Tell Me More: YouTube Inclusion Listing
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.
For this post, we’ll be taking a look at the industry standard for precision targeting and brand suitability – YouTube Inclusion Listing.
WHAT IS A YOUTUBE INCLUSION LISTING?
Inclusion Listing is a targeting and brand suitability feature that has surged in popularity in the last few years. An inclusion list is essentially a list of YouTube channels that you approve of your brand running ads on. The beauty of inclusion lists is that they are fully customized to your brand’s specific:
- Audience, tone and messaging
- Precise targeting strategy
- Brand suitability parameters
Custom inclusion listing gives you the added benefit of having complete control over specific channels and videos you want your ad to appear in front of. Instead of relying on a generic inclusion list curated to inefficiently cover all niches in your industry, you can take hold of the wheel and drive your video ads towards content that you know resonates with your audience.
WHO ARE YOUTUBE INCLUSION LISTINGS FOR?
Simply put, inclusion lists are for any brand that wants to:
- Increase brand suitability and target specific content: Inclusion Lists are great for brand suitability because your ad will only run on content and channels pre-approved by your brand. You have full control over where your ad is placed on the largest video platform in the world.
Creating a YouTube inclusion list is a great first step to combat risky content that could hurt your brand’s reputation. Since ads can run anywhere on YouTube’s user-generated content platform, an inclusion list will help your company take control of its brand image.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF YOUTUBE INCLUSION LISTINGS?
Inclusion lists offer many benefits for your YouTube campaign’s success:
- Brand Suitability: Your YouTube ad will run on inventory that has been vetted for brand suitability, ensuring brand-appropriate content and channels.
- Precision Targeting: Your audience is on YouTube and they’re watching very specific content. Custom inclusion lists cater to your brand and only your brand, targeting the precise audience that you want to target.
- Boost Campaign Performance: Inclusion lists can be used to boost performance by targeting your specific audience on YouTube. Run your ad in front of content that your audience is watching to increase engagement and campaign KPIs.
- Counteract Exclusion List Risks: YouTube’s UGC nature makes it difficult to efficiently exclude risky content since new channels and videos are created every day. If you’re looking to exclude your way to brand suitability, then you’ll always be playing catch up. With inclusion listing, you can easily approve your safe channels and sleep well at night knowing exactly where your ads are running.
HOW DO YOUTUBE INCLUSION LISTINGS WORK?
How does inclusion listing work? Easy! Create your custom inclusion list and your ads will only run on the videos and channels you’ve selected. Setup your list in three simple steps:
- Research: The first step is to research the YouTube channels and videos you want to target.
- Create a Targeting List: After you’ve done your research, create a list of channel and videos URLs that you’d like to include.
- Managed Placements: Create managed placements in Google Ads with the specific inclusion listed channels and videos of your choosing.
ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUTUBE INCLUSION LISTINGS?
Yes! Inclusion lists must be properly built to have maximum impact towards performance and brand suitability. Here are just two features that help build a custom inclusion list:
- Verified creator data: Review a full analysis of verified creators including audio transcripts and brand suitabilty scores to create a inclusion list of brand-friendly creator channels. Our verified creator list reduces YouTube targeting scalability issue by inclusion listing vetted creators.
- Topic-level performance: Analyze videos and channels with custom curated inclusion lists of industry topics.
Luckily, Channel Factory’s proprietary (and award-winning!) ViewIQ technology gives you access to both features to build a dynamic inclusion list. Contact us today to learn more about our inclusion listing expertise.