Global system, local impact

Many signs are saying that the days of conventional cable television are numbered. Ever since the rise of Tivo and DVR, consumers no longer accept a schedule for when they can watch their favorite shows. And with online streaming services dominating the market, it’s no surprise that people are “cutting the cord” and ditching their cable services in droves.

Leading the charge in this new frontier of visual media is the massively popular video sharing community YouTube. According to internal communications at Google, which purchased YouTube in 2006, the video streaming service reaches more people ages 18-49 in America than any major U.S. cable network. Additionally, the number of daily viewers on YouTube has increased 40 percent year over year since March 2014, according to YouTube press statistics.

With that kind of volume, YouTube presents an enormous market of potential customers. Advertisers are starting to realize this, and as a result, running a professional YouTube channel as a “partner” is a fast-growing and lucrative career path, as companies are paying to have their ads run before or during videos from channels with established audiences.

But can a local or regional garden retailer take advantage of this growing media segment and its young, loyal audience? One of the Google’s most popular advertising services (used extensively on YouTube) may provide an answer.

Known as TrueView, this service targets advertisements to viewers, who then choose to either skip the ad or continue watching. Advertisers aren’t charged by Google unless someone chooses to watch the ad, cutting down on wasted ad dollars. Jim Habig, product marketing manager for YouTube, said in a video demonstration of TrueView that YouTube visitors who opt in for ads are ten times more likely to share advertising content and subscribe to a brand channel.

To be a part of the TrueView process, companies that want to reach YouTube viewers in their area will need a video ad to start with — this could be done in-house or with an advertising agency. Once an independent garden center has content to put on YouTube, they just need to upload it onto a company channel and start a Google AdWords campaign (TrueView is a service under the umbrella of the AdWords brand). In AdWords, advertisers can set a budget for what they want to spend on each view the ad gets and select a target audience through a variety of campaign tools. Similar to TrueView, companies using AdWords that appear on Google search results only pay when their ad is clicked on.

Advertisers can enter specific audience demographics, including age, interests and even geographic location. These factors determine an ad’s cost per view [CPV]. AdWords gives users several tips and strategies for minimizing CPV and maximizing viewer engagement, such as adjusting bids and expanding targeting.

If you’ve ever been curious about branching out into one of the most relevant and popular online media in use today and are in a position to produce or commission video advertisements, the time may be right to look into advertising on YouTube.