People watch over a billion hours of video on YouTube each day, generating billions of views. For the viewers, it’s plain entertainment. But for digital marketers, it’s an opportunity.
Having a YouTube ad is an excellent way to establish or maintain your company’s presence on the biggest video platform. That’s why marketers constantly optimize their video campaigns to remain one step ahead of their competitors.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can improve your cost per view (CPV) and your video campaign to perform better in video ad exchange systems. In a hurry? No worries. Here’s a summary video:
Evaluating Your CPV
Cost per view is a method of charging video ads based on the number of views and interactions. It means that each time someone views your video ad for about 30 seconds or interacts with it by clicking an embedded link, you will be charged a certain rate.
It’s important to understand that on YouTube, you may be charged even for ads that were not viewed. When a person clicks your ad, a payout is already triggered. If your ad costs on YouTube are increasing, it doesn’t necessarily mean more people viewed your ad; it may also mean more people clicked your ad.
To properly maximize your CPV, it is important to evaluate where you currently are.
- Are your CPVs increasing over time?
- Have you been paying for more views than you were expecting?
These are just some of the questions you should ask to determine the status of your CPV.
Let’s say your CPV has been on the rise for some time. An increasing CPV could mean creative fatigue, or users are simply getting tired of your video ad.
You can lower the frequency of your ad campaigns or create multiple video ads of the same product and rotate them. This way, you will have enough variety in your video campaign and your audience will not easily get tired of the same ad.
Meanwhile, declining CPVs could indicate less competition in the market. In this situation, you may have a chance to gain some views at a lower cost.
By tracking and evaluating the status of your CPV, you’ll be able to determine any shortcomings that you need to improve or find advantages you currently have and maintain them.
Expand Your Targeting
Specific targeting can narrow down your audience, resulting in increased competition and high CPVs. Expanding your target will allow the system to find auctions where your ads and bids are competitive. This can reduce your average CPV.
If a company can deliver products internationally, but their current demographic targeting is set in the US, expanding their target may allow the ad system to find other relevant demographics with less competition and lower CPV.
If your target audience is broad enough, it’s still possible to find valuable bids at a lower CPV by exploring broader targets.
Taking Advantage of View Rate
Views are often considered vanity metrics by digital marketers and online resources like Quick Sprout. While this may be true in some ways, views or view rates are important for YouTube ad campaigns.
View rate can influence Google to help you win auctions and pay a lower CPV. A video with a healthy VR convinces the search engine that you are providing a good user experience. It allows Google to lower the CPV and help your video campaign perform better in ad exchange systems by winning more auctions.
The view rate can also help determine how effective your ad targeting is. A low view rate could mean the ad is being shown to people not in your target audience. That’s probably why they skip the ad.
It can also help you confirm if the quality of the video content is affecting the campaign. You may be targeting the right audience, but if the quality of your content is not good enough, you can expect lower view rates.
Optimizing Your Ad Campaigns
Optimizing ads and getting the most out of your CPV is not always easy. But marketers will realize that ignoring the potential rewards of these two advertising elements would be a big oversight.
While these steps will get you closer to a better ad campaign, it is important to review stats produced by your existing campaigns. You can then use that data to make an educated decision that will help you better optimize your campaign.
Changing the Face of Video Advertising
You can expand your ad opportunities with Aniview. We’re dedicated to changing the face of video advertising through innovative technology.
Contact us today to discover why global publishers, networks, and advertisers choose our ad exchange platform.