Optimize and Refine

 

Optimizing Video Content On YouTube

Optimization Strategies & Best Practices for Video Content on YouTube

Video is a powerful medium to reach users through sight, sound and motion. In order to optimize the performance of your video on YouTube, consider the following best practices:

•Understand that users come to YouTube to learn, watch and be entertained. As such, create videos that feature original content.

AdWords

•Impressions: Number of times the ad was shown. If you're getting very few impressions, it may be because you have targeted videos that are no longer being viewed, or that your bids are not competitive enough.

•Clicks: Number of times the ad was clicked.

•Click Through Rate (CTR): Number of times the ad was clicked divided by the number of times the ad was shown.

•Average CPC: Average cost for every click.

•Average CPM: Average cost for every 1,000 impressions

•Play rate: Number of times a Click-to-play video ad was played divided by the total number of impressions.

•Average position: Position of your ad in the search results. This is only available for Promoted Videos. All other ad formats will show as "1".

The YouTube Homepage

The YouTube homepage is the highest-profile placement on the site, providing marketers with the exclusive ability to deliver a big impact and to drive attention to content, trailers, or advertising.

The YouTube Homepage Masthead is a 960x250 pixel in-page unit that appears across the full width of the YouTube homepage below the navigation bar. This ad format offers the creative flexibility to capitalize on premium homepage real estate. Learn more about the YouTube Homepage Masthead.

Examples of YouTube homepage creative units, available on a cost-per-day (CPD) basis include:

Planning an Auction-Based Campaign on YouTube

The Video Targeting Tool

The Video Targeting Tool allows advertisers to target specific videos, channels and/or verticals on YouTube. Using the tool, advertisers can create highly targeted video-based media plans to target through their AdWords account. The videos, channels, and verticals selected through the tool can be imported as placements into an existing AdWords account.

To get started with the tool:

1.Navigate to www.google.com/videotargeting.

2.Enter a search criteria, either keyword or by audience, to see a list of relevant results.

YouTube Ad Formats and Page Types

YouTube Ad Formats

YouTube supports a wide range of ad formats and targeting options. Advertisers don't have to have video inventory to advertise on YouTube.

1.You can get started with as little as a simple text ad targeting the Google Display Network.

2.YouTube also enables advertisers to leverage their video assets through the following formats:

◦In-Stream ads: Video ads that can be up to 30 seconds long, and appear before a user watches a video on YouTube. Similar to display ads, users can click on an In-Stream ad or a click-to-play video ad in order to be taken to an advertiser's website. Learn more about In-Stream ads.

Display Advertising on YouTube

Communicating the Value of Display on YouTube

Overview and Value of Advertising on YouTube

Why YouTube? The World's Largest Video Sharing Community

In a relatively short period of time, YouTube has quickly become the world's largest video sharing community. This exponential growth has resulted in a number of benefits for both users and marketers.

Benefits for users:

•Access to the largest inventory of professional and user-generated videos in the world.

•Ability to engage with a massive community that is already interacting with the content.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that advertisers can use when refining and optimizing their display campaigns. Google Analytics enables advertisers to view more detailed information about the performance of their campaign than is available through AdWords Conversion Tracking. Analytics also allows advertisers to see performance data about referring sites and pages on their site that are not part of their campaign.

Keyword Tool

The Keyword Tool can help you build an extensive and relevant keyword list for your new contextually targeted display campaign, as well as to refine your existing keywords. Learn more about how to use the Keyword Tool to build out new keyword lists.

To understand how to use the Keyword Tool to refine your existing campaign, consider the following:

1.Find additional keywords based on your existing keywords. If you noticed that an ad group theme is performing well for you, then you may want to consider expanding on that keyword list to maximize your Display Network performance.

Learn more about how Conversion Optimizer works and the requirements for using the tool.

Demographic Bidding

Demographic bidding on the Google Display Network allows you to change your bid by age range and gender, or choose to only show your ad to certain age groups or genders. Not all sites in the Google Display Network allow demographic bidding. The full list of sites available for demographic bidding can be found in the AdWords Help Center.

Advanced Google Display Network Optimization Features

Ad Scheduling

Ad Scheduling (also known as "day parting") lets you tell Google exactly when you want your ads to run, and more importantly, when you do not want them to run. In addition, more advanced users can automatically modify their bids based on time-of-day and day-of-week cycles in campaign performance.

Bid Optimization Best Practices

Adjusting your bids for your display campaign to best meet your return on investment goals is yet another important aspect of effective optimization. If your campaign cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is below your CPA goals, you should raise your bids to increase acquisition volume. By the same token, if your campaign CPA is too high relative to your goals, you should lower your bids until your target CPA is met.

Here are some additional best practices to consider when optimizing bids for display campaigns:

•Adjust your bids across multiple levels: You should adjust your bids at both the ad group and campaign level towards meeting your CPA goals.

Optimize and Refine

The Value of Optimizing

Optimization can help you achieve your goals for your display campaigns by improving the quality and performance of your account. The optimization strategies featured throughout this lesson have been designed to help you identify and address areas of opportunity within your campaigns.

Running AdWords Reports

Overview of AdWords Reports

You can run a wide range of reports on the Campaigns tab to keep track of your ads' performance. Choose whether you'd like the report to run only once or whether you want the report to be automatically generated and emailed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Linking Campaign Performance to Conversions

Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is an important metric that advertisers use to evaluate campaign performance. This metric is calculated by dividing the campaign spend by the total number of new customers that completed the "conversion event" specified by the advertiser. With AdWords, the tracking of newly acquired customers is done via Conversion Tracking, so CPA is simply calculated by dividing the campaign spend by aggregate conversions.

The key success metrics for these types of campaigns are:

•Reach: The number of users exposed to an ad. Increased reach means that an ad is exposed to more potential customers, which may lead to increased awareness.

•Frequency: The average number of times a user was exposed to an ad over a period of time.

Advertisers can increase reach and frequency by managing impressions and cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs).

Quality Score and Campaign Performance

Quality Score is an important component of the AdWords system. For display campaigns, this dynamic metric is used to measure the relevance of your display ads to particular pages on the Google Display Network. Quality Score affects your eligibility to enter the ad auction, the rank of your ad, and the price that you pay in the auction. Ads with better Quality Scores will have better rank and position on the page. Ads with low Quality Score may have to have a higher bid to compete in the auction.

Three key factors that impact your Quality Score on the Google Display Network are:

1.the relevance of the ad and the keywords in the ad group to a Display Network page.

2.the ad's performance history on a Display Network page and similar pages.

Overview of Campaign Performance

General Campaign Performance

If your display campaign doesn't seem to be ramping up or is not meeting your online objectives, there are some basic steps you can take to help you identify and solve the issue.

If your display ads are accruing little or no impressions:

1.Confirm that your campaign, ad group, and ads are active.

2.Verify that your ads are approved. Ads that are pending approval or disapproved will not run on the Google Display Network.  

Create a Display Ad Group

Select Your Bids

There are several bidding strategies that advertisers with display campaigns can implement based on their goals for the campaign. For both managed and automatic placements, you may set a default ad group-level bid as well as placement-level bids. The level at which you bid depends on your desired level of control. Demographic bidding options are also available.

Managed Placements

Managed placements are specific sites in the Google Display Network that you specifically select to target. There are two main reasons why you may want to select managed placements:

1.Placement Management: If you want to run ads on the Display Network, but only on placements you hand-pick, you can select this option in your campaign settings. In this case, you would choose managed placements in the Display Network where you'd like to see your ads displayed and add them to an ad group.

To build a contextually targeted campaign

1.Define your ad group:

Each ad group should have specific themes. Start with themes that are descriptive to the product or service advertised, and avoid themes that are aimed at targeting audiences. If you have a strong and well-recognized brand, consider including branded keywords in keyword-targeted ad groups. Use the Wonder Wheel tool to generate ideas for more ad group themes.