With More People at Home and Online, Video Consumption Jumps

Video has always been a valuable advertising channel, but it's become even more so with the recent influx of statewide stay-at-home orders. People are turning to video as their primary entertainment source. In fact, according to Nielsen, when consumers are forced to stay at home, they watch up to 60% more content online.

Through data compiled on the Netsertive platform, we’ve observed that consumers are not only spending more time online, they’re watching more video ads—and watching them to completion.

What Does that Mean for Companies Right Now?

This surge in viewership signals a dynamic opportunity for advertisers to cost-effectively engage with consumers through advertising on YouTube. In fact, we’ve seen some pretty compelling insights from our platform over the last 60 days:

• Increase in view rate - While YouTube.com usage is up 15%, Netsertive’s data shows a 31.5% increase in view rate for videos on the platform as more people are staying at home and consuming more content online than ever before.
• Decrease in cost - Many companies have decreased their marketing budget as a result of the pandemic, resulting in less ad competition on YouTube.

Not only are people spending more time on different online platforms, they are actually engaging more while using them since attention isn't being pulled elsewhere. Advertisers can take advantage of this by advertising where their users are spending more time, with less competition, on YouTube.

This can be a huge opportunity for brands and other businesses to get in front of a large audience and make their ad spend go farther.

How to Shift Your Video Advertising Strategy

Now is the time to shift gears by better targeting your video advertising to reach these consumers where it counts. If you have a large video asset library—or work with a provider who can turn one around for you—it’s time to get moving. Here are two ways to adjust your video advertising strategy:

Build Brand Awareness

With so many consumers shifting the way they take in online content, brands have a great opportunity to stay top-of-mind with key audiences as they wait for them to rejoin the market. By keeping your brand front and center for qualified consumers, you’ll position yourself positively so that potential consumers think of you when they’re ready to spend again.

In addition, advertisers should consider reevaluating their strategy from what was running pre-COVID. This is a great time to build brand awareness and reach new customers with tactics like topical targeting and affinity audiences:

• News: People are regularly turning to the news for updates and this is applicable both through traditional TV and digital outlets.
• Fitness: With gyms being closed, people are turning to YouTube for home workouts.

Advertisers can use this time to build awareness and build up a great retargeting list that they can market to once things start to get back to normal.

Focus on Retargeting

When it comes to your campaign retargeting, there are a couple of different tactics you can implement to better reach qualified customers. It all depends on how your website is set up and what pages you’re sending traffic to via your ads. Here are a few examples of what you can do to retarget potential customers:

• If your business is running specials, build a list of site visitors and serve them targeted display ads featuring promotions you’re running. This is especially effective for the automotive industry, as these business pages have a dedicated Financing page. Right now, lots of dealerships are doing no payments for 120 days. If you’re running any similar promotions, target site visitors who have visited your “financing page” with these ads.
• Retail stores and businesses can retarget site visitors who have viewed specific products, or types of products, and serve them ads highlighting similar products or promotions related to the original product.
• Are you offering virtual consultations? Retarget site users with messaging around your consultation offerings. Many customers across different industries are still shopping for products and services, and a free consultation is a great way to get the conversation started.

Refining your ads right now, as you make weekly or daily changes to your business, can help increase performance and impact.

While these are great strategies to implement right now, they don’t have to wait! In fact, our team is currently working with businesses to enact these retargeting strategies to help bring in new and returning customers. As long as you have messaging in place, we can help you distribute effective ads across every valuable channel.

If you have special promotions or deals going on, let us know! We’ll help you update your ads and retarget appropriately to bring in new business and keep your pipeline strong throughout the pandemic.

How to Prepare Your Brand for the Market to Reopen

By taking advantage of YouTube’s advertising, advertisers can prime themselves for a comeback once the market reopens. You’ll have a warm audience to continue retargeting and drive to your location, and you’ll keep yourself top of mind for when they’re ready to spend.

Have a question about how to adjust your video advertising? Reach out to our team for a free consultation.

‍