If you’re interested in YouTube Marketing, here are three ways you can get started. You can use skippable in-stream video ads before, during, and after a video. You can include CTAs and overlay text in these ads. But be aware that viewers can skip them after five seconds. Non-skippable video ads play until the end of a video and can be up to 20 seconds long. Before you decide to use these ads, make sure you’ve researched the types of videos you’d like to use for your YouTube campaign.

Choose an eye-catching thumbnail for your video. This is one of the most important factors in determining how high your video will rank in YouTube’s search algorithm. An eye-catching thumbnail is essential to entice viewers to click on it and learn more. Otherwise, YouTube may consider the video irrelevant and not distribute it through its recommended videos. If you want to reach a wider audience, choose a similar channel title. If the two have similar content, you can choose a keyword strategy.

Choose a specific objective for your videos. A video should focus on one goal at a time. Common video goals include brand awareness, views, clicks, inbound links, and social shares. You can also focus on a particular goal within each video. By following these guidelines, you’ll be sure to create a video that’s relevant to your business goals. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be on your way to a successful YouTube marketing campaign.

Using YouTube as a marketing strategy requires creativity. Before you begin creating content and implementing strategies, it’s important to conduct a SWOT analysis of your competitors. A SWOT analysis can help you identify specific niches you want to target for your YouTube channel. Using your competitors’ videos as a guide, conduct an analysis of your own channel’s content and audience to identify how they use YouTube to attract and keep their subscribers. Using this data, you can create a content calendar full of relevant ideas for your audience.

If you want to drive engagement with your YouTube videos, consider using endscreens and cards. These are small, transparent CTAs that expand when clicked. Use these CTAs to promote related content and subscribe to your channel. You can also create cards by including your website link at the end of the video, or other content. These can be useful in case your viewers abandon their videos before finishing them. A video can include cards at several abandonment points, and cards can redirect them to a website or a playlist.

YouTube videos can benefit from closed captions and subtitles. Be sure to include keywords in your titles. Remember, your title is not the place to spam, but it will appear under the “Show More” button. The purpose of the description is to give viewers a context for your video, which will help them decide whether to subscribe to your channel or not. If the video includes multiple products, include links to the individual products in the description. This will help your viewers find your videos more easily.