YouTube Marketing: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

YouTube marketing is a highly effective strategy to help brands increase their reach and connect with their target customers worldwide by combining video with search engine optimization. As the second most visited search engine on the web after its parent company, Google, YouTube is one of the best marketing tools to enhance short and long-term marketing efforts for both small and large businesses.

YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users and70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. A study conducted by NogenTech found that 91% of marketers are using video content in 2023. So, if you want to know how to use YouTube to market your business, you’ve come to the right place!

In this guide, you’ll discover how to create your YouTube channel from scratch and optimize videos for SEO to use this platform to generate new leads and grow your business.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Why Use YouTube for Marketing?

As previously mentioned, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. More than that, however, YouTube marketing has several benefits for businesses. Videos are viral right now and dominate the world of marketing, and if you’re not using video, you’re almost certainly losing out to your competitors.

With an increasing number of people preferring video to written content, optimized content on YouTube allows you to communicate effectively with a global audience and ensure that you are found by people looking for your products or services. As video ranks higher on all social platforms and performs better in advertisements, customers are likelier to notice and respond to businesses that use video.

Using YouTube, you have a complete library of videos that you can upload natively to each platform or embed into your blog posts with just a few clicks, making your blog posts more engaging and attractive. According to Google, 68% of YouTube users say that videos help them make a “buying decision.”

Providing optimized YouTube video content that helps people achieve their goals will not only generate massive awareness for your brand but can also attract new leads, grow your email list, and much more. All you need to do is upload helpful videos to help them find solutions to their questions, challenges, and problems.

Plus, on YouTube, you can include links in the video’s comments section, making it even easier for viewers to click through to your website. People are looking for your business on YouTube.

YouTube is such a powerful marketing tool because users are often intentionally looking for solutions and information rather than passively engaging with it as they do on other platforms. Large numbers of people turn to YouTube when they need to learn something.

Every week, 92% of internet users watch some form of YouTube video.

Videos allow you to explain things in a more detailed and engaging way than wri tten articles regarding providing answers and solutions. So you’ll get more views, and people will recognize you as an authority more quickly. You can benefit from creating high-retention videos that target your ideal customers.

Build trust with viewers.

Publishing valuable, high-quality content on your YouTube channel will help you build credibility and prove your authority in the industry. YouTube is an excellent way to make interaction with your brand and customers more real. It can help you showcase your brand personality and realistically present your products or services, which is an excellent tactic for building customer trust and loyalty.

Generate quality leads

YouTube helps you get quality leads and increase your subscriber base to earn money on the platform. Once you have your own YouTube channel, getting people to click through to your website or subscribe is much easier.

There are several strategies you can use to use your YouTube channel as an effective platform for cultivating qualified leads:

Include YouTube Cards: Interactive cards that appear in YouTube videos (usually near the end).

YouTube cards allow creators to share clickable links throughout the video. You can add up to five cards to YouTube that you can use to encourage viewers to act, such as clicking on a landing page, taking a survey, donating to charity, etc.

Use end screens: A further tactic for capturing quality leads is to use end screens to promote a specific landing page.

End screens are mobile-friendly features that allow you to end your video with a call to action. You can use them to encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel or newsletter, check out your other social media posts, etc.

Reply to comments: Responding to comments on your video promptly shows your audience that you’re genuinely interested in them. When people see an active timeline with lots of people interested in what you’re offering, they’re more likely to want to engage with your brand, too.

Integration possibilities: It’s easy for YouTube to integrate your videos into various platforms. Your brand’s videos, including social media sites, websites, and blogs, can be embedded everywhere. It’s beneficial for brands that want to increase brand awareness by sharing quality content with a broad population segment across different platforms.

YouTube makes it easy to repost your videos manually or through marketing automation if one of your goals is to maximize the reach of your video content. You can also use the platform to encourage people to share your videos.

YouTube ads get better engagement.

One of the best ways for brands to generate leads on the platform is to create and promote ads on YouTube. Branded content viewed on YouTube has an engagement rate of 32%. Most ads are usually displayed at the beginning of a video, and brands continually look for creative ways to advertise and share their message without being too intrusive.

YouTube ads are more effective than other social platforms because the ad acceptance rate is higher. Ads are multi-format on the platform, allowing brands to choose from more advertising formats. Giving brands a wider choice allows them to select the ad format that best suits their target audience. Combined with a global audience and a wide variety of ad formats, your brand will have an easier time attracting its target audience than on other social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.

What Makes YouTube Different from Other Social Channels?

Well, YouTube is more of a content platform than a social platform. So, to be truly successful on YouTube, you need to tackle it differently from other social platforms. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter revolve around creating and sharing quality content to raise awareness, generate engagement, and start conversations. YouTube videos are more like blog posts and fit more effectively into the content marketing arena.

Sure, people will comment, but they do so like they would with blog posts. The highest ever proportion of marketers (96%) continue to value video as an ‘important part’ of their content marketing strategy. That’s why looking at YouTube from a content marketing perspective rather than a social media marketing perspective is better.

– People are more likely to find your videos on YouTube by searching for them or viewing other relevant content. It’s an audience experience, not a social one. And if people wish to do so, they will share the video on their social platforms.

– Many people come to YouTube intending to sit down and watch a severe video rather than scroll through a news feed. Treating YouTube as a content platform rather than a social platform means you create more muscular videos that will perform well.

Furthermore, in other social networks, when you create new posts with new calls to action, old posts tend to lose relevance, whereas videos stay relevant and engaging on YouTube. YouTube marketing is an ideal way of attracting people to your site, newsletter, content updates, etc. All the other social sites pale in comparison, as you must constantly remind your followers to click on the links in your profile.

How to Create a YouTube Channel For Your Business?

Before you begin making YouTube marketing, you need to create your YouTube channel. Since YouTube is owned by Google, when you create a Gmail account, you automatically have access to a YouTube account.

Sign up for YouTube

Subscribe using the email address you wish to associate with your YouTube channel. Click on Create an Account at the bottom of the page. Once you have created your account, you must define your YouTube identity. It includes your profile picture, banner, and “About” section.

Getting these right ensures your account looks legitimate and reflects your brand. Users will see the first part of your YouTube account when they visit.

Your profile image

The profile image will appear under every video you upload, helping to increase brand awareness. Ensure you use easily recognizable images consistent with your overall brand image. To increase brand recognition, using your logo as your profile image is a good idea.

Your YouTube banner

The banner is the perfect place to tell people what your company stands for. Use it to explain why people should subscribe or use your company. Having chosen an image, you need to upload it in the correct ratio. While YouTube accepts different ratios for uploading banners, your banner will look more professional if you use 2560 x 1440 pixels, the YouTube standard.

Tip: Another way of exploiting banner space is to add links to your other social channels. You can add up to five links.

The “About” section on YouTube

In your “About” section, you describe your company and what you can offer users on your YouTube channel. Don’t make your “About” section too long. Around 50 words. One concise paragraph describing who you are and what your company does is enough.

Finish with a call to action (CTA) to guide the user towards an effort – subscribing, activating notifications, etc. Underneath, you’ll see the option of adding up to 5 personalized links. Alternatively, you can direct users to your website and social channels.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Channel For SEO?

Creating compelling content is essential but only one of the keys to success. You can do several things to optimize your videos to rank well on YouTube and in Google search results. Using techniques similar to SEO (search engine optimization), you can optimize your YouTube videos to rank higher with Google.

Google owns YouTube, and the video-sharing platform has become synonymous with its parent site. Both sites’ accounts are linked, and their search algorithms are similar. Indeed, YouTube results sometimes appear before blog posts or traditional websites.

So, when you have optimized videos on YouTube, your SEO efforts are boosted. A video that ranks well on YouTube can help increase your visibility in the Google SERPs by attracting many clicks to your brand’s website.

You should optimize your videos for search in several ways

The first is to create and optimize your video’s metadata. Metadata gives viewers information about your video, including its title, description, tags, Category, thumbnail, subtitles, and more. Providing the correct information in your video’s metadata ensures that YouTube correctly indexes it and appears when viewers search for videos like yours.

Create convincing titles

Just as with on-page SEO, optimizing the title and description of your video is essential. Titles are the first thing people read when they scroll through a list of videos. It should arouse their curiosity about your content or clarify that your video will help them solve a problem.

Carry out keyword research to better understand what people are looking for. Good keywords in the title tell Google’s crawlers what your video is about and tell viewers what they can expect, which is suitable for everyone.

Start your title with the most important information and keywords. The ideal length for a video title should be at most 60 characters. Keep titles to no more than 60 characters to avoid the text being cut off in the results pages. Your readers should be able to see your entire title at a glance.

Write good descriptions

While YouTube gives you 5,000 characters to write, it only displays the first two or three lines (around 100 characters) of your video’s description, and to read the rest, users have to click “Show more.” That’s why you should always include essential links or CTAs at the beginning of your description and write the text to arouse Internet users’ interest and engagement.

Remember also to include the video transcript in the description. Video transcripts can significantly improve your SEO, as your video generally contains a lot of keywords. Include a default channel description that links to your social channels, the video credits, and timestamps specific to the video. You may also include #hashtags in the titles and descriptions of your videos, but make sure you use them sparingly.

Keywords

You need to provide enough tags using the main keywords in your tags to describe your video fully and accurately. Tags associate your video with similar videos, broadening its reach and making it more likely that your potential viewer will search for it on YouTube. When you tag your videos, tag your most important keywords first and try to include a good mix of standard and long-tail keywords.

Create your YouTube Thumbnails

Creating customized thumbnails is one of the simplest and most effective ways of promoting your YouTube channel. Good thumbnails encourage users to click immediately, making your YouTube channel more distinctive. Your thumbnails should relate to the content and title of your video.

Including short descriptions and relevant images in your thumbnails will help users understand the content of your video. YouTube takes a screenshot of any video by default and uses it for the thumbnail. Making your thumbnails gives your videos a more appealing look at first glance and provides a particular impression of professionalism.

Your thumbnails don’t have to be very complex, either. Capture people’s interest and tell a story with your vignettes. You want to make them wonder what will happen next. Your headline and thumbnail ideally tell a complementary story together.

Some tips for creating personalized thumbnails:

– Use an image of 1280 x 720 px to ensure your thumbnail displays perfectly on all screen sizes.

– Use only high-quality images.

– Include the video title in your thumbnail to attract more visitors.

– The image formats should be JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, or TIF.

– Use the 16:9 format, which works best for YouTube players.

– Keep to a consistent style for all your thumbnails.

– Include your logo to boost brand awareness

Include Calls to Action (CTA)

Adding calls to action to your videos will help you get more engagement on YouTube. Whatever your goal of getting more likes or subscribers, be clear and concise about the key actions people must take. Consider adding your website link or asking for subscribers to your channel in the video.

Add subtitles to videos

Subtitles and closed captions help viewers and also help optimize your video for search by giving you another opportunity to highlight important keywords. To add subtitles or closed captions, go to Your Channel and select Subtitles from the left-hand menu.

Once in your YouTube Studio, click on the video you want to add subtitles. Select the language of the video and confirm your choice. Subtitles or closed captions can be added by uploading a supported text transcript or timed subtitle file.

Alternatively, you can provide a full transcript of the video and have YouTube time the subtitles automatically, type in the subtitles or translation as you watch the video, or hire a professional to translate or transcribe your video.

Sharing videos on social media

Sharing your videos on social media is essential to grow your channel. It’s essential as a savvy marketer to post your latest videos on social media and be active in social communities and groups. Every social platform has its culture, and you must decide which suits you best and where your efforts will be appreciated.

Consider the following to promote your videos

– Add your YouTube videos to SlideShare presentations

– Share videos on Pinterest and X.com and your Facebook page and link to your original YouTube video or add your YouTube channel to your Instagram bio

– Integrate videos into your blog content

– Include your videos in guest posts on related websites.

– Use Reddit to gain views on YouTube

Cross-promote your own YouTube videos

To grow your reach on YouTube, make it a priority to identify and contact other similar channels to cross-promote or collaborate in a mutually beneficial way. It’s a great way to reach a new audience and increase your subscriber base. It’s also a win/win for you, your partner, and your target audience.

Working with other influencers is great social proof for your audience. Collaborating with other well-known channels gives you a good image by association. You could collaborate with brands, YouTubers, or influencers from other social networks in your niche and make videos together.

How To Upload Your Video To YouTube?

Once your channel is set up, you can start uploading videos! Find the up arrow in the YouTube top navigation bar and click it. YouTube will ask you to select or upload a video file, and your video will start uploading immediately.

At the top of the page, you can enter basic information about the video, including its name, description, privacy settings, and the playlist where you want it to appear. You should also add tags, which allow the video to appear in relevant searches. Please ensure that the video’s text is optimized for SEO, which we’ll look at in the next section.

Lastly, choose the thumbnail for your video once it has been uploaded. Choose one of the YouTube thumbnails or upload your custom thumbnail. It’s recommended that you upload a custom thumbnail that contains a branded element.

Once your video is fully uploaded, you can edit it before or after publication.

How Do I Edit YouTube Videos?

If you plan to make further changes to the video, set its publication to ‘private.’ After editing it, you can change its confidentiality to “public.” To edit the video, go to your creator’s studio, search for the video, and select Edit. You have to do this and leave the first screen to have more editing options.

If you wish, you can:

– visually enhance and modify the image

– add end screens to your videos (only if they are longer than 25 seconds)

– add sound to your video

– add YouTube cards to videos

– create subtitles for your video in any language.

For a more accessible and actionable video, try adding YouTube cards and subtitles to all your videos.

Both take just a few minutes and are well worth the effort.

How to Make Money From YouTube?

YouTube is very competitive, so to succeed, you need to post great SEO-optimized videos, find an audience of enthusiastic fans, and have a traffic pipeline to your website. You can make around $1 for every 1,000 views and only get paid once you’ve reached the $100 mark.

You will need at least 10,000 views to monetize the account, but you can start the submission process before that. To start, go to your Creator’s Studio and click on the Channel tab. You’ll see the monetization box, which says “Enable.” Click on it.

Next, you’ll see YouTube’s requirements. These are as follows:

– You have accepted YouTube’s partnership terms

– You have requested access to AdSense

– You have set your monetization preferences

– Your channel has been viewed 10,000 times

The following monetization options are available to you:

– Display ads (desktop only), which you must select for monetization. They appear above videos “you might like to watch.”

– Overlay ads, which only apply to desktop computers and appear as a small window in front of your videos.

– Sponsored cards can be viewed by users on all devices and appear on the side of your videos.

– Skipable video ads are played before your video and displayed on both desktops and mobile phones.

Select the ones you want to use and click “Save.”

How to Promote Your YouTube Channel?

In addition to generating organic traffic to your content, several paid options for promoting your business on YouTube are also available. The cost of advertising on YouTube. YouTube ads operate on a cost-per-view (CPV) model, which means you only pay when someone engages with your video ad.

If the ad is ignored, you are not charged for that view. The exact cost per click varies depending on the competitiveness of the keywords but averages around $0.06. According to YouTube, most businesses start with around $10 per day for local advertising campaigns. After you set the daily budget for your campaign, YouTube will display your ad until the daily budget is used up.

What Types of Advertising are Available on YouTube?

Video discovery ads

TrueView video discovery ads appear on the YouTube homepage, in search results, and as related videos on YouTube video viewing pages. Users are redirected to the promoted video When they click on one of these ads.

Streaming ads

In-stream ads are ads that run within a YouTube video. In-stream TrueView ads are shown before the user watches the video they have selected on YouTube. The ads can be personalized with different text overlays and CTAs, and viewers usually can skip the ad after watching the first five seconds. Besides pre-roll in-stream ads that run before the video, mid-roll ads also appear in the middle of YouTube videos lasting 10 minutes or more.

How to Advertise On YouTube?

Access the YouTube advertising platform. You can create a campaign using any video uploaded to your YouTube channel. Google Adwords manages the YouTube ads. You’ll need to create an account if you still need to. Click on “Start now” and select “New campaign” then “Video” as the campaign type.

Set an objective

You must select an objective to access the campaign parameters suggested throughout the configuration process. Choose from Sales, Leads, Website Traffic, Product and Brand Consideration, or Brand Awareness and Reach. Sales leads and website traffic require conversion tracking.

Product and Brand Consideration and Brand Awareness and Reach offer campaign sub-types that allow you to customize the focus of your campaign further. Decide on a name, budget, and timetable for your campaign.

You’ll also choose your bidding strategy, advertising networks, target language(s), and location(s). Furthermore, you can define content exclusions, choose the devices on which you want your ad to be shown, and limit the frequency of your adverts.

Then, name your ad group and define your audience’s demographics regarding location, gender, age range, web activity, and interests. You may also define keywords, themes, and locations to narrow the scope of your campaign further. Finally, decide on an offer for your ad.

Create your video advert

Enter the title or URL of the YouTube video you want to promote. Specify where you want viewers to go if they click on your ad. You can either send them to your channel or your site. In most cases, it’s best to send users to your site.

Next, add your advertising text and choose your thumbnail. Remember that this text is designed solely to serve as a CTA; it need not be a title or description of the video.

Click on “Save and continue” to watch your ad again.

Conclusion

Videos are the most popular marketing tool at the moment. But to be successful on YouTube marketing, you’ll need to devote time to planning, filming, editing, marketing, and analyzing your content regularly. Producing high-quality, relevant, engaging video content will also improve your marketing and social media efforts. Make the most of this by creating a YouTube channel for your business and start shooting your videos!

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