YouTube is not only a social platform, but it’s also THE video social platform. On top of that, it is the second largest search engine. If we match those statements with the rise of video as the most engaging type of content around, optimizing every video to rank on YouTube is a no-brainer.
Video content is the most successful type of content on social media.
Every company should consider video as the main focus of its media strategy. If you’re still not convinced, here are some statistics that can change your mind.
For starters, YouTube has over 30 million active users daily. Not just that, more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and processes more than 3 billion searches a month.
YouTube Videos are not only the most watched type of content.
it’s also shared more times than text posts, images, podcasts and links combined! If you want to talk about sales, almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.
These statistics are also reflected on the ROI results, as 52% of marketing professionals worldwide claim that video is the type of content with the best ROI.
Keyword research
Let’s start by explaining what keyword research is: A Keyword is a word or phrase that potential users utilize to find a specific type of content. Finding the right keywords is a basic element of every SEO Strategy. Think about how you, as a user, find something online.
You basically type keywords that help display useful content.
If you’re a beginner in the world of keyword research, Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a useful resource for building strong keyword lists and helping to get your PPC campaign off to a running start. We must add that there are two types of keywords: broad keywords and long-tail keywords. In the following table from WDR, you can find out why the latter is recommended:
Optimizing Video Elements
Tags: Tags are another basic compound for an effective SEO strategy. As Keywords, tags help your audience with understanding what your video is all about and they should be arranged and selected strategically by relevance. Also, every tag should be directly related to your video content and to your keywords.
Despite what the competition is up to, there are 3 types of tags that you should consider using: 1) specific tags; 2) compound tags: and 3) generic tags.
Also, creating Default Tags increases your chances for showing up in the suggested results.
YouTube Video Description
Writing a solid video description leads to valuable information that helps viewers find your videos in the search results and understand what they’ll be watching. Well-written descriptions are a key to boosting views and watch time, as it helps your video to be searchable for YouTube’s search engine.
Video descriptions allow you to add playlists, time stamps and creator credits which are valuable elements for your viewers. you can even add links to your Facebook, Instagram, blog or website so that viewers can discover your content on other platforms. As with your Titles, you should add your keywords to your video description.
It´s also convenient to add a link to your website within the first few lines. So if a user watches the video and wants to know more, or goes to your site, they can find it quickly. This video from YouTube Creators Academy describes tips to write effective descriptions:
YouTube Title
Your title selection will help YouTube understand what your video is all about, and at the same time, help users find what they’re looking for. Each one of your titles should describe your video, be clickable and catch users attention. It is important to use keywords in your title and it should always be related to your content.
Think about it, your title and thumbnail is the very first element that viewers are going to see before clicking on your video, and it’s the main potential factor which is going to help your channel attract more subscribers and viewers.
In the following video you can learn how to write attractive titles on YouTube:
Thumbnails
Thumbnails are small clickable images for your YouTube videos. Thumbnails should work side-by-side with your title and video description to reflect your content so that viewers can find what they’re searching for. If you don’t do so, then you’re not committing on showing viewers what they wanted to watch in the first place, and you’re going to lose credibility, audience retention and subscribers.
When you start making your thumbnails, consider that the custom resolution is 1920px*1080px. The image that you should use for your thumbnail should be from the actual video or something that represents what the video is about. You can also add text to your thumbnail, which should be related to your video content, title, keywords and video description.
What are the best types of marketing videos to rank on YouTube
To rank better on YouTube, some videos work better than others. Some examples of the best types of videos to rank on YouTube are educational videos, explainer videos, how-to-videos, company story videos, product videos and testimonial videos. If you have different products for distinct audiences you’re going to develop specific content adapted to their needs.
You can’t expect to use the same video for different users and expect brilliant results in all cases. So, the first step is selecting your goals and strategy, secondly, identify your audience and then select the best types of videos according to your analysis. At last, we must say that the most shared videos are those that trigger emotions from viewers.
Think about what you usually share, most of those videos are funny or emotional. So always keep in mind that the most shared videos are those that generate empathy with users.
Whether it is a funny, inspiring or emotional video, it will always rank better than a video that only talks about a product or service.
How long should the video be?
Did you know that humans have short attention spans? If you didn’t, you should take into account two basic statistics:
- 65% of video viewers watch at least two-thirds of a video; and
- Only 20% of users read an article from start to finish.
This means that video still wins over text content, but this doesn’t mean that you can make a 20-minute video.
You should also be strategic when it comes to video length. We can confirm that videos up to 2 minutes long have the most engagement as it shows on the statistic chart below:
Which means that if you make a video shorter than 2 minutes, it’s going to hold viewers attention more than a 3-minute video. If you even have a 1-minute video, and you can make it shorter, don’t doubt on making that video even shorter and more effective!
How to hook the audience
Although you already know how long your video should be, this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be effective. Your main goal is to hook your audience to maximize the watch times. Explaining what the video is all about from the start can help users understand what they’re going to get, and stay around for it. You should do this in the first 10 seconds.
10 seconds is the average amount of time it takes for a YouTube viewer to decide whether or not they want to watch the rest of your video. It also gives users a reason to watch a video until the end.
For example, If your video is a recipe, you can tell your viewers to keep watching because at the end of the video you’re going to reveal a secret ingredient. On the other hand, engagement depends on the impact and quality of your content. All of your videos should have the ultimate audio and video quality.
Nowadays, no one is willing to watch a low-quality video. High-quality videos are the most viewed, they are therefore the most shared. And whoever is in the video, should be charismatic, expressive and cheerful. If you’re not a fan of live-action videos, don’t worry, you can use animated videos to talk about your business. In the following video you’re going to find 7 tips for audience retention:
What’s the most important segment of the video?
The first 10 to 15 seconds is the most important segment of your video. So your key message should be in the first few seconds of the video. This is your opportunity to hook viewers, as you should introduce them to what the video is all about and still keep their attention. If you’re making video ads, keeping viewers attention is quite a challenge.
Think about the skip button, it takes 5 seconds to activate, so think wisely when using those first few seconds to attract users to prefer your content over the video that they initially wanted to watch.
The following statistic from Wistia shows that the average 1 or 2-minute video was viewed 70% of the way through, while the average 10-minute video was viewed on average 50% of the way through.
How to create a video for audience retention
Audience retention is the measurement of how much of a video someone watches on YouTube. To identify which of your videos have the highest audience retention and why YouTube offers the Audience Retention Report.
For effective audience retention, you should consider using playlists, cards, and end screens on your videos. These are a great way to drive traffic from one video to another and keep viewers watching by suggesting relevant content.
Playlists are a great resource to keep your videos in order by arranging them by theme.
And, lastly, audio quality, video quality and the narrator’s personality are also relevant aspects when it comes to audience retention.
Call to Action
A call to action is an opportunity to incorporate new subscribers to your channel or lead to other videos from your channel. It has to be present on all of your videos, and it should be at the beginning or middle of your video. As we said before when analyzing audience retention, most drop-offs happen after the first 15 seconds, so don’t leave your call-to-action at the end of your video.
Playlists
Playlists are a vital element of your content strategy and organization of your video content.
There are two types of playlists: series playlists and ordinary playlists. Series Playlists are used for sequential videos, and ordinary playlists are used for organizing your videos based on a specific theme.
Channel Branding
Branding doesn’t end on your video thumbnails or descriptions, your channel must also reflect your business identity. This can help attract potential users and help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. So start by making your YouTube Channel Trailer, develop playlists and design your thumbnails according to your business personality.
It is also important that you share your videos to promote traffic to your channel. You should share your videos on your own blog, website and social media channels. More distribution and places where your video appears means a better YouTube video ranking. There is no better promoter of your company than yourself!
Final Thoughts
Users around the world watch over one billion hours of video every day, this is more than Netflix and Facebook video combined! YouTube also has 1.5 billion monthly active users.
More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
With that said, we can confirm that video is the most effective content for marketing, as it has the highest click-through rate and generates more shares than text and images combined!
So don’t wait any longer and start your video marketing campaign on YouTube. Call Cortex to start the conversation 1-888-502-3523 or set aside some time by booking it here!
This blog was guest written by Victor Blasco, CEO of YumYum Videos. He is also an audiovisual designer and video marketing expert. Aside from running the
business, he loves studying Chinese Philosophy and is a real geek for science fiction
films and comics!
Yum-Yum Videos connect brands and people through customized video content marketing; for every step of the buyer’s journey.