Vinny the Marketer

YOUTUBE VSFACEBOOK

AND THE POWER TIPS TO UP YOUR SEO RANKINGS ACROSS PLATFORMS

By Vincent Markesino “Vinny the Marketer”

BASICS

Creation of content can be a tricky thing, for some this comes natural for others it will be forced. Either way as long as content is being created it has to go somewhere: typically, YouTube and Facebook.

The issue is that most content creators will treat these two platforms the same: The two platforms couldn’t be more different; when people go to YouTube, they’re usually going there to do something specific. But on Facebook, people just scroll through the newsfeed until something catches their eye.

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine, while your Facebook videos disappear from the newsfeed after a couple days.

YouTube doesn’t consider auto plays as “views,” whereas Facebook videos autoplay in the newsfeed (without sound) and record views after 3 seconds.

If you are not to familiar with YouTube, please see attached handout called “Basic Setup.”

YouTube and Facebook have different contexts. Facebook videos tend to perform better when they’re quite short, whereas longer videos perform better on YouTube.

When people go to Facebook, they’re looking to stumble across something interesting in their feed. It’s a distraction-rich environment, filled with shiny objects.

While YouTube also offers plenty of distractions, users ultimately must choose which videos to watch. So, in theory, YouTube users have longer attention spans, capitalize on that.

Both platforms use an algorithm that dictates how much exposure your video will ultimately get. That is ultimately the system that dictates your paid reach when you run an ad.

Facebook rewards shorter videos, because people are more likely to like and share a short video than a long one. As a result of that kind of engagement, your Facebook video will get increased exposure in the newsfeed. Comments and interactions will also revitalize the effect increasing the length of this exposure.

YouTube, on the other hand, prioritizes “watch time,” or amount of time people spend on YouTube after watching your video. That means longer videos will outperform shorter videos in YouTube’s search and suggested video algorithms, as long as they’re engaging enough for viewers.

Key Difference: Facebook prefers shorter videos (>60 sec) while YouTube prefers longer videos (5+ min)

CONTENT SELECTION

Content selection is another important difference between the two platforms.

On YouTube, you should be creating tutorials, coaching videos, how-to’s, and other “in-depth” content that offers a lot of value. This type of content is what people search for on YouTube, so you want to be providing it to help your videos rank in YouTube search results.

Facebook, however, isn’t the right environment for in-depth content. Here it makes more sense to share essential concepts, answer FAQs, and other simple ideas that can be communicated quickly and don’t need to be followed along with.

Facebook is also a better environment for your promotional videos, whereas YouTube, by nature of being a search engine, is not a good environment for direct selling.

Key Difference: YouTube is for practical, step-

by-step information, while Facebook requires

 more concept-oriented content to

be successful.

The dominant style to remember on YouTube is a person talking directly to camera and encouraging interaction with the video player by pointing out buttons and annotations.

Not only do those in-video features not exist on Facebook, but the talking head style doesn’t make a lot of sense because Facebook videos auto-play without any sound.

Captions can help you when you’re re-purposing videos onto Facebook, but now you’re asking your viewers to read (which kinda defeats the purpose, right?).

So in a perfect world, you’d use some kind of visual cue to encourage Facebook video viewers to click for sound, Like an inserted gif in the video or a message that is embedded like “MUCH BETTER WITH SOUND.”

Key Difference: The talking head videos you see on YouTube simply don’t perform as well on Facebook because of the silent auto play and attention span of those users. With Facebook you need a visual cue to encourage people to click for sound, or use a video style that doesn’t require sound at all.

Call-To-Action (CTA)

The way you ask viewers to take action on Facebook and YouTube are very different.

On Facebook, you’re typically encouraging viewers to like, comment, share, or click. But you’re not asking them to subscribe or to click and watch another video.

If you’re going to be sharing the same video on Facebook and YouTube, I recommend that you set up your “end card” (CTA slide) at the end of your video so that it’s consistent between the two platforms. For example, ask your followers to like, comment, share, or click on Facebook, and only show annotations and a subscribe button when you’re uploading the video to YouTube, or use the end screen annotations to link the two platforms together (YouTube to Facebook only).

Key Difference: Facebook doesn’t have subscribers or in-video links to other videos. Make sure your CTA slides at the end of your video are customized to the platform you plan to share your video on.

HOW WHO SEES WHAT

YouTube videos are like magnets, while Facebook videos are like megaphones. Facebook is all about pushing content out, while YouTube tries to pull viewers in.

The distinction may be subtle, but it’s significant.

Your YouTube videos are primarily found through searches on YouTube and Google, or as suggestions from YouTube based on the video you’re currently watching. That means your videos can have a very long shelf-life and drive views and leads for potentially years into the future.

Conversely, your Facebook videos are initially limited because they only get exposed to a small percentage of your Facebook fans (<10% - The Pay Wall). However, if that video gets strong engagement, then you could potentially get a large amount of exposure with your existing audience, as well as some of their friends.

Key Difference: Facebook videos are like candy, while YouTube videos are more like toys. They might both be a lot of fun, but the toys last far longer.

ANALYTICS VS ENGAGEMENT

This all goes back to how Facebook and YouTube count views. YouTube has a long term ROI where as Facebooks ROI is more like a firework.

Facebook videos auto play in the newsfeed and record views every time someone hovers over the video on screen for more than 3 seconds. That means that most likely, a ton of the views you’re getting aren’t actual views. 

Maybe someone was looking at the meme above or below your video, resulting in an accidental view (typically Facebooks parameters make it clear if you are watching a video or looking at a picture but who knows).

With YouTube, your views are all authentic, and therefore, more valuable. When someone watches your video on YouTube, it means they chose to watch it.

From an analytics and engagement rate perspective, you should expect better results on your YouTube videos because there isn’t a ton of data pollution from inadvertent “views.”

One example that comes up a lot is the average audience retention, or the percentage of the video that is viewed by an average viewer. On YouTube, typically retention rates are above 60%, while Facebook viewers typically watch under 15%.

Because of how they measure engagement so differently, you should never compare the two or view one platform as objectively better based on metrics like this.

Key Difference: The biggest takeaway here is that you need to evaluate your Facebook videos and YouTube videos separately. Compare your Facebook videos to other Facebook videos and NEVER to your YouTube videos. You won’t get quality insights by comparing apples to oranges.

KEYWORDS-SEED WORDS- LONGTAILS

A long one is better than a short one, how to get your SEO tracking for #1 rankings.

THE IDEA

Let's say your website sells shoes. You might think that shoes, or even men's shoes or women's shoes, would be good keywords to target.

But the competition to get a page #1 ranking for those keywords will be enormous and if your site is new and you don't have hundreds of high quality backlinks, the task will be almost impossible.

If you’re doing Pay Per Click (PPC) and you’re a small business, you simply won’t have the budget that the big companies are able to throw at those keywords.

But what about ‘men's Nike tennis shoes’?

That’s a good example of a long tail keyword and you've got a much better chance of ranking quickly for that keyword than for a shorter, more generic keyword. If you’re doing PPC, that’s a keyword you can probably afford to bid on.

How to Find Long Tail Keywords

How to use Long Tail Keywords to get more traffic to your website. There are a number of tools for finding long tail keywords. Some of these tools are free, others are paid: ‘Long Tail’ as a metaphor for the distribution graph of demand in the new economy.

Our economy is shifting from a mass market focused on ‘one-size-fits-all’ products to a market dominated by millions of niches.

The theory of the long tail predicts: that when supply is not constrained by distribution and storage factors, the overwhelming weight of demand shifts away from the ‘head’ towards the ‘tail’.

And when there are no restrictions on shelf-space and supply, the tail is very long indeed. In other words, the market has changed from a focus on relatively few ‘best-selling’ items to a market that serves millions of individual niches.

Each of those niches might be quite a small percentage of the total demand but the sheer scale of the internet means that it is now profitable to service those niches.

Basically, long tail keywords are niche keywords. The theory of long tail predicts an explosion in niche markets.

The Niche keywords are natural search terms relevant to your product or service.

FACT: 70% of all search terms are long tail keywords.

The head of the curve, where the ‘best-seller’ keywords (sometimes called 'direct keywords') are located, accounts for only 10% to 15% of searches. Another 10% to 15% of searches come from medium length keywords.

 As you move along the distribution curve, from left to right, demand decreases but your share of that demand increases because there is less competition.

Free Tools

Google Auto Suggest

A good free tool for finding good long tail keywords is Google Auto Suggest.

Have you ever noticed that when you start typing in a search query Google comes up with suggestions even before you’ve finished typing?

Let’s take the example of ‘mens shoes’. Go to Google and type in ‘mens shoes’.

Google Auto Suggest creates three possible long tails for you: ‘mens shoes online’, ‘mens shoes brisbane’, and ‘mens shoes australia’.

Here’s a neat trick: put a space and an underscore between two of your keywords and Google will insert a suggested term for you.

In the example below, I typed in ‘mens nike _ shoes’ and Google came up with four possibilities:

• mens nike running shoes
• mens nike basketball shoes
• mens nike tennis shoes
• mens nike golf shoes

You can use the underscore anywhere you like. Try putting it at the beginning of your search query:

Or at the end:

If you want to drill down deeper and get a longer, more specific long tail keyword, click on one of the Google Auto Suggestions. In this instance I'm going to click on 'mens nike shoes sale'.

Place your cursor back in the search box and you'll see that Google has come up with some even longer keywords: 

You can keep doing this to get longer and more descriptive keywords.

It’s good to remember that these Google Auto Suggest keywords are not simply hypothetical possibilities - they are keywords that searchers have actually typed into Google.

Another way to use Google Auto Suggest is to type in your root keyword and then start a new word beginning with the letter 'a'.

For example, type in ‘mens tennis shoes a’:

Google suggests:

• mens tennis shoes Australia
• mens tennis shoes amazon
• mens tennis shoes adidas
• mens tennis shoes asics

To come up with some great options for long tail keywords, simply go through the alphabet doing this:

Google's 'Searches Related To'

Another tool for finding Long Tail Keywords is the ‘Searches Related To’ box at the foot of the Google Results Page:

I typed in ‘mens nike tennis shoes’ and the Google gave me eight related search terms:

• nike womens tennis shoes
• nike tennis shoes sale
• nike tennis shoes clearance
• nike tennis shoes classic
• nike tennis shoes kids
• adidas tennis shoes
• nike tennis shoes india
• nike tennis shoes Australia

3^rd Party Apps to Check Key Words

Soovle

Soovle is an engine that combines the Auto Suggestions of Google, Bing, Amazon, Answers.com, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and YouTube.

It’s a powerful tool for coming up with yet more long tail keywords.

Uber Suggest

Uber Suggest basically does the process described above for using Google Auto Suggest but does it on steroids.

It takes whatever keyword you type in and goes through the alphabet, adding a letter at the end.

Answer the Public is a fairly interesting keyword tool and is based much more on semantics, or the rules of meaning, than other keyword tools.

It combines your root word with prepositions to come up with a huge array of logical possibilities.

For example, if you type in ‘mens shoes’ Answer The Public combines that keyword with the prepositions ‘how’, ‘are’, ‘where’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, and ‘why’, and comes up with categories of suggestions based on those prepositions.

NOW LET’S TALK TARGETING

Ultimately you will understand your target audience best but sometimes a visual understanding is best, below is an info-graphic that will explain YouTube targeting options.

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED INFO-GRAPHIC MARKED “VTM YOUTUBE TARGETING”

Or if you are very unfamiliar with Social Media Targeting please review the Basic Targeting Handout called “Basic Targeting”

Please Review the Check List on this Page.

AD FORMATS

Google explains YouTube ads have the potential to “increase the millennial audience your video ads reach by 42%, multiply engagement by 10X, and boost views of past videos by 500%.”

Do I have your attention yet?

Good. Now let’s take a deeper look.

You have options when it comes to YouTube ads.

While some display and banner ads can be purchased directly through YouTube, we’re focusing solely on video display ads.

These are run through Google AdWords, and come in three formats:

• TrueView In-Stream Ads
• TrueView Discovery Ads
• Bumper Ads

Google explains “TrueView is built on the promise that you’ll only pay when someone chooses to watch your video ad.”

It’s meant to specifically target users who are interested in your product; if they aren’t, they’ll simply skip the video, at no charge to you.

But if they’re curious, they’ll watch to completion, and you’ll get more views from an audience you know is interested in what you’re saying or selling.

In fact, “viewers who completed TrueView ads—watched to completion or at least 30 seconds—were 23X more likely to visit or subscribe to a brand channel, watch more by that brand, or share the brand video.”

Now let’s take a look at the options available, and which is right for you

TrueView In-Stream Ads

These are likely the ads you’re most familiar with.

In-Stream ads run before or during another video. Viewers are able to choose to continue watching or skip the ad after 5 seconds.

The benefit here is that you only pay if a viewer watches for at least 30 seconds or until the end of the ad (whichever is shorter), or clicks on a card or other element of your in-stream creative.

The trick is that you need to make those first 5 seconds as intriguing as possible.

Major Benefits: These are great for getting as many views as possible, because they are imposed on the viewer. If maximum exposure is your goal, go for in-stream.

Possible Drawbacks: The possible ad annoyance factor is increased here, since viewers are forced to watch at least 5 seconds and therefore may be tempted to skip as soon as possible.

TrueView Discovery Ads

Formerly known as In-Display ads, these appear alongside other YouTube videos, in YouTube search pages or on the Google Display Network that match your target audience.

In-Display ads will appear differently depending on where they run. For example, in the YouTube watch page they can appear in the related video section, or as an overlay on the video you’re watching.

The beauty here is that you only pay for these when someone clicks on your ad to view it.

Google recommends using call-to-action (CTA) overlays on the videos to drive users to the site.

Major Benefits: Because these aren’t required viewing, only those with a genuine interest in your service will click, giving you a more solid viewer base likely to subscribe to your channel.

Possible Drawbacks: Overall exposure may be limited, as it requires more action on the viewer’s part.

Bumper Ads

Bumper ads appear before other videos and are six seconds or less. Viewers aren’t given the option to skip these ads.

Advertisers pay for bumper ads per impression.

While six seconds may not seem like much time, Google explains “while Bumpers are short on time, they’re long on impact. We tested over 300 Bumper campaigns this year and found that 9 out of 10 drove a significant lift in ad recall.”

Major Benefits: YouTube recommends using these ads when “you’d like to reach viewers broadly with a short, memorable message,” therefore making them ideal for upper-funnel goals like ad recall and awareness.

Possible Drawbacks: These also have the potential to frustrate viewers, as they aren’t given the option to skip.

Which Ad is Right for You?

Ultimately, the format you choose will depend on your goals.

If you’re going solely for maximum exposure, in-stream is your best bet. If you’re going for a solid subscriber base, in-display may be more your style.

You’ll want to experiment with each format to determine which best fits with your strategy.

We’ve tried them all and had success with each, but to reach the most amount of people we  like the in-stream option because it allows people to watch your ad without even having to click on it.

Setting Up Your Ad

YouTube ads must be run through Google AdWords, so that’s where you’ll start.

Go to the campaigns section of AdWords, click on “+campaign,” and select video from the dropdown menu.

First, you’ll want to give your campaign a name that is easy to identify.

The next step is choosing which ad format you’d like to run. For this example, we’ll go with In-stream ads.

Then we get to the budget. Specifically, the amount you’re willing to spend per day. It doesn’t need to be a big figure, and we generally recommend starting small if you’re new to YouTube ads.

Next up is networks. Here you have the option to choose if you want your ad to show up in YouTube Search, YouTube Videos, or Video Partners in the Display Network.

Google explains the choices:

• YouTube Search shows YouTube ads on YouTube search results pages. You can use video discovery ads only.

• YouTube Videos shows video ads on the YouTube homepage, watch and channel pages. You can use in-stream ads, video discover ads and bumper ads.

• Video Partners extends the reach of video ads to a collection of sites and apps in the Google Display Network (GDN). You can use in-stream ads, video discover ads and bumper ads.

You’ll then choose a location. This can extremely broad, “all countries and territories,” relatively broad, “United States and Canada,” or targeted by state, city, zip code, etc. using advanced filters.

The location you choose will depend on your goals.

If you want to get as many views as possible and boost popularity or have international customers, you’ll want to choose a broad range. On the other hand, you’ll want to target down if you’re trying to drive direct sales in a certain area.

Afterwards you’ll select your campaign start and end date under Advanced Settings.

This will go back to your allotted budget. Say you’ve elected to spend $50 a day, with an overall budget of $200; you’ll only want to run your campaign for four days to avoid going over budget.

You also have the option to select specific days and times to run your ad.

The next stage is selecting the ad you’d like to run. You’ll first to need to make sure that video is uploaded to YouTube, then copy and paste the video URL.

Then you’ll select your chosen Video ad format: in-stream, discover ad or bumper ad. If you do choose discovery ad, you’ll also have the chance to select a thumbnail and copy for your ad.

Next comes bidding. This is the amount you’re willing to spend per view of your ad and will depend heavily on your targeting. Generally, bid amounts range from .3 cents to .15 cents.

The next – and perhaps most difficult – part of the process is targeting.

Google offers and explains the following targeting methods:

• Demographic: These are the traditional filters such as age, gender, parental status, or household income of the audience you want to reach.

• Interest: You can choose from available audience categories to reach people interested in certain topics, even when they may be visiting pages about other topics.

• Affinity audiences: These allow you to target customers who have expressed interest in products or services similar to the ones you sell.

• Custom affinity audiences: With custom affinity audiences, you can create audiences that are more tailored to your brands using more specific keywords. So instead of a general keyword ‘healthcare’, you could use something like ‘nurse.’

• In-market audiences: These are used to find audiences that already seeking and researching products or services like the one you offer.
• Video remarketing: This allows you to reach audiences who have already interacted with your videos.
• Placements: You can choose to place your ad on unique channels, videos or apps within websites. Placements can include:

• YouTube channels
• YouTube videos
• Websites on the Display Network
• Apps on the Display Network
• Topics: This allows you to target your videos so you can reach a range of videos, channels and websites related to a selected topic.
• Keywords: You can show your video ads based on words, long tails, or phrases related to a YouTube video, YouTube channel, or type of website that your audience is interested in.

We’ve tried all of them, and all have their merits.

The thing about YouTube is you can get in front of so many people. So oftentimes, we simply go with big branding parameters to get the most exposure.

For example, under interests you would select “business professionals” and “social media enthusiasts” – that’s likely a few million people. And that’s it for targeting.

Of course, your goal may be entirely different, so make sure you scale your targeting to your specific needs.

From there, click on Save Ad Group, and your ad is ready to go.

So, You Can Make an Ad. Now What do You Put in it?

Like any other kind of marketing, this will depend heavily on your target audience.

This is where all your homework into buyer persona and psychology comes into play. Know your audience’s interests and motivations, and you’ll be much closer to knowing what kind of videos will appeal to them.

Below are a few popular ad formats:

• Talking heads: These are particularly useful for demonstrating thought leadership and industry expertise

• Product Showcase: Video is the ideal way to demonstrate the many impressive features of a product. After all, Online shoppers who view demo videos are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers (DMB Adobe), and 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it (Animoto).

• Storytelling: Think of movie trailers. They attract viewers by telling a story — quickly — and leaving them with just enough plot to want more. Consider taking a similar approach with your ads.

Whichever way you decide to go, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Play up your strengths. Always answer the question: why should viewers be interested in your brand? Tell them why it’s unique and why it’s worth more than 5 or 6 seconds of their time.

• Cut to the chase. Don’t make viewers wait to find out why your brand’s so great. Try to hook their attention within the first 5 seconds.

• Get Creative With ad formats. Embrace the different formats and what they can offer. For example, Geico got around the ‘skip’ feature by making an ‘unskippable’ ad. They made their point in 5 seconds and ended with “You can’t skip this GEICO ad … because it’s already over.”

• Use a Call-to-action. Tell viewers what you want from them, whether it’s to subscribe to your channel or click through to your website.

• Have a plan. Make sure your video is well thought out, scripted, and professional. If you’re going the talking head route, make sure your on-screen character is engaging and well-spoken.

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Vinny the Marketer