Performance Marketing

5 Best Practices for YouTube Influencer Campaigns

Josh Todd

YouTubeVideo is one of the fastest growing marketing vehicles out there. In fact, video advertising is up 41.9% this year—on target to rake in $5.96 billion as reported by eMarketer. Some of the main reasons why advertisers are putting their money in video is because they are able to reach their target market more efficiently, leading to increased conversion rates. Compared to other digital advertising vehicles, video is a much more dynamic medium which enables potential customers to interact in ways they can’t with typical search and display ads.

A new report by AoL Platforms, cites YouTube as the most effective of all social networks when it comes to paid social ad campaigns. Generating a 14% conversion rate, it’s the most successful medium for introducing new products. As the second largest search engine in the world, YouTube is quickly becoming a large part of many advertisers’ media plans.

One of the most exciting ways to get the word out about your product on YouTube is by leveraging influencers. Gaming, health/beauty, and consumer products are just a few verticals that are seeing huge success on YouTube currently. Utilizing HasOffers, you can effectively measure the results of your campaigns and optimize them for even greater results. Here are some things to keep in mind when working with YouTube influencers.

1. Use TinyURLs

Tracking links can get a bit long and ugly by nature. There are multiple parameters on the end, and they can easily break when copied & pasted multiple times. To solve this and shorten your URL, you can use TinyURLs to place in your YouTube videos. Simply check the box for “Generate TinyURL” when you create your tracking link.

Use Tiny URLs

2. Set the video name as a Sub ID

If you have many different videos, it is important to keep track of which ones are sending the most traffic (and sales) to your offer. To facilitate this, you can add a Sub ID onto your tracking link with your video name in it. If you want to get even more detailed, you can add up to five Sub IDs on each tracking link. In addition to video name, you can measure things like where the link is located (description, annotation, etc.). These are completely optional, but the more data you have about your campaigns, the more likely you are to succeed.

Video Name as SubID

3. Add annotations & call-outs in the video

To increase the chance that visitors will click your links, you want to put them where they can see them! Annotations are a great way to do this. You can place links inside of an annotation along with whatever text you desire. Taking this concept one step further, influencers can create a call-out in the video itself, where they verbally ask people to click on the link. The most common example of this is when influencers ask their viewers to subscribe to their channel at the end of a video.

Video Annotations

4. Paste your link within the first two lines of the video description

Following the theme of tip #3, your visitors need to see your links in order to click them. The video description is a fantastic place to put the link as well, but it’s important to make sure it appears within the first two lines of text. That way, the link will appear next to the video in the search results, before visitors even view the video!

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5. Give your audience a discount

Finally, for one last sure-fire way to increase your clicks, offer your audience a discount. Even 5-10% off the price of your product should be incentive enough for people to click through. This really allows influencers to add some value to the equation, and your visitors will have a good reason to buy now as opposed to later.

YouTube continues to evolve as a traffic source, and there are many other video sites following in its footsteps (I’m looking at you, Vimeo and Vine). Hone your tactics now, start tracking your influencer campaigns on an affiliate tracking platform like TUNE, and watch your marketing efforts reap the rewards for years to come.

Author
Josh Todd

Josh Todd, TUNE's VP of Product, is an innovative product management leader with 12 years of experience in the partner marketing industry. Prior to TUNE, Josh ran an early mobile-focused affiliate network, wrote a marketing blog, and generated thousands of leads for advertisers via targeted media buys.

One response to “5 Best Practices for YouTube Influencer Campaigns”

  1. Wilmer Abreu says:

    Amazing Josh 🙂 Wilmer Abreu Here …

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