In this comprehensive YouTube ads guide you’ll discover:
The Opportunity of YouTube Ads for 2021
The Risks of not diversifying your traffic in 2021
Exactly how to set up, run, test and scale your YouTube Ads, step-by-step
I’m willing to bet you’ve seen this exact ad more than a couple times.
So why do big companies like Monday.com spend literally millions of dollars on YouTube ads like this?
Because YouTube ads flat-out work.
(Here’s a screenshot from our internal YouTube ad spy tool & ad library showing that they’ve spent an estimated $2.8+ million USD on just this one ad)
YouTube Ad stats are provided by our Free VidTao YouTube Ad Research Software. Click for Free, Full Access.
And YouTube ads don't just work for big, Venture Capital-backed companies like Monday.com.
Smaller businesses are finding new sources of customers - at massive scale - using YouTube ads.
Looking to use YouTube ads to grow your e-commerce business?
You don’t need a blockbuster budget to get results. Simple, low-budget YouTube ads are working great for e-commerce products.
Just look at this YouTube ad for the DIY plastic welder product Bondic:
Check it out: they’ve spent over $197k (estimated) on this one YouTube ad:
Or take this simple solar battery ecommerce product from 4Patriots:
The amount they’ve spent on this simple iphone video ad? Nearly$1.1 Million USD (estimated).
Do you sell information products online?
YouTube ads are an absolute goldmine when it comes to selling information products.
Need proof? No doubt you've seen ads from big-budget info product publishers like MindValley...
But what you might not know?
You don't need to have a huge production budget to make winning YouTube ads for information products.
Even one-man-show “infopreneurs” selling how-to information products as affiliates are spending close to 6 figures (and making many multiples more) on simple, low-budget YouTube ads made with just a simple iphone and some cheap b-roll footage, like this one from Emil Sundell:
So... What's Your Excuse?
If you’re not already using YouTube ads to scale your business...
Why not?
Maybe you don’t know how to get started?
Maybe you've tried, but gave up after not immediately getting the results you were looking for?
If so, this free YouTube ads guide is going to change all that.
It’s 2020 and YouTube is STILL a massively under-utilized “Blue Ocean” traffic source, untapped for most business verticals.
Just ask yourself:
How many of your competitors are using Facebook ads?
vs.
How many are effectively using YouTube ads?
In the past 12 months, YouTube has made a big push to make the platform as high-performing for direct response marketing as possible.
Which means it’s never been easier to have success with YouTube ads.
And with more and more businesses every day shifting ad spend to YouTube to avoid being dependent on Facebook…
…it’s probably NOT going to get any cheaper.
Right now could be your opportunity to cash in on YouTube as a traffic source, before your competitors even know what hit them.
So if Facebook ads are your main (or only) source of new customers...
And if you are sick of rising ad costs and account shutdowns...
The time is now to start leveraging YouTube ads to grow your business.
And in this step-by-step guide we’re going to walk you through exactly how to do it.
In this free step-by-step YouTube ad training series we’re going to cover...
WHY - Why YouTube Ads are your business’ biggest scaling opportunity for 2020 (and beyond)
HOW - Our step-by-step guide to set up, launch and scale YouTube ads based on what we’ve learned from managing over $1 Million USD/month in YouTube adspend.
But first, we need to twist the knife a bit to emphasize what's at stake if you don't take action to diversify your traffic right now...
A Note of Caution: Diversify or Die
Quick thought experiment:
If you could no longer advertise on Facebook…
What would happen to your business?
Do you have another proven way to predictably acquire customers?
Or would your cash flow (and your business itself) stop DEAD in its tracks?
The Big Fish Keep Getting Bigger
If it’s getting more and more expensive for you to advertise on Facebook, you are not alone.
Big advertisers are dumping more and more money into the digital channels they’ve been able to figure out & make profitable.
The problem this presents for your business is simple:
More and more advertising dollars are competing for the same eyeballs - massively increasing your cost to reach your audience.
[Case Study] "Peak Facebook": Facebook’s Ad Inventory Dilemma
Since you’re not alone in using Facebook (it’s the most widely used ad platform for both B2C and B2B businesses right now), you’re no doubt seeing this increase first hand.
Let’s take a closer look at why this is happening.
We’ll use Facebook’s US market as an example.
Limited Supply + High Demand = Rising Ad Costs
Facebook users will only tolerate so many ads in their “newsfeed” before the quality of their experience deteriorates and they respond by using the platform less.
Here is the problem: Although Facebook’s user count is still growing globally (to 2.2 Billion users as of Q4 2018), in many key markets - like the US - users are actually leaving the platform.
Starting in 2017, Facebook has actually seen US user count decrease:
As a result, in 2017 Facebook reached “Peak Ad Load” on their prime ad real estate: the Facebook Newsfeed, leading to dramatic increases in the price of advertising.
This means each minute that passes there are MORE places to put your
ads on YouTube, not fewer.
And that’s just for starters. Let’s look at the many ways you can
show
your ads to the best possible audience, at the moments when they are most receptive to your message...
YOUTUBE
ADS: AMAZING TARGETING OPTIONS
Because YouTube is a Google property, your targeting options
leverage
Big G’s thousands of data points on users' browsing behavior across all their devices, allowing you to
target
users based on...
What they’re searching for right now or
historically (via Keyword / Custom Intent targeting)
What they're viewing right now (put ads
in front of your competitor’s videos or channels via Placement targeting)
Products or services they are actively
considering buying right now (via In-Market audiences)
Even the websites they visit (target
users who visit your competitor’s websites via Custom Intent / Custom Affinity targeting).
...All that in addition to targeting options you’re probably already familiar
with like Age/Gender/Location Demographics, Browser, Device, and “Similar to” audiences (the Google Ad
equivalent to Facebook’s “Lookalike” audiences)
YOUTUBE ADS: MASSIVE SCALE
YouTube is the #2 most visited website on the internet (after Google), #2 social network (after Facebook), and #2 search engine (also after Google), with:
1.3 billion active users
Over 1 billion hours of content watched each day
Over 600 hours of content uploaded each minute
90% of U.S. internet users aged 18 to 44 years are active Youtube users
YouTube accounts for 37% of ALL mobile internet traffic
Plus: 90% of YouTube users say they discover new products & services on the platform. These users are buyers - not just passive viewers.
And as a result, the scaling potential is truly massive.
Want a deep dive into the scaling potential of YouTube ads? Watch
two
of our advertising heroes (John Belcher & Bryant Garvin) discuss how Bryant leveraged $120 Million in
YouTube adspend - in just one year - to grow Purple Mattress form zero to over $405 Million in yearly
revenue:
YOUTUBE
ADS: LITERALLY FREE TRAFFIC?
Here’s one of the best parts about YouTube advertising:
On Facebook, you pay per impression, or each time your ad shows.
But on YouTube, with the TrueView Instream ads (the “workhorse” ads
that make up 95%+ of the often $1M+ USD/mo our team spends on ads)...
If someone sees your ad, but skips it
before 30 seconds?
You don’t pay.
With YouTube Instream ads, you only pay when someone:
Watches 30+ seconds of your video ad
Or clicks through to your website
This means you only pay for relevant traffic from users who are
actually interested in & engaged with your content.
Think about it.
30 seconds of is a LOT of time to get someone to know, like
and trust your brand.
And those people who skip your ads and you don’t pay for? Many of
them
will still go back to visit your site via Google search.
When Purple Mattress looked into their data…
People who saw an ad but skipped it
were
600% more likely to search on Google for Purple Mattress and actually visit their site.
This is literally free exposure and free traffic, each time your
YouTube ad shows.
(And it's part of the reason why YouTube ads have such a “halo
effect” to drive awareness & sales beyond just what's directly measurable via click-based attribution.)
YOUTUBE
ADS: HIGH USER INTENT
Users go to YouTube with a completely different mindset than when
they
are mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.
You might hop on to Facebook to scroll your newsfeed while wasting
time in line at the store…
But viewers go to YouTube with specific intent: to be educated or
entertained in very specific ways.
Just look at this data from Google on why people visit
YouTube:
As a result? YouTube users get more absorbed & engaged with the
content, and average time on site proves this:
Users spend an average of 40
minutes per session on YouTube - versus just 12 minutes for Facebook.
YOUTUBE'S
"IMMERSIVE" vs. FACEBOOK'S "INTERRUPTIVE" PLATFORM
Because of their intent when on the platform and watching with open
eyes and ears to the content, YouTube users are in a completely different mindstate when they see your ads.
And that’s why YouTube is so powerful:
It is an immersive platform, versus the interruptive nature
of
Facebook.
Instead of a quick “curiosity click” from a user mindlessly
scrolling
their newsfeed, YouTube users are immersed in content they actually want to be watching.
Make ads that are congruent with their experience?
And you're going to get a deeper impact and better results than you
might get from a quick “curiosity click” on Facebook.
Let's take a look at a few more examples...
Impact: YouTube Ad Case Studies
What does all this add up to?
Done right, YouTube ads are one of the most powerful methods to scaling your business.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of ads from a variety of markets that have been running for some time at scale:
Purple Mattress spent over $9 Million dollars (estimated) on just this one ad:
That Purple Mattress ad cost well into 6 figures to produce.
Want to see one that probably cost under $1000 to create?
Check out this simple, yet very effective, dating info product ad ($209k spent so far):
Info Products are tailor-made for selling on YouTube.
Just look at this Motley Fool promo, currently spending around $20k per day and over $1.2 million USD total (estimated):
Unusual products are easily explained on YouTube.
Check out this YouTube ad for a Furbo Dog Camera, where they spent an
estimated
$27k+ on this one video for the lead up to Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2019:
(It's interesting to see how they stopped this ad on Wednesday December 4th,
immediately after Cyber Monday/Tech Tuesday 2019.)
On the iphone app front, looks like Noom (weight loss app) has spent an
estimated $405k adspend on just this one quiz YouTube ad:
And this is just one of many YouTube ads they've been testing recently:
This beautifully done video for Kamikoto Japanese knives appears to be working
well. They've spent over $85k on this one ad:
But remember, you do NOT need to have a high production
value
video to get amazing results with YouTube ads.
A simple iphone video and some testimonial screenshots (with high quality
script
copywriting) has been a winning ticket for this "make money online" YouTube ad below.
Looks like they are spending around $3k/day (and over $638k total) on this one
ad:
One of the best methods to test and include in your YouTube ad campaigns is
this:
Let your customers sell your product for you.
Customer testimonials, done right, are one of the best ways to sell on YouTube
both at the top of the funnel as well as deeper in the funnel.
Here are a couple great examples from skincare company Curology:
And if you're in the eco-friendly Graffiti Removal business?
Well I hate to break it to you, but these guys have you beat:
Get That Gold...
Remember, whether you're talking to your customers on the phone, using an
open-ended survey, or "mining" Amazon to get this data, you'll know your customers':
Challenges
Hopes
Fears
Pain Points
Internal Storylines
etc.
...In the exact language they use when talking to
themselves.
The next step?
Let's see how take all this gold from your market and turn it into high-performing YouTube ads.
How to Script High-Performing YouTube Video Ads
You’ve done the research and now you know:
Who your ideal customers are
The biggest problems they face
The ideal results they want
...All in their own language.
Now it’s time to assemble all these pieces into a video ad funnel that gets them to take action.
Here is what it looks like on a high level:
Your ad creatives are the most crucial element in your YouTube ad campaign:
A good ad with bad targeting and media buying strategy can still give you decent
results.
A bad ad with good targeting and media buying strategy is probably not going to
work.
Remember: You DO NOT need “Pro Quality” ultra-produced videos to scale to
thousands per day on YouTube. (An iphone / gopro / webcam is enough to get started)
BUT your your messaging DOES need to be on-point and speak directly to
your ideal customer's unique pain points, hopes and fears.
(And because you’ve done your research, you’ve already got this covered.)
Let’s dive in to some of the easy-to-follow video script formulas/frameworks
we
like to use when starting to test a new offer.
Top Of
Funnel YouTube Ad Video Script Formulas/Frameworks
At this stage you are showing videos to people who are completely unaware of
your business, so there are a few key things to consider.
You’ll want to spin up at least
3
different 1–3 min videos following these formulas/frameworks — the more you test the better odds
you have of finding a winner you can scale to the moon with.
Let’s walk through a very general framework and then a couple excellent
alternatives, so you have a few options for your first stab at scripting your YouTube Ads.
Next Steps...
Ok, that was ton of info. Let's take a pause to let all this sink in. I
just
want to make sure you understand:
The Opportunity you have to
grow your business in 2020 with YouTube ads...
What's at stake if you
do not take action to diversify your traffic right now...
Understand that you do NOT need a huge production budget to get started running YouTube ads. (In most cases just an iPhone is
enough to create & start testing your first videos.)
Now that we've established all that and you're raring to go out there and
blast some YouTube ads to the four corners of the internet, let's get into the nitty-gritty "how to" of
it
all.
YouTube Ads Step-by-Step Guide (for
2020)
Part 2: How To Do It
Now here in part 2 let’s dive into the details on how to set up, run, test
and scale your YouTube Ads, step-by-step.
STEP 1: RESEARCH: Get to Know Your Ideal Customer
WHO does your business
serve?
This is the most important question we
need to get concrete answers to before we get into anything else.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to
walk through in this section:
We're going to walk through
the
simple research framework you can use to know your customers' hopes, fears, pain points and storylines
better than they do themselves.
(Do NOT skip this step - it's the
"secret sauce" to making YouTube ads work...)
But first, let's take a step back:
What is advertising,
anyways?
At its core, advertising is simply
connecting people who have problems, with the solutions to those problems.
All any ad platform does (YouTube,
Facebook, or anything else) is just amplify this human to human communication.
So the more we know about:
Who our customers are
The problems they have...
How their lives will change from
solving these problems...
...the better we can communicate the
value of what we sell, and make sure people who we can help are actually aware of our solution.
Let’s take a look at how to actually
get
this data.
Diving into Demographics...
Let’s start with the obvious big-picture demographics.
If you have an existing business with Google Analytics set up,
your audience’s demographics is just a few clicks away.
Check out an age & gender breakdown of your audience. Login
and navigate to “Demographics” → “Overview”
Check out an age & gender breakdown of your audience. Login
and navigate to “Demographics” → “Overview”
Go to “Geo” → “Location” and you can dive deep into where these
people live on a national, state, and even city level:
(If you are launching a new business or simply don’t have Google
Analytics set up, we’ll cover how you can grab this data via another method in just a moment).
Ok, so now we have a broad strokes look at our audience: their
age, gender, and where they live.
Take some notes on what you find here, this is going to help
inform our targeting and initial tests.
But this research is just scratching the surface and actually
not
nearly the most important element of our research.
Let's take a look at how we can go much, much deeper...
Each Ad Impression = A Human Being Viewing Your Ad
As digital marketers, we are obsessed with numbers:
CPM (“Cost per Mille” or cost per
1000
impressions)
CTR (Click through rate)
CPC (Cost per click)
CPA (Cost per acquisition)
etc.
And since we are so focused on numbers, it is all too easy to forget
something:
Behind each impression,
click,
or purchase is a human being with a unique story going on in their head.
Good advertising (the kind that builds relationships and gets results) is
nothing other than:
Understanding the story going on in
your prospect’s head
Speaking directly to this story -
and
the hopes and fears that underlie this story
So how do we figure out the conversation in their
head?
Here’s what not to do: Guess.
And this is where most “customer avatar” exercises go wrong. You’ve
probably
seen a few:
If you want to identify the conversation going on in your market’s head
right now… ...So you can craft the most impactful messaging that will get your ideal customers to
take
action…
Don’t Guess.
Instead, STEAL this
messaging
directly from your market.
“You shouldn’t look
inside your head for the messages that will convince your prospects.
You’re not your
prospect. So how the hell could you know what they need to hear? It’s vanity to think you
could.
Instead of writing
your message, steal it. Steal it directly from your prospects.”
Open-ended Survey: Email your
list of customers (or pay to email someone else’s list of customers) and use an open-ended survey
framework like Ryan Levesque’s ASK Method “Deep Dive
Survey” to extract open-ended survey responses from them, which you can mine for
insights.
Ryan’s outstanding book ASK & ASK Method Masterclass go into much more detail on this, but a very quick
overview
is this:
Ask your audience (via email, a simple Google Form or survey
software like bucket.io or
typeform) to describe, in
their own words, their “#1 single biggest challenge” when it comes to whatever problem your
product
solves.
Armed with this data, you
summarize & classify the responses into 3-5 groups
Build out customized
messaging
to speak to each of the segments you identify
1) Send participants to a boast.io
video submission form to automatically collect video testimonials you can
use in your marketing.
2) As the final "thank you page" for completing the survey, send
them to a special offer to buy your product at a discount (this works even if these customers have
already
purchased the product)
No Audience? No Problem.
But what if you’re starting from scratch in a new market with no email
list
/ social media following / audience at all?
Don't sweat it. Here are a couple options:
No List Option #1: Paid Email
Drop
Reach out to product owners in your
market and ask to pay them to send an email with a link to your open-ended survey to their list of
buyers.
No List Option #2: Amazon Review
Mining
This is a great option if you have
more time than money to invest. Just apply Joanna Wiebe’s “Amazon review mining”
approach by looking at reviews for a few relevant books on amazon, copy/pasting memorable
phrases
into a spreadsheet like this:.
Here is more gold from Joanna Wiebe on this process:
“When you go through user reviews one by one, what’s really
important to your prospects rises to the top. You see recurring questions, recurring statements.
You hear their frustrations, and you can feel their excitement. This all makes its way into your copy
and messaging hierarchy – the things you need to say, and the order in which your visitors need to
read
them. Naturally, this exercise reveals not only pure gold for copywriting, but also for
product
development.”
The first 5 seconds of your ad are CRUCIAL to getting viewers who are relevant
to your offer to stop what they’re doing and not click the “Skip Ad” button.
We are trying to make relevant viewers interested enough so they stick around
past when that “skip ad” button pops up 5 seconds into the video.
(Viewers cannot skip the ad for the first 5 seconds)
Question Hook: Asking a
relevant question is a simple way to “hook” relevant viewers in these first 5 seconds:
Ask a question directly to your target
audience (use their language from your survey/interview here)
“Do you struggle with
[problem]?”
“Wish you could [get desired result]
without [main obstacle]?”
Watch this question hook example from from this Organifi YouTube ad ($87k+
spent
on this one ad):
Notice the opening question: “Ever pass someone on the street with
gorgeous
glowing skin and wonder, "What does she got? I gotta get some of that!"
"Do This Not That" Hook: This
curiosity-provoking opening formula can work well too:
“If you [describe problem], do [X] instead of [Y]”
Look at this example from an arthritis product:
"If you have arthritis, you should be eating more of this
[cherries]
and not this [tomatoes]"
Audio/Visual Pattern Interrupt
Hook: Showing something unusual in the first 5 seconds - as long as it’s relevant to
your
product & target market so you don’t attract people who aren’t a good fit - is a great way to open your
YouTube ads.
You can use odd “props” in the video to catch attention visually, or even ask
a
question referring to the odd object:
“What does [holds up weird thing] have to do with [getting a
result
your audience wants]? I’ll get to that in a moment…”
Here is a great example of a 5 second pattern interrupt from the YouRube ad
for
the webinar for Alex Becker's Shopify course:
Notice the “thud” of the sewing machine on the table? Remember that 90%+ of
youtube videos are watched with sound ON. Feel free to tastefully use sound in your pattern interrupt.
Here is another audio/visual pattern interrupt from newspaper Epoch news from
an
ad they've spent nearly $1 Million dollars on. Notice how they use a couple mechanisms together:
Visual pattern interrupt(image of current news hot topic) as a prop, along with...
A relevant questiondirected to their target market: “Are you tired of the media
pushing
false narratives?”
Or check out this intro from alternative streaming media service Gaia, where
you
are shown images of a supposedly alien life forms while stating:
"The results strongly support that these beings are not closely
related to any known organism..."
If you’re interested at all in aliens, think you might stick
around past the first 5 seconds to watch more?
At over $280k+ estimated adspend for this one ad, seems like
more
than a handful of people are
User Success Stories
Hook:Nothing adds believability like a good user story.
You can use actual user-generated video testimonials (like the ones you
collect
with the boast.io video collection mentioned earlier) like Metabolic Factor does here:
Higher production user stories - cut for maximum impact and stacked one after
another - can work fantastic, like this example from Noom weight loss app:
"You're About to Discover [X]"
Hook:This isn't the most creative hook but it still works well:
“You’re about to discover how I did [desirable result]"
Here's one YouTube ad example from an Amazon training info product that's
clearly been successful ($688k+ estimated adspend):
Simple Product Demonstration:Do you have a unique physical product that pretty much explains itself?
A straightforward & simple product demonstration can also work as an
opening
hook, as shown in these two physical product ecommerce YouTube ads (each with over $400k estimated adspend):
Next Steps....
Whichever approach you choose, hook your prospect’s attention in these first 5
seconds and you will have earned their attention to pass to the next stage...
PART 2: DISQUALIFICATION
(During
1st 30 Seconds)
Because you pay for a YouTube instream ad when someone clicks or watches more
than 30 sec of the video...
You want to drive down
your CPC & CPA by disqualifying as many viewers as possible who are not a good fit for the product,
before they hit that 30 second mark.
Sometimes the opening hook itself will do this filtering, but other times you
might need to specifically disqualify viewers.
Think about your audience. Who are people who keep signing up for your offer
but
are actually a poor fit?
This disqualification step can be crucial when you are sending ads to a
webinar
to a sales call.
For instance, maybe you have a high ticket coaching program but you’re getting
a
bunch of MLM and drop shipping people signing up for sales calls, wasting your sales staff's time and your
money.
Blatantly disqualify these poor fit viewers by calling them out
directly:
“And if you’re doing MLM or an amazon drop shipping business? This is NOT
for you…”
(Again, sometimes you can skip this section if the hook itself
adequately disqualifies people who. aren't a good fit)
PART 3: TRIGGER
EMOTION
Emotion drives action.
Your YouTube ad needs to trigger &
resonate with the emotions your ideal audience is already feeling around this issue, so they finally take
action to improve their lives.
Trigger emotion by using your audience’s
internal hope & fear storylines from your survey & interviews, using exactly the same language they
are telling themselves:
Activate the pain: “Are
you struggling with [pain - using your audeience's exact
survey
language]?”
Activate the desire:“Do you wish you could [get desired result - using the exact
survey language]?”
Create an “Open Loop” that teases future solution without
common obstacle: “In just a moment I’m going to show you exactly
how
to [get desired result] using [curiosity-provoking method] and without [common
obstacle]...”
These phrases are a good place to start. But there's actually a much more
powerful way to activate pain, activate desire, and create an "open loop" that drives your audience to take
action...
Trigger Emotion Via STORYTELLING
What is the most effective way to:
Attract the attention of your ideal audience
Engage their emotions
Get them to take action?
The answer?
Storytelling.
Using story allows you to build rapport & authority by sharing:
How you understand where the prospect is at
Why you are uniquely qualified to speak about this topic and help them
achieve what they want to achieve, via your product/process/etc
The Primal Power of Story
Why are stories so powerful?
They tap into one of the key unique characteristics of human beings:
We are the only species who can
imagine
something outside of our direct experience.
As a result, our evolutionary hard wiring causes us to respond to a story as
if
we are actually the one experiencing it.
In this case, when it comes to connecting with your audience and getting them
to
take action, the most powerful story is this:
They story they are telling themselves right now.
Their Inner story...
Their Worldview...
Their Beliefs...
Their Hopes...
Their Fears...
How they frame their life from the moment they were born up until this
point...
These are the inner stories you want to become intimate with
if
you want to properly serve your audience by leading them to the
transformation your products promise.
And it’s the data you collect in the research phase that allows you to do
this.
Let’s look at a few ads that do a great job of triggering emotion with STORY:
See Mindvalley.com founder Vishen Lakhiani’s personal story relating to his
own
aging and fitness (used here to share about a fitness product) starting at 0:38:
Even better can be actually having your customers themselves tell their story,
directly on the video, as weight loss app Noom does here:
Even better can be actually having your customers themselves tell their story,
directly on the video, as weight loss appAnd if you have survey data but don’t have a way to get your
customers on camera? You can simply hire actors to convey your customers’ language around their frustrations
and hopes, like FitTrack does here: Noom does here:
A Note on Brand Story
Customer stories like we’ve been talking about can be
crucial,
especially for problem/solution oriented products.
Story is also massively important for brands - especially when it comes to
differentiating your brand’s offerings from other, similar commoditized products.
Why is Rolex able to charge $10k+ for an object that tells the time -
something
that you can get from Timex for $25?
Simple. Brand positioning which comes down to the story that Rolex tells about
their brand. Since we’re talking about watches, let’s look at this ad from new watch brand Filipo Loreti,
which does a great job of positioning their product as a blend of luxury Italian style but at a reasonable
price. (Notice how it clearly explains the mechanism that allows both of these characteristics in a single
product). This ad’s skilful use of high quality footage and storytelling making this watch brand stand out
from being just another watch brand:
PART 4: DEMONSTRATION OF VALUE / SOCIAL
PROOF
Whenever possible you will want have elements of social proof &
demonstration of expertise/value in your Your YouTube ads.
Here are a few mechanisms to include in your ads that allow you to do this:
Provide a brief demonstration of value (“quick tip” etc.) while making
clear
that there is much more value when they click through to the next page.
Show other customers who have also achieved success
Show where you/your product have been featured in media etc.
Demonstration of Value: "Quick Tip"
Example
Social Proof Example
You can use screenshots of testimonials as this Amazon FBA
course does here at around 0:48 in this video:
You can also simply summarize your customers’ results while showing them on
screen, like this ad for Amazon training does starting around 0:08:
Or even better, have your actual customers talk about the effect your product
has had in their lives, like this Dr. Squatch soap ad does here starting at 3:53:
PART 5: LONG CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA) (AT LEAST 15
SECONDS)
We don’t want the video to end too quickly, before the viewer has had a chance
to click through to your offer page. So at the end of the video, for at least 15 seconds, tell the viewer
exactly what to do to take the next step.
We are huge fans of William Painter’s YouTube ads - they are hilarious, edgy
and
clearly drive an insane amount of results. They take this long CTA to an extreme in this video (scroll to
2:30
in this video for 45 seconds of “Call to Action” + Comedy)
Middle of Funnel + Bottom of Funnel Videos
Ok, so your audience watched your Top of Funnel video, (or at least 30 seconds
of it), maybe clicked to your site…
...BUT - they didn’t sign up or buy.
Now what?
Follow up with your non-buyers to build a relationship, demonstrate value, and
get them to take action by using the video ad frameworks below:
Social Proof YouTube ads:
Want to push your aspiring customer over the edge and get them to actually try
your product? Show your users/customers actually interacting with / praising the product, on camera can be
gold for this. Here are a couple great examples of this approach from William Painter Sunglasses:
Review Videos: “Ownership Experience”:
Unboxing Video Ads
Unboxing videos are a great way for your viewer to get an “ownership
experience”
- to see what it’s like to receive and start interacting with a product. And if unboxing videos make sense
for
your product, you should definitely test them for your MOFU/BOFU ads.
Here’s one from ProLon:
Here’s an unboxing YouTube ad from subscription beauty box company FabFitFun:
How to make an “unboxing” video of Your
SaaS or Info Product…
Running YouTube ads for a Software as a Service (SaaS) or Information Product?
You don’t need to have a physical product to reap the benefits of creating an “ownership experience” for
your
prospects.
Just show a quick peek at how it looks to use the product, like WikiBuy does
here in this simple ad:
Bottom of Funnel: “Fence Jumper” Videos
When people are already aware of you & your product, have already been
shown
the value it provides…
...Sometimes all they need is a little push to get them over the edge.
This is why “Bottom of Funnel” (BOFU) “Fence Jumper” ads/offers can be so
great
for getting people to finally take action and purchase.
Things like…
A deadline to join
An expiring discount or bonus
Here is one example from Tai Lopez (notice how this was a time limited “1 day
left” ad/offer - and he still spent roughly $38k (estimated) on it)
Bottom of Funnel: Product Reminder
Videos
When someone already knows, likes and trusts you - and better yet, if they’ve
already bought something else from you…
...Sometimes all you need is to show them a product.
Here’s a great example of this from Filippo Loreti. (Note: Don’t be fooled by
the small spend on this ad. This is likely targeted to only people at a very deep phase of awareness, where
each view can really have an impact)
Additional Notes on Video Production
So now you know the content you need for each stage of your YouTube video ad
funnel. Let’s cover a few technical points before we wrap this post and prepare for the next phase (actually
setting up your campaigns & launching your ads).
“Modular” Hooks/Intros for Top of Funnel
Videos
The first 30 seconds of a video ad is the most crucial. Give yourself as many
chances as possible for success: script and shoot multiple intros that you can “bolt on” to the rest of the
video. See which intro performs best. Test and iterate from there. (This is an approach that we learned from
Shash Singh of Linx Digital. Thanks Shash for sharing this 🙂 )
Quick Editing Cuts
Human attention spans are decreasing. Cut out gaps, “ums” and “ah” filler
words
to make the edit as tight as possible.
Add in Offset Angle
If you have the budget (or even just an extra iphone), shoot both
face-to-camera
and 45 degree offset angles. Adding this offset angle keeps the viewer’s eye interested and also builds
credibility by simulating an “interview”.
Here’s one example of this:
Speed up 10%
Test speeding up your video 10% to decrease viewer boredom and increase
response.
Video Equipment
You don’t need a huge equipment budget to make successful YouTube video ads.
But
the following two items can be very helpful for creating high-quality video ads on a budget:
Gimbal - add a gimbal to your smartphone to keep your walking shots smooth
and professional
Bluetooth Mic - audio quality is actually very important. Enhance your
audio
with a bluetooth mic that connects to your smartphone.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016V3663Y
How to “Spy” on Your Competitors’
YouTube
Ads
Want access to the YouTube ad research & spy tool we
built?
In managing over $1 million USD per month in YouTube adspend, our team has
seen
how video creative is the single biggest factor in whether or not you succeed (or fail) with YouTube ads.
So we could help our clients have as much success as possible, we built - from
scratch - an internal tool that allows us to track ads from competitors and see what YouTube ads are working
right now.
Why? Because when it comes to YouTube ads, the last thing you want to do is guess.
Instead, the smart approach is to start by modeling what’s already working in
your market and iterate from there.
And after you have had some success by imitating?
Become a breakthrough advertiser in your market by combining elements of
videos
that are working in other markets, so that your company becomes the one everyone else is trying to imitate
in
your market.
This is what our VidTao YouTube ad research and "spy" tool software allows you
to do. And because we want YOU to be as successful with YouTube ads as possible, we want to give you full
access, 100% free.
(No hidden “gotchas” or anything - it’s 100% free for you to use, with full
functionality)
Go here to get your
free, full access to the software.
Want to get an update when new posts goes live? Go here to get an email when the latest post goes
live
(You’ll also get free access to our VidTao YouTube ad research library /
spy
tool, as well as regular email updates sharing ad breakdowns, new YouTube strategies and tactics, and
much
more…)
Inceptly builds YouTube ad creatives & manages over 5M USD/month in YouTube ad spend for companies like ClickFunnels, Descript, MindValley, Advanced Bionaturals, Organifi, and many more.
Are you spending over $1k/day on ads and looking to scale your business with YouTube ads?
Schedule your free YouTube ad brainstorming call here:
In the meantime, what questions do YOU have about YouTube ads?
Let us know in the Comments section below, and we’ll make sure to cover your question in an upcoming post.
Have a nice day!
The VidTao Team
Sign up for VidTao.com: The Free Tool to Discover & Track Your Market's Best YouTube Ads.
Are you spending over $1k/day on paid traffic and want to scale with YouTube ads? Schedule your free YouTube ad brainstorming call here: inceptly.com/call
VidTao.com is brought to you by Inceptly.com - High Performance YouTube Ad Creative & Media Buying Agency Managing $5M/month+ in YouTube Ad Traffic
P.S. Want to help us promote this YouTube ads guide to your email list? Message me on
LinkedIn (I love helping people who promote our stuff.)
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@CoachDeb
[…] Go here to see a full breakdown of the YouTube ad script framework we use […]
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[…] more info on writing your YouTube ad scripts, go here for our full breakdown on how to research and write YouTube video ad […]
WHOA! Dude!
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Impressive.
@CoachDeb
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[…] 2020 Youtube Ads Guide […]
[…] We’ve talked at length about how important those first five seconds of your YouTube ad are in our full guide to YouTube ads. […]
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