Performance marketers all have one simple goal; create and publish advertising and content that actually drives leads and creates conversions. Creating relevant ads and content can dramatically increase the chances of success, as according to a study by Yahoo, people spend 25% more time fixating on ads that are personally relevant to them versus those that are not. This study also found that the time to first fixation increases by 15% when ads are contextually relevant, which increases the chances that the ad will be stored in long-term-memory and ultimately lead to higher recall. Ultimately, when an ad has both contextual and personal relevance its impact is even more powerful, lending to stronger emotional responses and the likelihood a user will engage with the ad.
For the past few years, YouTube has offered advertisers the option to advertise products before a video, providing marketers options to target ads demographically, geographically, by language, or by targeting specific categories, topics, or even specific YouTube videos. Until recently, though, advertisers wouldn’t necessarily know which video their demographically targeted ad would run in.
That all changed last week when YouTube released the YouTube Trends Map, where you can see today’s most popular videos in major markets across the U.S. You can also see what’s popular with women or men, as well as by different age groups.
For advertisers, this obviously means that now you will know which video your geographically and demographically targeted ad will run in. The important takeaway from this knowledge is that now you – and your content team – will be able to create more relevant ads as YouTube trends change. For example, the most popular YouTube video over this past weekend was “Pumpcast News, Part 1 – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” (Which is quite funny, for those who haven’t seen it.)
Although no ads run before this particular YouTube video, marketers running ads on a trending YouTube video with ads need to consider that their target audience wants to watch the video. Anything delaying the viewer from watching the desired content will by default be deemed annoying. A relevant ad that captures the same subject matter or sense of humor of the trending video might be enough to capture the attention of the viewer – and maybe even distract them enough to engage with the ad before their desired video starts to play.
With the YouTube Trends Map, performance marketers now have a “secret weapon” to help create more relevant content for YouTube advertisements. Marketing teams that can create ads on YouTube that perform well will not only have an edge over other advertisers, but also be a step ahead as video ad units become more available on other platforms, such as Facebook. As with all targeted marketing, it’s critical to understand who you want to reach and what they are interested in, so that your ad is interesting enough to distract the user from what they were looking for – or in the instance of YouTube, watching.
If you’re an advertiser, will you use the YouTube Trends Map as part of your content strategy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Author
Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she led a variety of marketing and communications projects at San Francisco startups. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After living nearly a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned to her home of Charleston, SC, where you can find her enjoying the sun and salt water with her family.
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