When it comes to search volume, it might surprise a lot of people to know that YouTube is the number 2 search engine in the world behind Google. Even with this incredible statistic, many digital marketers overlook it when creating their holistic online strategies. The truth is, YouTube is really easy to advertise on. Because it’s often overlooked, it can be quite cheap too!

I want to share with you a couple of secrets to success on YouTube, and in the process hopefully give you some ideas to try yourself when thinking about your overall campaign direction.

1). YouTube is a Search Engine:

YouTube, as with Google, Yahoo or Bing, is a search engine. The main difference is that its results are videos. With this in mind, when building a YouTube campaign, treat it like your Google AdWords campaign. Select relevant keywords which will likely result in high quality searches where you want your ads to display.

2) Choose the Right Ad Format:

There are several main types of ads that YouTube will show. Depending on your advertising goals will determine which type you will use. For the most part you will probably be looking at either in stream or in display ad formats.

In stream are the ads that appear before a video on YouTube. More often than not you have five seconds to grab the attention of your target before they have the option to skip the ad. For videos longer than 30 seconds, you will be charged when the viewer watches beyond the 30 second mark of your video. For videos shorter than 30 seconds, you will be charged when the video has been watched in it’s entirety.

In display ads appear as a search result or in the suggested video tab on the right hand side of YouTube. These ads are charged per click (when someone decides to watch the video and clicks on the link).

In my opinion success in a YouTube campaign is mainly determined at this point. If you have an informative but non-engaging video, then in stream ads will probably only serve to disrupt your targets primary goal (which is to watch the video they’ve clicked on). For in stream to work well, I would suggest short, sharp, snappy videos which surprise and engage -- something out of the box which keeps people guessing and encourages them to watch on until the final message.

In display ads are probably more of your traditional ‘Google search’ style results and would work well for a ‘How to’ or a ‘Don’t try this at home, call the experts’ kind of video ad.

3) Running the Campaign

Building and running a campaign can all be done through Google AdWords. Simply create a new campaign and in the drop down menu outlining which type of campaign you want to run, simply choose a video campaign. AdWords will then link up with the YouTube channel associated with your email address and then you will be able to link your uploaded videos to your AdWords account and manage bids and targeting through that interface.

YouTube can be a fantastic out of the box tool to help build brand awareness and engagement. There is so much you can do if you begin to get creative with how you approach your YouTube advertising and the best part about it is that it is simple and cheap!