With half the world’s population now online, retailers have to do more to reach this growing unique market. The advent of digital technology has revolutionized marketing due to the availability of innovative marketing tools. Marketers are already placing YouTube shopping ads on the biggest streaming platform to gain a digital foothold in marketing.
If you are in the retail industry, you’ll appreciate the need to embrace trending marketing ideas. One of these trends is the use of shopping ads on YouTube. With the popularity of video content across all digital platforms, it follows that YouTube advertising should be at the core of your merchandizing marketing campaigns.
Why YouTube? Well, it boasts over 2 billion logged-in monthly users. Moreover, It is the second most popular social media platform: having 75% of internet users saying they have a YouTube account. However, these numbers merely give a hint of the marketing potential this video platform offers.
With the introduction of YouTube shopping ads, things just got easier for retailers. It is one of the most powerful marketing features on the video-sharing platform. Subsequently, it offers you a broader reach than you could ever imagine, translating to improved conversions.
Video is no longer the future of digital marketing: it’s already here. Therefore, if you are a retailer, you have to learn the latest video marketing trends to unlock your online store’s potential.
Fortunately, advertising on YouTube is a no-brainer considering the number of users on the platform. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you have to learn how to place your ads on YouTube effectively.
Let’s go!
Leveraging YouTube Video Advertising
Video marketing has emerged as a powerful and useful marketing tool in the online business landscape. As a digital marketer, it’s imperative to assess any marketing tool you wish to use.
Research shows that 82% of all web traffic by 2022 will be video. Already, 81% of companies are using it today after businesses discovered the potential of this marketing tool.
Another study shows an incredible 100% increase in mobile video consumption every year.
The conversion rate for video is also impressive. One study reports 64% of consumers purchased an item after watching a promotional video.
All these numbers highlight the effectiveness of video advertising. From these numbers, there are benefits of video for a retail business.
Advantages of Placing YouTube Shopping Ads
- Higher brand visibility: People share videos widely, especially on mobile.
- Better conversion: Video ads convert as more people now look for video product descriptions before making a purchase.
- Mobile reach: If you wish to target mobile users, video content is a smart strategy. Videos are popular with mobile users on smartphones and tablets. Moreover, you can use different enhancements such as graphics and audio narrations, voice-overs, or other techniques to make your content more compelling.
- Versatility: Video ads can inform, educate, entertain, and do much more to encourage the target customer to buy.
- Improved ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs): Search engines love video. Hence, you should distribute your videos across all your platforms, including YouTube.
- Better engagement: Consumers love video because they communicate more, and you’ll notice an increase in engagement level.
- Improved user experience: When marketing products online, you can use video to deliver a better user experience. It’s easier to show than to tell them about a product.
- Analytics: It’s easy to collect data on your marketing campaigns.
In addition to these benefits of video marketing, YouTube offers other unique advantages for eCommerce stores. It’s possible to target specific audiences through topics, keywords, or demographics. For instance, if you want to reach “25-year-old Hispanic ladies,” you can narrow down the content to them and enjoy better outcomes in your campaign.
Can Shopping Ads Appear on YouTube?
Google offers the most influential platforms in the digital market landscape. From its dominant search engines, innovative marketing, and analytics tools. When Google decided to expand its network of shopping ads to YouTube, it was the best news for retailers.
It is no surprise Shopping Ads on YouTube are a gold mine for digital marketers. After all, this is a platform that already attracts over 2 billion users every month. In the U.S, 73% of adults use YouTube, while 81% of 15-25-year-olds also use this video platform. Furthermore, the view time for “which product to buy” doubled between 2017 and 2018. All these numbers are making a strong case for YouTube Shopping adverts.
Unlike other adverts, shopping ads, these shopping ads connect viewers directly to your displayed products. You can also provide more information to bring customers closer to purchasing from your website. Hence, there’s always something new for marketers to drive their marketing campaigns.
Before the introduction of shopping ads on YouTube, you had to create adverts and allow viewers to make the decisions to buy. To make a purchase, the viewer had to leave YouTube and visit your online store, Instagram, or another place where you have showcased your products.
This trend, however, has changed with the advent of the ground-breaking shopping ads on YouTube. You can now create shopping ads for your store that allow viewers to purchase the video’s featured products. These are now possible with just a few simple clicks.
This feature means viewers don’t have to leave the page, which otherwise reduces the chance of a conversion. Think of adverts with a display of a shopping cart to appreciate how effective these YouTube Ads can become for your online store.
An advertiser wants to know if shopping ads will appear on YouTube. What should you tell her?
If you have always wanted to leverage YouTube for your eCommerce store’s marketing campaign, this is your chance. The beauty of these adverts is that they are presenting viewers with the option to purchase while still watching the video.
As a marketer, you must understand how much a consumer’s emotions determine their purchase decision. Thus, when you display that shopping card on an advert, you capitalize on the viewer’s impulses and desires. This emotional appeal translates to increased conversion: it is the dream of every digital marketer.
When Google started its shopping ads in 2002, as Froogle, it was hard to imagine it would have such a huge impact. By taking shopping ads to YouTube, the company gave online stores a lifeline to survive in a hostile marketing environment.
Placing Your Shopping Adverts on YouTube
Now that you appreciate the potential in having your ads on the video-sharing platform, it’s time to get to work. Below are the options for placing your shopping ads on the platform:
TrueView for Shopping ads
This is a shopping ad that starts as a TrueView in-stream ad or a pre-roll ad. It plays before the intended video comes on screen. As the ad plays, a shopping cart appears on the side with a display of six products. The viewer can skip this video, but the shopping cart will remain next to the video they watch.
To start such a campaign, you need to select a product and brand consideration campaign goal. The next step is to choose a shopping campaign sub-type. Here you can:
- choose all products on the feed
- manually select the products
- use custom filters.
Nevertheless, you can’t use Google Ads Editor to create, edit, or copy/paste your ads. You’ll have to do this manually.
When setting up your campaign, consider this as an advertising/ top of funnel awareness-building campaign: viewers have to know about you first before they shop from you.
Search Partners
When using any of Google’s marketing tools, you will come across the term search partners. This term refers to a network of different sites and companies that work with Google to show ads. When you build a Shopping campaign in Google Ads, you’ll have an option of picking the networks you want your ads to show.
While the default is the Search Network, you can extend your ads to be included to the Search Partners. By adding the search partners, you extend the reach of your adverts beyond Google.com to include YouTube as well.
After picking this option, your shopping ads will display on YouTube, depending on the user’s search phrase. Therefore, it is an easy way to ensure your adverts match what the viewer is watching. This match increases the chance of a conversion.
Lastly, Shopping campaigns have the search partners option enabled by default. However, it’s crucial to check whether you might have disabled this feature. Make sure you test the search partners to ensure they remain relevant to your shopping adverts.
Smart Shopping Ads
Smart shopping ads combine shopping/product listing ads and display ads. It is a new and innovative campaign type across Google’s display network. Furthermore, it seeks to simplify how marketers advertise products. This concept uses automated bidding and ad placement, allowing small retailers to generate product listing ads cheaply and more quickly.
Here, ads are created by utilizing a product feed which advertisers submit on the Google Merchant Center. You will also set your daily budget and bid strategy as well as the country of origin, plus an optional Target ROAS goal.
Once the ad group is formed, you will then add:
- your product image
- a few headlines
- product description,
- a final URL
Remember, the logo in your Merchant Center account is the same that appears in the ad.
Innovations in YouTube Shopping Ads
The emphasis on shopping intent has, for long, been Google’s argument to marketers. Most of the new developments on YouTube advertising seem aimed at delivering the best user experience based on shopping intent, the same as it happens on Google Search.
With more retailers seeking to leverage shopping ads on YouTube, Google is continuing to add features on the platform. The company has even extended shopping ads to more YouTube inventory. Besides, your shopping ads can now show on both the YouTube home feed and YouTube search results.
Mobile viewers also have an easier time with the display of a carousel of “Suggested Products.” Mobile users can scroll effortlessly through content and ads, making it a plus for marketers. It is one strategy through which YouTube has brought shopping ads to mobile.
Hence, showcase Shopping ads that relate products together, even in Google Images. When a user searches for an image, they can thus see your ad for a group of related products.
Final Thoughts
Marketing on the eCommerce landscape is fierce: only the most innovative businesses tend to survive. One way to stay ahead of the competition is to embrace the latest trends.
Using shopping ads on YouTube is a smart tactic as it connects you to a large market of already engaged users. Additionally, these ads can boost conversion while also building your brand’s visibility.
With the high consumption of video content and the popularity of YouTube across all consumer segments, placing shopping ads on this platform is a smart marketing strategy.
