube gamers watch YouTube videos to get better at games
• YouTube had an estimated 653 million viewers of content related to gaming videos.

YouTube has already established itself as a premier platform for gaming content, and the industry is just starting to gain traction in the mainstream.

The Future of E-Sports

The most exciting aspect of gaming’s upwards trends on YouTube is the budding potential of esports. Professional gaming is just starting to gain global exposure with influential investors, television deals, and team sponsorships. Activision Blizzard signed a multi-year deal with Walt Disney in July to broadcast Overwatch League tournaments across their multiple networks, including ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC.

The heavy investment in esports will drive the industry’s revenue in the coming years:

• esports market revenue is estimated to reach $1.65 billion USD in 2021.
• In 2018, the number of esports enthusiasts is expected to reach 165 million.

So what does all this mean for your YouTube advertising strategy? First, YouTube is already a go-to platform for esports content and professional gamer personalities. Don’t be surprised if YouTube starts inking deals to live stream tournaments. In fact, YouTube signed a deal with Faceit last year to stream their tournaments.

Gaming content is watched by a wide audience that spans all genders and age. The rise of esports will only be beneficial for reaching your audience on YouTube.

YouTube Advertising in the Gaming Industry

As the broadcast exposure increases with gaming and esports, so will the demand for advertising. Advertising currently accounts for the second-biggest revenue stream for esports at $174 million.

With how-to videos, gameplay for new games, professional gaming tournaments, YouTube gaming personalities and more, the market for YouTube gaming content has never been better.

Not only is YouTube full of great content to reach your target audience, but viewers openly welcome video advertising. A survey published by GMR found that 43% of esports viewers appreciate when brands reach out to the gaming world. Another 42% from the same survey appreciate brand marketing through video gaming channels.

Gaming content on YouTube is more than entertainment. YouTube has always been a community for gamers to share their passion with others and connect with fellow gamers. When gaming influencers start getting advertising opportunities, their viewers are appreciative that a member of their community is finding success.

Anything Else About Gaming Trends on YouTube?

Yes! You don’t have to be a video game brand to target your YouTube advertising to gaming channels. Many companies trying to reach a younger target audience use gaming channels in their ad targeting strategy.

In fact, one of Channel Factory’s custom inclusion lists targeting gaming channels garnered a high view rate performance. For more info on how you can successfully targeting gaming channels on YouTube, contact us today!

Digital music consumption is a continually evolving market that has undergone massive changes even in the last few years.  While advertisers slowly begin their return to YouTube in the wake of brand suitability concerns, music is a category that should be on any good marketer’s radar.  The transition from digital music downloads to streaming platforms has been rapid and shows no signs of slowing down. While most would agree that the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play dominate the scene, YouTube has emerged as a sneaky competitor and their prominence is greater than you might think.  

In 2017, video streaming accounted for 55% of all music streaming across various platforms.  The data shows that YouTube garners the majority of that 55%, solely supporting 46% of all music streaming on the internet; a claim that Spotify or Apple are unable to make.  The difference, of course is that most of this activity is from unpaid subscribers, but YouTube is seeking to change that in the very near future.

In recent years, YouTube has doubled down on their commitment to becoming a fully-fledged music streaming platform. Statements from Google reps indicate that they will be placing a large focus on trying to get users to become paid subscribers for YouTube Music.

“[Google’s ad strategy will] ‘frustrate and seduce’ YouTube’s free users. It’ll have exclusive videos, playlists, and other similar offerings that’ll entice music fans.”  – Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music

This will mean more opportunities to run ads against musical content on YouTube as growth continues to spur.

Brand Suitability Considerations

Running ads against musical content can be risky however.  Artists are notoriously hard to predict with regards to what their content might contain.  Even a typically “clean” artist can sometimes release content that would be considered negative for brands to run against.  The challenge becomes how to scale advertising efforts against music content without risking a brand suitability violation. Exclusion listing and inclusion listing are great tools for more static content, but music is far more dynamic than usual content on YouTube.  3rd party services that include technological solutions like audio/transcript analysis can be hugely beneficial in protecting a brand from a violation. Another concern for advertisers should be the frequent use of playlists. Listeners often turn on playlists in the background while they do other tasks; meaning some ads might fall on deaf ears.  In order to mitigate those concerns, it’s likely that audio-driven ads would perform better on this form of content. However, in spite of these concerns, music is simply too big to ignore when it comes to advertising on YouTube. Music’s dominance on YouTube is not only probable, the data shows that it is imminent.

Key Takeaways on YouTube Music Trends

• Inclusion List Channels that resonate with your audience
• Exclusion List Channels that would reflect negatively on your brand
• Take note of Video Tags and cross-reference with Keyword Lists
• Audit campaigns to ensure brand-suitable content alignment

One of the most popular formats of advertising is on streaming services, including CTV and other forms of media.

Display Ads are one of the unique types of advertising brands can use on Youtube that can connect your brand with the right target audience. 

WHAT ARE DISPLAY ADS?

A display ad is a 300×250 or 300×60 image or animated advertisement that appears to the right of the video player. 

The ad will be placed right above YouTube’s recommended video sidebar feature, making it right in the viewer’s line of sight as they watch the video or when they are looking for the next video to watch.

Display ads are in prime YouTube real estate, as your ad will be seen without intruding upon the user’s viewing experience. You can also pair a display ad with your video ad to drive your brand’s message home and increase conversions.

WHAT ARE DISPLAY ADS USED FOR?

Display ads are useful for any brand looking to extend their reach on YouTube, but display ads are best for brands that are looking to achieve the following:

• Increase Website Visits: Display ads on YouTube are visible to all viewers. Take advantage of this space by linking to a target landing page. Make sure you write a strong, personalized call-to-action that will entice viewers to check out your brand.
• Boost Brand Awareness: Since your ad appears right next to the video player, it will be seen by all. Even if you don’t have a landing page to link to, your ad will still garner high impressions due to its placement on the page. If you’re looking to increase brand awareness, then display ads are perfect for your brand.
• Target Desktop Users: Display ads only display on desktop, so you’re out of luck if you’re trying to target mobile users. However, many users still watch YouTube on desktop devices, especially if they are engaging with long-form content.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DISPLAY ADS ON YOUTUBE?

Display advertisements have some precise benefits and advantages for advertisers:

• Drive Conversions: A catchy call-to-action and eye-popping design is enough to attract the attention of YouTube desktop users as they engage with the video platform. Display ads are great for getting clicks to your website and driving website conversions.
• High Impressions: Display ads are placed right where viewers are looking, so impressions will be high. A strong targeting strategy will ensure your display ad is running on relative content watched by your target audience, hopefully turning impressions into actionable results like clicks and conversions.
• Pair Display Ads With Other Ad Types: Use display ads to complement your video ads. Your display ad will remain on the page after your video ad plays, reinforcing your message and your brand to viewers. You can even use the video ad as an introduction, and then pair it with a display ad to generate clicks to your website where users can  learn more. There’s plenty of room for creativity with display ads!

HOW DO DISPLAY ADS WORK?

Launching a display ad campaign is simple! First, create an ad with the following requirements:

• Your display ad must be 300×250 in size (or 300×60 for YouTube Reserve companions)
• Your display ad must be in one of the following formats: 
  • PNG 
  • JPG 
  • GIF
  • HTML5 
• If you create an animated display ad, it must be no longer than 30 seconds long

And that’s it! Now that you have your display ad ready to go, you’re only a few clicks away from launching your campaign.

HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH DISPLAY ADS?

Display ads are powerful for driving clicks and getting eyes on your brand. However, you don’t want to waste impressions by running on content that is unrelated to your company.

Here at Channel Factory, we have over 8 years of YouTube advertising experience, with expertise in content targeting, brand suitability and high performance on brand KPIs. If you’d like to learn more about display ads, contact us today!

Tell Me More: Bumper Ads on YouTube

Our Tell Me More series is designed to break down ad formats and products into bitesize chunks. There’s a growing universe of YouTube ad bidding strategies and tactics and it’s our goal to make that universe a little more comprehensible.

Last time, we tackled Non-Skippable-Ads.  Now up to bat: Bumper Ads.

WHAT IS IT?

Bumper ads have recently surged in popularity due to their success rate and overall efficiency. Bumper ads have three main differentiators that separate them from the rest of the pack:

Non-skippable video ads can run on th

• They are 6-seconds long (or shorter)
  • Short-form ads are less intrusive and get your brand image across with quick, impactful messaging. The best of both worlds!

• They are non-skippable
  • Viewers can’t skip your ad, driving high impressions and view rates. Your entire message is seen by all!
• They’re charged on a CPM, not a CPV, basis
  • CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) means you only pay every 1000 times your ad is seen, resulting in lower costs.

For the rest of this article we’ll be referring to the 15-20 second long non-skippable ads.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Everyone! Smart advertisers interested in lifting brand recall, driving high view rates and brand awareness.

• According to Google, 90% of bumper ad campaigns that were analyzed last year saw an increase in global ad recall by an average of 38%.
• 61% of bumper campaigns drove a significant lift in brand awareness, with an average uplift of 9%.

Although bumper ads perform well on all devices, brands looking to capitalize reach for mobile viewers should strongly consider running a bumper ad campaign. Bumper ads perform well for mobile viewers, as they are often watching videos on the go.

• YouTube reaches more 18-49 year-olds on mobile alone than any broadcast or cable TV network.

Non-skippable YouTube ads can benefit your brand by:

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Running a bumper ad campaign benefits your brand in multiple ways. Not only do you boost brand awareness and ad recall, but you also lower YouTube bumper ad costs and increase overall reach.

• Since the bumper ad bidding strategy is CPM, you only pay for every 1,000 impressions. Your cost with CPM bidding is lower than a more traditional CPV or CPC strategy.
• The shorter format makes bumpers an effective medium for greater reach and a more general, brand awareness message. The general message allows for a broader reach, which lets you run in front of many different consumer demographics within your audience.
• Bumper ads can be used for remarketing, driving an abridged version of your brand’s core message to YouTube users that have already seen your full-length ad.

Bumper ads alone drive high ad recall, but are significantly less effective than :30 ads for driving specific product consideration or consumer action. Pairing a :06 bumper with a :30 ad through remarketing, however, achieves brand perception success. Bumpers have many benefits by themselves, but consider using them with other long-form creatives to accomplish your campaign goals.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Running a bumper ad is simple, but are you wondering how to create bumper ads? First, create a 6-second (or less) bumper video ad that quickly gets your brand message across and (if possible) tells a story. Your ad will engage audiences with quick, actionable messaging.

To achieve brand perception success, remarket your bumper with a full 30-second creative. Remarketing is a two-step process from the viewer’s perspective:

1. They see your 30-second ad that tells a detailed story to emphasize your brand message.
2. After seeing your 30-second ad, viewers will then be shown your 6-second bumper on following videos to increase brand awareness without the viewer feeling like their time is being wasted.

The decision on whether you should run a bumper ad by itself or pair it with a longer ad is dependent on your campaign goals. Either way, YouTube bumper ads are the most effective YouTube advertising strategy today.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

Yes! Bumper ads drive meaningful impact when they’re equipped with advanced targeting tactics. Here at Channel Factory, we use our award-winning ViewIQ technology to contextually target your audience with custom segments, as well as create both channel and video-level inclusion listing.

Contact us today and drive meaningful results with your bumper ad.

If you’ve seen Ready Player One, then you’re probably anticipating the complete takeover of virtual and augmented reality technology.

Although we’re a long ways away from the 24/7 use of this technology, VR and AR media consumption is becoming a popular outlet. We’re here to break down the current state of VR and AR video advertising.

Rise of VR and AR

The user rate for both virtual and augmented reality will continue to grow over the next few years. Check out this stat from eMarketer and IAB:

There will be 36.9 million users of VR in 2018. That number is expected to increase 70 percent in two short years. AR will have 51.2 million users in 2018 with an expected increase of 32 percent by 2020.

eMarketer

As the user rate grows, more companies will explore their VR and AR advertising options. YouTube announced last month that they are bringing YouTube VR to Samsung Gear, making them the go-to video platform across multiple platforms. YouTube VR is already available on Daydream View, HTC Vive, and Playstation VR.

Current Challenges

Despite VR and AR growing as a lucrative advertising space, there are a few restraints caused by the current technology that advertisers must overcome.

• Cost of consumer entry: Today, the cheapest headset costs around $300. The cost of hardware will eventually decrease, but for now advertisers have to wait until the average consumer can get an affordable headset to reach the full potential of VR/AR advertising.
• Difficulty of measuring success: Right now there isn’t standardized reporting for VR/AR advertising success. Since VR/AR is a new way of consuming media, it will take the industry some time to establish key metrics.

Video Advertising Tests

Tests are currently being done to find the best way of utilizing video advertising for VR and AR devices.

• Video Cube: Google is testing a ‘video cube’ feature for their virtual reality apps. When you look at the cube for a few seconds, a video player opens and plays your ad.
• 360-degree VR ads: 5-10 second video ads are being tested during video content. These ads garner a viewability of 100%, since they take up the users’ entire surroundings.

Future of VR/AR Advertising

As the popularity of VR hardware and AR applications continues to rise, so will innovative ways to advertise with this technology. Here are a few ways advertising can embrace VR/AR based on current advertising possibilities: of utilizing video advertising for VR and AR devices.

• Location extensions: Today, ads for brick-and-mortar stores will show you the address of their closest location. Retail companies are already leveraging VR/AR technology for purchasing products and services by showing consumers what the finished result will look like. In the future, don’t be surprised if location extensions will direct you to the closest retail location when you’re trying on new clothes in a virtual dressing room.
• Headset targeting: Not sure if you want to buy a piece of furniture you’re looking at online? What if a 3D model presented itself to you the next time you put on your VR headset? Just like how cookies are currently used now to follow consumers along their purchase journey online, don’t be surprised if the future of VR/AR advertising includes tracking a customer’s journey in virtual reality.

The possibilities of advertising for virtual and augmented reality is endless, and pretty soon every advertiser will be thinking of new ways to reach this new audience.

Tell Me More: What is a Custom Intent Audience?

Our Tell Me More series are designed to break down ad formats and products into bitesize chunks. There’s a growing universe of strategies and tactics and it’s our goal to make that universe a little more comprehensible.

First out the gate, Custom Intent Audiences.

WHAT ARE CUSTOM INTENT AUDIENCES ON YOUTUBE?

Custom intent audiences in Google Ads is a feature that allows you to target specific users on YouTube based on their Google searches. Use custom intent audiences to target YouTube users that are actively researching products, services, and keywords related to your brand on Google Search.

Furthermore, you can easily create your custom intent audience by choosing from two different audience types:

• Custom built: Fully customize your targeted audience with keywords, phrases, and URLs that your specific audience is researching.
• Auto-created: Rely on Google’s advanced machine learning to curate an audience list based on analysis of your account and industry.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Customers are likely to do their due diligence by researching a product or service before making a final purchase. With 3.5 million searches conducted every day on Google, you better believe a sizeable chunk of those are research-related.

Generally speaking, custom intent audiences are for every brand looking to reach consumers on YouTube that are researching their particular industry. More specifically, custom intent audiences are for:

• Brands looking to extend their reach to YouTube viewers that have shown interest in their product.
• Brands that want to dynamically target their specific audience on YouTube’s vast platform of 1.9 billion monthly users.
• Brands that want to convert active researchers into paid customers.
• Brands that want to find new customers searching for a related brand or product.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

So custom intent audiences lets you target customers on YouTube that are researching your related keywords, right? But how does this help your brand in the long run?

• Higher Engagement: Consumers retain 95% of a brand’s message from video ads compared to 10% from text ads. Custom intent audiences drive your message home to a group of engaged consumers.
• Amplify reach: Expand your targeting parameters on YouTube from topics and interests to target consumers actively searching for your products, leading to higher engagement.
• New customers: Find new prospects with related purchase intents that may not have been exposed to your brand otherwise.
• Drive conversions: Convert active researchers into consumers by reaching them on YouTube at or near their point of purchase.
• Advanced machine learning: Want to reach your audience on Google Search, but not sure what specific keywords they are searching for? Leverage Google’s machine learning to infer prospect traits and automatically create your audience.

Creating a custom intent audience is beneficial to your brand because it garners results. According to Google Ads, an online investment company called Betterment used custom intent audiences for financial keywords. The results of custom intent audience best practices are:

• 6x increase for return on ad spend compared to previous YouTube campaigns.
• 245% increase in searches on Google.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Activate custom intent audiences with a few clicks:

1. Go to the audiences section of your display campaign on Google Ads.

2. Select “Targeting”

3. Then choose “Intent”

After you click on “Intent”, you will see two options:

• Custom intent audiences: auto-created: Let Google use their machine learning to auto-create your custom intent audience list.
• Custom intent audiences: Use a list of keywords or URLs specific to the audience your brand’s campaign is targeting.

Once your custom intent audience is created, your video ad will start targeting YouTube users that are searching the audience’s keywords and URLs from your list.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

Yes!  Google has indicated intent audiences drive better results with TrueView For Action ads, which were developed specifically to meet direct response objectives.

With TrueView for Action ads, advertisers can customize calls to action that will appear along with their video ads on YouTube. On mobile, the ads appear below the video and persist even after the video ad ends or is skipped while the host video plays. Google tests have pointed to a conversion lift from both Google Search and YouTube as a result of this ad format combination.

Download A One Sheet Takeaway on Custom Intent Audiences

Our Tell Me More series is designed to break down ad formats and products into bitesize chunks. There’s a growing universe of strategies and tactics and it’s our goal to make that universe a little more comprehensible.

Today we’ll be exploring three different techniques for brand suitability flagging: viral content flagging, sentiment filtering and audio transcripts.

WHAT IS IT?

Brand suitability became a legitimate concern for advertisers about a year and a half ago when brands were seeing their ads run on terrorist, pornographic and generally brand unsafe content. Brand suitability is especially a concern for advertisers on social media.

• A recent study showed that 94% of advertisers are still concerned about brand safety, and almost half of respondents think platforms like YouTube and Facebook aren’t doing enough.

Brand suitability on YouTube is a shaky tightrope to walk because all content is user generated. While many brands use popular inclusion and exclusion list features to completely outlaw any obviously risky content and approve of safe ones, the fact that anyone can publish any video at any time with little to no restrictions means that even the most brand safe of content creators could cause a brand suitability scare every once in a while.

For this post, we’ll go a little bit outside the box to explore a few brand suitability flagging techniques you may not have thought of. These features are:

• Viral Content Flagging: Identify and monitor viral videos that may cause brand suitability issues as they begin to trend on YouTube’s platform.
• Sentiment Filtering: Ratio of likes-to-dislikes and overall sentiment of comments to analyze how videos are received by viewers.
• Audio Transcripts: Audio transcripts of videos to flag keywords and phrases based on your brand’s specific brand suitability parameters.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Viral content flagging, sentiment filtering and audio transcripts are for all brands that want to bolster their brand suitability strategy. If you are finding that your current strategy isn’t giving you the brand suitability security that you’re looking for, then look to these flagging techniques for further control of your YouTube advertising.

These flagging techniques are for brands that want to:

• Be aware of trending content that may pose a brand suitability threat before it goes viral and your ad runs on it.
• See how specific video content is received by viewers and protect their ads from running on negative content.
• Analyze exact keywords and phrases used in videos to avoid potentially harmful content.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Each of these flagging techniques has unique benefits that will give your YouTube campaign a brand suitability boost.

• Viral Content Flagging
  • Proactively exclude high-risk content like Logan Paul’s Suicide Forest video immediately so your brand’s ad isn’t associated with a harmful viral video.
  • Protect your brand from running on risky content that ends up on the news for being offensive.
  • Aside from brand suitability purposes, viral content flagging also recognizes viral content that matches your audience targeting parameters and aligns your ad with positive trending videos.
• Sentiment Filtering
  • Get to know the videos you are targeting. Sentiment filtering gives you a comprehensive data of how viewers are reacting to a specific video.
• Audio Transcripts
  • Don’t have time to watch every video? View transcripts of content audio to see exact words and phrases being used.
  • General excluded words and phrases will be highlighted.
  • View a full report of how many times certain keywords are used.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Viral Content Flagging works by using machine learning to analyze audience data points to flag trending videos before they go viral.

Sentiment Filtering works by taking a look at recent amount of likes, dislikes, and comments to find out how viewers are reacting to videos.

Audio Transcripts work by using AI and machine learning technology to transcribe videos and analyze the text to flag exclusion listed keywords.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

Yes! All three flagging techniques are available on Channel Factory’s ViewIQ platform as part of our brand suitability solutions. If you’d like to learn more, contact us today.