Hey there listeners! What’s up? Welcome back to Traffic Jam. This is show#67 of the podcast that teaches you how to get more traffic to your website and build a profitable audience online. I am your host James Reynolds, grateful and excited to have you listening in to the show today, hopefully we’re back in to the groove after a few weeks of intermittent recording. I think we are, I will do my best to keep it that way. And because we are back in the groove, I want to do too much more than jump straight in to the content.

We are going to be talking today about YouTube advertising with Tommie Powers which is super topical and super up to date and relevant because there is a lot of conversation happening about YouTube advertising out there in the community especially at a recent event that I was speaking at, so many people doing great stuff on YouTube especially retargeting. I think that conversation will peak up in this interview.

Now before we get in to the recording of the interview, just a reminder to head on over to TrafficJamCast.com/67 which is the episode page for this show where you’ll find a full transcript of the recording, and MP3 download, plus you’ll also be able to join in on the discussion for this show.

So let’s get straight in to the content. We’re going to be recording today with Tommy Traffic, that’s what he goes by. His name is Tommie Powers and he’s a traffic specialist that really focuses on Google Adwords, Facebook, Bing and YouTube and that is the topic of today’s show.

So, join me in welcoming to Traffic Jam Tommie Powers from tommiepowers.com.

James: So hey there listeners! Welcome back to the interview section of episode#67 of Traffic Jam and today we are joined by Tommie Powers and we are going to be talking about YouTube Advertising. So Tommie, welcome to the call.

Tommie: Thank you James! Thank you!

James: It is good to have you here. Let’s jump straight in. I don’t like to sort of extend the preamble too much. Let’s talk about YouTube, there’s one billion unique visitors each month on YouTube, I guess of which probably 998 million are dudes seeking entertainment in cat videos, literally hovering over the cursor ready to skip the ad button as fast as they can. We’ve all seen YouTube ads, most of us get pretty pissed off by them, why the heck should we be interested in YouTube Advertising?

Tommie: Oh man, you got me cranking up by the cat videos. I mean, exactly what you just said, one billion unique visitors. So when you start talking about all of the video that all of those one billion people consume, you’re talking about a lot of traffic and the reason why you should be paying attention to it, you’ve got to be doing this is because it is the next big thing! The speed of broadband is really increasing around the world and video consumption is going to continually increase as this goes up so that means the eyeballs of people you want to reach are there and currently about 80% of that inventory goes on sale so there is a huge opportunity for you to get in the early stages and take advantage of it while it is still super cheap.

James: Okay, so is that the thing then, there is so much inventory available that the opportunity literally lies in the cost of the traffic probably being literally low because there is few advertisers competing over those inventory placements?

Tommie: You’re absolutely correct!

James: Okay, so let’s talk numbers. Traffic Jam listeners like the cold, hard facts. What sort prices are we talking about on a CPC basis for traffic on YouTube?

Tommie: The thing about YouTube is that they don’t sell traffic on a CPC basis, it is all sold on a cost per view basis so everything that you do you have to look at from a cost per view standpoint simply because technically you can generate clicks but the way that you do that is YouTube is not going to measure, and obviously Google owns them, they are not going to measure any way they charge you or anything related to cost per click or anything like that. If you want those figures, you actually have to figure anything on your own tool. In their dashboard they are only going to show you views, cost per view, and that sort of thing. So when we break it down to cost per view, when you’re talking US/ Canada/ UK/ Australia, like the top tier, you can get it anywhere from five to twelve cents, it’s a good range per view to pay for quality. When you start getting the lower cost per view, typically they run that on lower quality video traffic so if you want the high quality inventory traffic you have to be willing to bid a little higher. That’s about the average number, it goes up from one market to the next, obviously that’s because some markets are more competitive than others because there are people that are already advertising in those particular niche markets if you will, in those articles or whatever you call them. Different people have different terminologies but some verticals are competitive now but a lot of them aren’t so that’s why I kind of used that range but when you start talking international outside of top tier, you can get a penny or two cent views is very, very common.

James: Interesting! So we are talking about a range of five cents to twelve cents probably on average, how does that compare to something like Facebook which also works on cost per view, a CPM type basis or even they also have video type ads on Facebook as well. What would be the comparison between those two types of advertising medium that our listeners would be used to?

Tommie: Facebook in comparison in terms of quality, it is right on par with Facebook quality. The only difference is YouTube is a video medium. People go there expecting to watch video whereas, I don’t know maybe it is changing now but I don’t think people go to Facebook saying I want to watch videos even though there is a lot of videos being uploaded there I think that’s kind of changing so I am kind of saying where we are now I think eventually that is going to change but as of now, people who want to watch videos they go to YouTube to do it. On Facebook on the other hand, Facebook video views right now, because the platform is so new and not a lot of the advertisers are taking advantage of it, depending on how you run, you can get views for super cheap! I’m talking less than a penny per view if you know what you are doing. It is hard to make it apples to apples kind of comparison, other than from a standpoint of quality of traffic, it is all par, that is the apples to apples comparison but everything else is kind of, because with Facebook there are so many different ways on how you can market and advertise a video on there, it is so difficult to kind of really compare them head to head in terms of prices and stuff.

James: Yeah, well I guess like Facebook and like Google’s own display network, YouTube also has got several types of ad unit, right? I mean, we have been speaking about video in its sort of generic term but there are other ad unit types available. Which unit types do you use Tommy?

Tommie: Well, I use all of them because for me personally I have an agency and we have clients and we’re always testing everything, like it is our job to know but the one that I recommend to anybody, no matter what they are doing, they can go to YouTube starting out, I tell them to go to in-stream. In-Stream in my opinion can work for anybody and the reality is there is more traffic. I don’t know if it just seems that there is so much traffic there and it is where it is at in YouTube in my opinion, in-stream ads.

James: Well in-stream ads I guess we should just give this some context. These are the ads that come up in the actual stream of the video itself typically at the front but also sometimes within the video as well. Would that be a fair explanation?

Tommie: Exactly!

James: Okay, cool. So I guess to do in-stream ads we’re going to need to have a video to advertise. What type of video do you suggest to someone who creates for adverting on YouTube?

Tommie: We have two basic methods, one is going to be branding, and the other is going to be direct response. Under both of those categories you can have quite a bit of different like what is the goal that you want to achieve. But branding, really, most companies that we work with we don’t typically run branding campaigns, you want really a direct response so for us it’s really a short video, very strong call to action, very specific, really, really hidden on a paying point, meet them in the market place and to capture their attention and to get them off of YouTube. That’s really how we structure that as that video is less than a minute. Sometimes we run them a bit longer, but typically those are like you can do remarketing, some people call it retargeting, and Google calls it remarketing. With those you can actually continue a conversation. So with those, typically you can get away with them being a little longer because even if you are not branding, you can continue the conversation so there are a lot of things that you can play on and it kind of depends on the market in your area and how people respond to the market. If it is a very education market you have got to use in order to sell people that those things come in a playbook. Generally that is how we kind of break it down and again sometimes we do use a bit of branding but what we can do with that typically is the remarketing where they already are familiar with us in some degree so we want to stay in front of them and stay top of mind awareness. But mostly, what we are trying to do is direct response. The first thing you want to do is get their attention and get them away from YouTube so that we can get them in an environment we can control and then we can get them to take some sort of action and then from there we can follow up with remarketing and branding campaigns, just put different messages out there and just continue the conversation you touched on.

James: Yeah, both you and I are marketers so we understand the concept of direct response but it seems to me that most people advertising on YouTube don’t understand the concept of direct response. I rarely if ever, see an ad with some form of call to action in it, right? They are actually typically branding pieces which actually have no sense at all in any scenario so how typically do you typically construct a good direct response ad and that call to action typically be?

Tommie: So first and foremost you have to understand your audience first and foremost. And you know when you understand your audience and then you are going to craft your ad based on that because you want to know what they want and then you want to relate that in to what you can provide and then the messaging is really built around what’s the paying point and what’s that thing that they are looking for that is going to make their life better that you can provide and how you can relate that to them in the end and then you want to use that type of marketing towards them in terms of saying something like for traffic for example, are you still struggling to get profitable traffic to your website? Check out this 20 page report that is going to walk you to the steps that is actually going to get you to do this starting today. You can read this report in a few minutes and you can be on your way. Check it out, go to my website and then when you get there you can put your email in and download this report or something to that effect. Who wants to get more traffic or who wants to get profitable traffic? There is usually a paying point, right? We have a client, they come to us because they struggle getting the traffic to do what they wanted to do so that is kind of the idea on how to construct it but it varies from that, like my clients I tell them to use their personalities because that separates them from the other people you always want to have a unique proposition and not sound like everybody else. It is one thing to say that other people may be using your own personality or your own spin if you will, we like to do that as well.

James: Now you mentioned that we could use perhaps a free report as a download. What are the best offers that you’ve experienced and I guess this is a very broad experience, I am sure you are going to say that it depends on the market and what you are selling. It’s what tends to be some of the best funnels in YouTube, where should we send people to?

Tommie: One of the things that’s working extremely well for us outside of the internet marketing niche is webinars. You know in the internet marketing niche everybody knows about them right there. The novelty of them has worn off, right? But outside of internet marketing, they don’t do webinars in the level that we do when we’re selling to marketers, right? These other marketers, they’ve not really leveraged the webinar so that we’ve been able to do extremely well, inviting people to a live event, a live webinar or even a live stream or what have you. We already know that they like watching video, they like that type of medium so a webinar is a good fit in to that audience because they are already in to that live stream environment of video.

James: Interesting! We’ve covered off a few points here in terms of constructing a video, we’ve said that we’re doing it for direct response. We’re probably want to keep the length reasonably short, perhaps under a minute. We want to have a strong call to action. But what about the video itself? I guess there are several ways that we could produce this, we can do a screen type capture, we could have something beautifully produced with video crews, and we could do a face to camera type video. What are those videos that you are finding most success with?

Tommie: Like the talking here, actual person talking in to the camera. Typically you want to have the script to some degree. It doesn’t have to be a hundred percent scripted out, it doesn’t have to be 100% but you want to have a script that you follow as you talk in to the camera. Those work extremely well. It doesn’t have to be like – the thing that I see a lot of people, the problem that they do is they want to go and do all of these stuff to create this super fabulous video, right? I don’t recommend that. I recommend do the least. I know some people are concerned about their brand and that sort of thing and I get that. But what’s the least amount of effort you can put in to creating a video that you can run because you want to test it first. You don’t really know whether it is going to work or not and you are going to have to get information before you are going to find something that you find will work. That’s when you want to go and spend all your marketing dollars and really invest to really make them knock it out if you want to get superb quality. And that’s one of the things that I see a lot of people doing that they shouldn’t be at first.

James: Yeah, and I guess your point here is I guess people can use the barrel and hey I need to consider this like a full blown TV production style ad when really most of us have probably got the equipment already in our pockets or already in our desks somewhere which means we can probably produce an ad in probably 20 minutes to half an hour if you really wanted to, right?

Tommie: Absolutely!

James: Cool, well let’s now perhaps how we might target people on YouTube. There are a bunch of options I guess similar to Google you’ve got age and location and shared space targeting and it is also some cool stuff for targeting ads on specific YouTube channels if you wish. What’s your favorite way to target users on YouTube, Tommie?

Tommie: It’s quite hard for me to pick a favorite but if I was giving advice to someone, I would tell them to start targeting placements and that is basically what you are talking about where you just mentioned specific videos. What you want to do is to find video that is very relevant to what you have to offer and then you want to run your in-stream ads. That’s the targeted method that I would recommend from having that conversation. Me personally, we do it all so it is like I’ll say what works but that’s going to be the one that is most likely to work for just about anybody.

James: Yeah, so I guess in your case perhaps, even mine, we can target a video on how to generate traffic and then put on the back of that a service that does it for them, right? It takes all the hassle away of having to do it. I guess that’s really what we’re talking about, isn’t it?

Tommie: Right!

James: Cool! We mentioned it already, retargeting, in fact I just got back from a conference in Australia where one of the core themes was retargeting website visitors with video ads and in many cases featuring case studies and testimonials for your product or service. Would you agree that that’s a good campaign to implement?

Tommie: Absolutely, I agree. Remarketing, retargeting, whatever you want to call it, that person has already been introduced to you on some capacity and so now you’re just trying to continue the conversation. Hey check out this case study that I built, hey check out what my customers have to say about me. Every time you have to add another piece to continue that conversation, it is just another additional way for you to eventually convert them and to get them to do the thing that you want to do and sell them whatever you want to sell them or what not.

James: Okay cool, let’s talk about some action and some next things to do. For those of our listeners who haven’t yet run a YouTube ad campaign, what do you suggest is the first campaign perhaps that they set up and what might be the steps to go and implement that?

Tommie: If you’re already getting traffic, the first thing you need to do is go and set up remarketing. You need to put Google remarketing pixel in your website so that you’re building a remarketing list through Google Adwords and then with that list you can set up a campaign to target those people when they’re on YouTube watching videos you can hit you remarketing video. That will be the absolute first thing to do assuming you’re already getting traffic. Now, if you’re not already getting traffic you would want to run, then I would recommend a placement traffic campaign and that is what we talked about earlier. Finding video that is extremely relevant to what you have to offer and then putting your ad in front of those people.

James: Got it! We already covered one objection and that might be that I haven’t got the equipment or the budget to do advertising on YouTube. What other objections normally come up, Tommie?

Tommie: Typically it’s the video creation thing, having a video. You also get with in-stream ads, they call them true view in-stream, and it’s like the technical term for it. You do need to be compliant because Google wants you to have a destination URL and you need a place to send people so what a lot of people have a problem is being compliant or Google has suspended their account in the past or things of that nature, that is another objection that I do get a lot and with in-stream, yes, you do have to be compliant so that there is no way around it. If you can’t get an Adwords account you can’t go around it. That’s the thing it is like do I have to have Adwords to run this? Absolutely! There is no way around it, you know what I mean? And yes you have to be compliant and if you can’t do those things then you won’t be able to run in-stream ads.

James: And is there anyone that YouTube advertising might not be for?

Tommie: Oh, wow! They got a list of them, you know what I am saying? You’d have to look up Google’s adwords for video is really where YouTube ads are, it’s still Google adwords it’s just adwords for videos. All the rules that apply to adwords apply to YouTube ads so if you fall in to one of those categories you can’t do YouTube ads, but outside of those everything else is good.

James: Awesome! Well you of course have got a site tommiepowers.com, is there anything else you want to share in terms of strategies in terms of that and paid advertising medium. Where might we head people off to? Would that be a good place is there anywhere else that we suggest our listeners to check you out Tommie on the web?

Tommie: Yeah that would be a good place, that’s my main blog. I don’t blog as much but that is my main hub. If you hit that site and you want to contact me there are ways to get to that there and I’ll see it.

James: Awesome! Well, to you the listener if you want to get links to Tommie’ site and some of the other resources mentioned in today’s show head on over to TrafficJamCast.com/67 where you can also join in on the discussion for this episode. So I guess all that remains for me is to thank you for coming on, this is super topical right now. I think YouTube as you rightly said is one of the hot topics of conversation in the marketing space due to the reasons that we laid out on the show so thank you to you for giving us such a great introduction to it.

Tommie: No doubt. Thank you for having me.

So there you go listeners. That was Tommie Powers talking all about YouTube advertising. Thank you for listening in to Traffic Jam#67. We will of course be back next week with another episode. In the meantime subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher radio by going to TrafficJamCast.com/iTunes or TrafficJamCast.com/Stitcher. You can get all of the resources and a full downloadable MP3 and transcript of today’s session to TrafficJamCast.com/67 where you can also join in on the discussion for this show.

Now we end this week’s episode with a track chosen by Tommie Powers. He has opted for a Michael Jackson track which I don’t believe we’ve had on the show just yet and he’s gone for you want to be starting something.