Is YouTube TV? Our panelists discuss

A couple of weeks ago Precise hosted an event aimed at providing insights into how YouTube can help marketers to achieve their objectives. In part 1 of our recap of the event, Denis provided a summary of the presentation and fireside chat between Mike and Brian. In part 2 we cover the areas discussed by our panel of industry experts, all of whom have used YouTube on TVs to reach a specific audience. Here are our top takeaways from that conversation: 

Is YouTube now considered TV?

Sometimes as marketers we can be guilty of over-thinking things and in the process, making our lives a little too complicated. This was highlighted by one of our panelists who noted that we shouldn’t really be thinking about devices too much, instead, we just need to be where our target audience is. And as Neilsen’s latest figures show, audiences definitely are watching YouTube on TVs. So while YouTube isn’t the same as linear TV, it is definitely part of the TV (device) viewing experience.

What about the creative for YouTube on TVs?

We are truly inundated with ads. It’s estimated that the average person sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads a day! As a result people have developed highly sensitive filters for advertising and won’t pay attention to ads that aren’t relevant to them. To be successful, ads must be tweaked to be compelling enough so that the audience they are intended for watches them. Running a generic 15 second spot across all platforms, and hitting many differnt audience segments is going to produce substandard results.

Historically, TVs have been used to watch shows of 25 minutes in length and longer. One panelist encouraged the audience to be experimenting with long form ads on TVs. Audiences are used to seeing long form on TVs, so why can’t the same be true for ads? At Precise, we have seen some fantastic results from running ads of 10 minutes, and even longer.

Some businesses are very big and as a result, complicated. Not every business has the nimbleness to quickly react to subtle shifts in audience behavior and changes technology. One panelist noted that they are continually educating their internal teams about how audiences watch YouTube, and how their ad creative can complement those behaviors.

Where in the funnel should marketers be thinking about YouTube on TV?

Our panel unanimously agreed that YouTube on TVs was particularly good for awareness. That’s especially true if you are looking to promote new IP or product lines. What might be surprising, was how they had started to use YouTube at various other stages in the customer journey. 

One of the panelists suggested that YouTube was a great way to engage current or former customers, by using detailed videos of their products, such as how-tos and technical guides. While another panelist has been using YouTube to supplement their performance campaigns. There is one challenge though: attribution. With YouTube running throughout the funnel, it becomes even hard to attribute results back to the correct source or sources of your marketing activity.

Should you be targeting audiences or content on YouTube?

Once again our panelists were unanimous: audience targeting and contextual targeting are complimentary. Audience can be useful for far reaching campaigns that introduce a new brand. While contextual targeting can be far more specific and is great for running extremely efficient campaigns that reinforce messages within a particular community. The panelists also discussed the power of mixing contextual with audience targeting, by collecting audience lists from users who consume contextually relevant content. This then gives you the opportunity to reach them in other areas of YouTube for sequential creative advertising and/or to hit your optimal frequency.

OK, so it can’t all be positive, what are the shortcomings of YouTube ads on TVs?

For decades, advertisers had a huge amount of control over where and when their ads run, while still getting vast reach. For example, a 30 second TV spot on Saturday at 8.30pm in the middle of the biggest show on a given network. Those days are over and our panelists agreed that one of the biggest issues of running on YouTube is losing control of where your ads will show up. It’s not only which videos your ads will show against but also at what point? Will they be pre-rolls, mid-rolls or post-rolls? Going back to the previous discussion point, contextual targeting gives you much greater control of where your ads will run than audience targeting does.

Returning back to a previous theme, one panelist described how it can be difficult to gather the multiple creative assets for all the devices and formats where a YouTube ad can run. 

What is the future of video ads?

There’s absolutely no doubt that the tech related to video advertising will become more sophisticated. Our panelists were interested to see how that might help them to make more informed decisions, particularly when it comes to the measurement of key metrics and especially the return on their investment. 

Of course, one major advancement in tech is the rise of AI. Some panelists spoke of how they were excited to see what developments AI could bring in delivering even more targeted and personalized ads. However, one panelist made the counterpoint that with the proliferation of AI generated ads, there was an opportunity for truly creative ideas to have an even greater impact. 

As always, a huge thanks to our panelists for sharing their experience and perspective. If you weren’t able to make it,  you can sign up for our newsletter here, where we will be sharing event highlights, industry information and Precise TV updates. And if you’d like to know more about how we can help your brand excel in the world of CTV and YouTube, get in touch.