What YouTube’s New TrueView Card Ads Mean for Brand Marketers
Tried YouTube advertising as a way to make your brand more popular? Felt disappointed with the result? You are not alone. According to Forbes, most YouTube users skip ads. People have been exposed to commercial messages on social media, in blogs, in their email accounts and in the films that they stream online. It’s easy to see how the audience has become desensitised and reluctant.
YouTube advertising sounds like a great thing for different brands, but so far, it has missed big opportunities in different markets. The good news is that the largest video portal has responded by changing the manner in which ads are being displayed and giving marketers a great tool that can easily boost engagement – TrueView ads have now gotten interactive cards.
TrueView Interactive Cards Unveiled
The announcement was made five years after the launch of the TrueView ads – the ones appearing in the beginning of each YouTube video. The problem with this format is that the TrueView ads can be skipped after a couple of seconds. You might know already – majority of YouTube users are doing just that. Not to mention the fact that a number of browsers plugins could make the ads disappear altogether!
Interactive cards have now been added to the in-video promotion. These enable marketers to include a call to action in their message, incorporate brand symbols or provide a link to other relevant videos.
Cards will appear on the right side of the video for desktop users and in the bottom of the screen for mobile devices. The ad cards will also be visible whenever the video is streamed on a TV screen. Google and YouTube have worked together for a consistent delivery across channels.
Right now, advertisers can include links to other videos, merchandise promotion and calls to action. In the near future, the interactive cards will enable the addition of external links like the ones to a corporate website, for example.
What do Interactive Cards Mean for different BRANDS?
It’s easy to see how the card can boost engagement with the brand, thus quickly maximising awareness. Until recently, it was hard to persuade viewers to take certain actions (other than click on the video). Now, with this option, you can use TrueView Interactive Cards to increase your brand awareness, raise funds, sell merchandise, direct the audience to your website or even provide additional information in the form of a linked playlist.
A branding watermark can be incorporated as well (if you like to!). That could add to the consistency of your brand’s visual appeal. Hence, increasing your brand’s recognition and more.
Giving the viewer more options and more information can decrease the skip rate and boost the ROI of YouTube advertising or many brands. Besides, having a card appearing on the side of the video is much less annoying than a promo clip playing instead of the content that you’d like to see.
Making the Most of Interactive Cards: Tips and Suggestions
If you’re already using YouTube ads to reach your target market and make your brand more memorable, you’ll definitely enjoy the new tool. Making the most of the interactive cards, however, will depend on your creativity and having a good idea about what your audience is looking for.
Think carefully about the action that you want your viewers to take. For best results, come up with a call to action that corresponds to the content of your TrueView ad. Selling products/services, raising funds and increasing brand awareness are all possible if you use interactive cards sparingly and you know how to get the attention of your target audience.
Be very careful about card overload. Don’t overdo it! A single, strategically designed interactive card is all that it takes to get the viewer engaged with your brand and doing exactly what you intended right from the start.
Here are several additional rules to remember when designing your branding interactive cards:
-
Don’t spam! If a card isn’t going to add anything to your TrueView promo campaign, refrain from putting one in each clip.
-
Spread the cards out: you can decide in which portions of the video a card should show up. Experiment with this feature to determine what placement is going to be the most effective one.
-
Optimise landing pages: if you intend to sell products/services through the interactive card, optimise the landing page that the audience is going to be reaching. A well-presented page is an important branding element and it can also bring you a high return on investment (ROI).
-
Use playlists: directing the audience to other YouTube videos is a great option for making your content go viral. The playlist you link in the interactive card, however, should be meaningful. Don’t expect to put together a 100 per cent promotional playlist that will retain engagement. It simply doesn’t work this way – the audience wants something fun and informative. (Keep in mind: 10 points to remember for a harmonised content marketing strategy)
-
Consistency, consistency, consistency: each and every card you use at TrueView ads should look and feel consistent (from the same brand). Important aspect of BRANDING is about introducing and reinforcing your identity. You can’t accomplish that goal through significant visual variations.
You Could Try it!
TrueView advertising is a wonderful option for spreading the message and increasing the popularity of your brand, and it could be cost-efficient for your brand. Now that YouTube has given you an option to boost interactivity, it’s time to start making use of the feature. Make your cards more meaningful and think about your audience when putting your call to action together.
Remember!
Remember to use ANALYTICS information to assess the effectiveness of each card and to make necessary adjustments on the go.
AROUND THE WEB
References
Forbes Marketing Land Search Engine Land Youtube Creator Blog
