Last updated on August 27, 2020

Last updated on October 26, 2020

You already know that Facebook has over two billion monthly users and incredible targeting tools.

But, did you know that Facebook is now the king of online digital video views?

Since, 2015, Facebook has had more daily video views that YouTube.

Plus, viewers engage more with Facebook video ads than with the exact same content on YouTube.

Facebook users are more emotionally engaged with the platform.

If you’re serious about using to video to connect with customers, Facebook is too big to ignore.

The world’s largest social media network has invested a lot of money in its pivot to video, and all that investment is paying off in a big way for businesses just like yours.

Why Use Facebook Video Ads Instead of Just Images?

Facebook has quietly become the world’s most powerful online advertising company.

Businesses large and small use the network to build brand awareness and to reach customers all over the world.

Why should you use Facebook video ads when regular image ads are so much easier to create?

The short answer is video ads work much better than image ads.

People See Image Ads—They Respond to Video Ads

We are used to seeing image ads as we scroll down our news feeds.

We see them, but we often don’t pay attention to them.

Just like you mostly ignore the sponsored ads at the top of every Google search, a lot of people don’t engage with image ads anymore.

But, video ads are different.

Video ads get more likes and shares that image ads.

Users treat video ads more like content.

Image ads are just ads. But, videos pull viewers in.

Several studies have found that people remember content they’ve watched 59% better than content they’ve read.

Facebook video ads allow you to get inside your prospect’s hearts and minds in ways that simple image ads can’t.

Facebook video ads turn your customers into your brand evangelists. Click To Tweet

Image ads can’t do that.

Video Drives More Organic Traffic

Video drives more organic traffic than image ads.

It isn’t even close. In 2017, Facebook video ads drove 135% more organic traffic than image ads.

Facebook video ads are doing more than just giving your business a quick spike in traffic.

They can deliver sustained traffic over time because people still see videos as content.

They may know that are watching an ad, but they respond psychologically like they’re watching content.

You may not be invested in Facebook, but the odds are your competitors are, which helps them and not you.

Video Ads Deliver at Lower Cost-Per-Click

Many critics of video advertising claim that video marketing is still too expensive.

But, now that your phone can take high-quality video, and you can use the headphones that came with your phone as good-quality microphones, video is cheaper than ever.

Even more important, video ads deliver a 3% lower cost-per-click than image ads.

There is less competition in the video ad world, and video ads convert better.

There is no excuse not to use Facebook video ads as part of your marketing campaign.

How Facebook Video Ads Stack Up Against Other Social Media Video Ads

Facebook video ads aren’t the only game in town. It’s important that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

But, if you have a limited advertising budget, Facebook video ads give you the best return on your investment.

For starters, Facebook video ads don’t just run on Facebook.

Through the Facebook Ad Manager, you can also run your video ads on Instagram.

Instagram doesn’t yet have the massive reach that Facebook does, but it is the social media channel of choice for several key demographics of Millennials.

Twitter video ads are often less expensive to run, but the platform doesn’t engage viewers the same way Facebook does.

The average video ad completion rate on Twitter is 2%, while it’s 32% on Facebook.

YouTube video ads tend to perform at about the same levels as Facebook video ads.

Audiences watch more ads on Facebook, but they finish a slightly higher percentage on YouTube.

NOTE: When choosing between YouTube and Facebook you must consider where your audience hang out.

A person looking for relief from an embarrassing condition is not on Facebook.

They will be looking on Google and YouTube for help.

Use a bit of common sense mixed in with a dose of research when choosing the right platform.

Facebook Video Ads: The Basics

Facebook video ads give markers a tremendous amount of freedom.

Ads can be as long as 45 minutes, but videos between 15-30 seconds outperform other lengths.

You can use landscape, portrait, square, or 360 videos.

You can have a single video or a video carousel with multiple videos.

You can also choose where your video ad should run. Your options include:

• Mobile news feed
• Desktop news feed
• Instagram feed
• Right column

As for specs, Video Marketing Insider has its own infographic for you that you can use here: https://videomarketinginsider.com/social-video-media-specs/

Alternatively, for Facebook alone, you can find these requirements in the Facebook Business ad guide.

How to Create a Facebook Video Ad

If you are familiar with Facebook image ads, creating a video ad follows the same basic steps.

You can create a video and then use the Ad Manager to build and launch your ad, or you can actually create a video in the Ad Manager.

Most brands will get the best results by shooting their own video.

Tools You Can Use

To actually create the video you can sign up to a service like videoblocks.

Here you’ll get a large number of clips you can edit or splice.

For audio, try audioblocks.

For cheap offers such as a t-shirt, you’ll be fine with a short 30-45 second ad of someone putting it on or modeling it.

If you are trying to sell a  thousand dollar product, you’ll need something much longer.

For most folk though, 2 minutes is the max you’ll need.

Another great choice is Twine.

This is if going down the freelancer route of obtaining royalty-free music is something that interest you.

With over 370,000 registered freelancers, Twine is definitely worth considering. 

Targeting

New marketers are always surprised to see that the first step to a successful video marketing is to set up your targeting.

But, you will make a better-quality video, and your video ad will earn a higher return on investment if you are clear on the intended audience before you shoot a single frame.

When working on the targeting for your video consider:

• Creating a video as a custom retargeting for warm leads
• Using custom audiences
• Focusing on narrow audience size

One of the most powerful aspects of Facebook video ads is that ability to target the viewers that watched all of one of your videos.

You already know these people are engaged with your content.

Showing them a second video to this small slice of the audience can boost conversions and supercharge your ROI (we will expand more in this later).

Marketing works best when it’s narrowly tailored.

We all like to think we’re special.

The most effective ads feel like they’re speaking directly to one person.

You can improve your ads by manually uploading your own contact database and creating a custom look-alike-audience on Facebook.

You also want to make sure that you are targeting a small audience, not the entire world.

The Ads Manager has an easy to read meter that helps you make sure you aren’t targeting too large or too small of an audience.

For local marketers you can even target zip/postal codes.

Go to the Ads Manager & Create New Ad

Once you’ve made your video and figured out your target market, it’ time to build your ad.

You need to access the Ads Manager.

Before you can run any ads on Facebook, you need to have a business page.

You can access the Ad Manager from your profile page by using the pull-down menu and selecting “Create Ads”.

Choose Campaign Objective  

Next, you will be asked to select your ad campaign objective.

If you have a specific outcome in mind, pick the objective that best fits your strategy.

We recommend either PPE (Page Post Engagement, Video views and later on perhaps traffic as your campaign objective).

If you’re uncertain, click “video views” this will make sure that your ad is designed to get people to watch your video.

If your video is optimized, you should find that this leads to people responding to your call to action.

Define Audience

After you choose your objective, you will need to define your audience.

This is where you need to input the targeting work you did earlier.

Facebook allows you to save different audiences or build new audiences for each ad.

Options for Creating Your Video Ad

Now, it’s finally time to actually build your ad.

Here you will either upload our video, select from a video you’ve already uploaded, or create a slideshow video from your images.

You also need to choose where you want your video to appear.

The location of your video ad will determine the aspect ratio and size of the video you should use.

You can also choose to use carousel ad with several different videos instead of just a single video.

Add Your Copy

Once you’ve uploaded your video and decided on where on Facebook and Instagram you want your video to run, you will need to add your copy for the headline, or video title, and the copy for the body of the ad.

Since you’re using video, it’s usually best to make your copy brief.

It’s not the star of the show here.

The copy’s primary purpose is to draw attention to the video and provide a reminder of the call to action.

Preview & Revise

You’ve already put a lot of work into your video ad.

But, you’re not done yet.

Before you launch your campaign, you need to preview your video ad and make any changes.

It’s tempting to just give your video ad a quick once-over and call it good.

But, you should take your time to make sure every element is perfect before launching.

There’s no bigger morale crusher than to find a typo or realize you’ve uploaded the wrong version of your video until after the video ad campaign has launched.

Facebook Video Ad Best Practices

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to zero-in on a handful of best practices that will make your Facebook video ad stand out from the crowd and get the kind of results you’re hoping for.

Make Ads That Work Without Sound

By default, Facebook ads are muted in the feed.

Most people won’t watch your videos with the sound on.

Most of your ads will be watched on a mobile device.

Your video needs to work just as well with the sound off as it does with the sound on.

This means using captions or having a video where the images communicate 100% of your message.

There are a few ways to do this.

You can use a service such as rev.com

Or you can use a specific software that will allow you to add embedded captions.

Grab Attention in the First Three Seconds

People aren’t looking for your video ad.

They aren’t hoping to find a great video ad in their feed.

Most likely, your prospects are just scrolling through their feed because their bored.

From the moment your video ad appears on the screen until the typical user scrolls past, you have 3 seconds to grab their attention.

Make it count!

Make the Ad Shorter Than You Think

Shorter ads do better.

People watch them all the way through.

You need to make sure your message is simple and compact.

15-30 second videos outperform all other lengths of video ads if you are promoting a cheap offer such as a t-shirt. 

You need to grab the attention of your audience and direct them to take a specific action.

You don’t have time for an elaborate metaphor.

Selling something more expensive, then you’ll need a minute to 2-minute video with a strong intro/hook.

Optimize Headline and Description

The video is the most important part of your video ad.

But that doesn’t mean you can neglect your headline and description.

Your video ad copy can enhance and reinforce the message of your video.

This text shouldn’t be direct. Tell the viewer exactly what they should do.

Go Vertical or Stay Square

While you have a lot of choices of formats, the best performing Facebook video ads are vertical videos or square videos.

There are many softwares that allow you to create square Facebook type videos. 

One reasonably priced option is reviewed well here.

Use Your CTA Twice

Your ad needs one call to action, but you should use it twice.

Most people, even with short videos, won’t watch the whole thing.

Have your call to action in the middle of the video and at the end of the video.

This gives you the best chance of planting the seed with your audience.

Remarketing

Once you have your video up you need to make sure you set up your custom audiences for future remarketing.

In short, within the Facebook ads manager you can make a list of everyone who has viewed a portion of your video.

To do this you need to go to your Ads Manager and then to Audiences.

Step 1: Create a new audience and choose engagement.

Step 2: Choose video from the next list of options.

Step 3: Choose one from the drop down and give the audience a name. For example, 3 seconds pug t-shirt video.

Step 4: Click on choose videos and from the next page you’ll see your list of fan pages and videos you’ve uploaded.

How many custom audiences per video?

There are differing viewpoints here. 

Some feel it is not worth creating an audience of people who watch 3 seconds as those people are mainly scrolling through and may have stopped on your video only for a tiny amount of time before moving on.

The other school of thought is that you should create the audience as it does you no harm.

We believe that you should create as many audiences as Facebook allows as the more data the better.

Sequencing

Once you have enough data (views) you can try a sequencing campaign.

Simply, you create a second video and only show this to people who have watched (for example) 50% or more of the first video.

You then create audiences of the second video and carry on doing this over a  several video period.

By the final video, people will have watched several of your videos and be really interested in what you have to offer.

This is a more advanced technique though so if you are a beginner, do not worry too much about it.

Test

Your business and audience are unique.

You can never know what will work best for you until you test.

This means you need to keep track of how well your ads perform. Track views, view completion, clicks, and conversions.

When testing, only test one variable at a time.

If you try and test more than one variable, you’ll never know exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Facebook Video Ads Summary

The most important part of running a successful Facebook Video ad campaign is actually running a campaign.

You can research best practices and video hacks all day, but until you start actually running ads, you won’t connect with a single customer.

You can’t revise and iterate until you’ve put something out there.

You now have everything you need to run a killer Facebook video ad campaign.

It’s time for you to take the most important step and actually launch your video ad campaign!

PS…Are you using Facebook Video ads? Did you like this post? Please let us know with a share.

 

 

Last updated on January 27, 2021

In this post I am going to cover everything on how to make money using YouTube as an affiliate marketer.

Anyone can do it and begin earning commissions almost immediately.

Making money on YouTube is not complicated despite what you may have heard. If you are willing to do some research and put in a little bit of effort, you can do it.

YouTube Affiliate Marketing

Like all things it requires:

• Effort
• Logic
• A clear plan of action

First though, let’ s clear something up.

The Big Misconception

Most people think that to make money on YouTube you need a massive channel like Logan Paul or PewDiePie and that Adsense is the only way to make money.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While a big channel is a good thing, it is extremely hard to make any decent money through Adsense and following this route is tiresome, hard work and puts you at the mercy of Youtube.

Very few succeed and you need to be as much an actor than anything else.

If you want to go that route, feel free but this post is not going to be talking about Adsense at all. 

So with that being said, let’s crack on with this definitive guide to YouTube affiliate marketing by looking at how to choose your niche.

Choose Your Niche Wisely

There are a ton of possible niches for you to choose but some may be more doable than others.

The niche you choose needs to tick a lot of boxes.

1. It is something you have an interest in
2. You have some level of expertise
3. There are a wide number of products you could promote
4. You are able to get paid
5. You have the ability to make videos for this niche

Let’s expand on the above one by one as if you get this wrong, then you’ll end up wasting a lot of time

Interest: 

Never choose a niche just because you think there is money to be made.

So many people jump into niches with dollar signs in their eyes. But trust me, you will get bored.

And when that happens, the game is over.

You do not need to be crazy passionate about something, but you do need some interest.

Expertise:

This can scare some people from even starting. While it should not, I do believe it is important that you have some knowledge about your subject matter.

You do not need to be the best in the world. There’ll always be people who know more than you.

They are not your target audience. Simple. You are targeting folk who have slightly (or much) less knowledge than you.

That said, you cannot be totally clueless about the niche you choose.

I know nothing about woodworking. Despite there being lots of stuff to promote, I would not last 5 minutes in this niche as people would see right through me.

Products:

It goes without saying that to be an affiliate, you’ll need to have a lot of products to promote.

If there are only one or two products in your niche, you won’t have much scope to work with.

This is why folks turn to Amazon.

Amazon Associates is probably the most popular affiliate marketing program.  They sell almost everything.

The downside is the payouts are poor. Anything from 1-10% for most people.

Amazon also has strict Terms of Service so make sure you read the rules.

Digital Offers

If you would like to promote digital products, then you have a lot of options.

Clickbank.com is one of the most well known platforms for finding products to promote.

While they approve almost everyone, some of the products can disappear from the network so you’ll have to keep an eye on your campaigns

Add to that, they offer a 365 day refund policy.

So you may find you make sales, only to see the buyer refund. While unavoidable, it can be frustrating.

Health

If you would like to go into the health market, a good network to consider is Market Health. Like Clickbank, they approve almost anyone.

Plenty of other networks out there too.

Make Money Online Niche

This is the niche that has the most offer to promote by far. Many new offers come out on a daily basis.

You can find these on https://muncheye.com/

The downside of these products is that 90% (I am being generous) are of terrible quality.

Softwares are often buggy and trainings based on theory as opposed to stuff that actually works.

You can make money reviewing these products but most of them have a shelf life of a week.

Before that, no one is searching on YouTube as know one knows these products exist.

After a week, no one cares.

Focusing on evergreen offers will see you do much better.

Here is an example of a review video that makes me several hundred dollars per month:

Common Networks

Here are some common networks or resources that you can use to find offers to promote:

Max Bounty CPA network (requires approval) – https://www.maxbounty.com/

Aff Paying (Lists CPA networks) – http://www.affpaying.com/

Clicksure (many offers) – http://www.clicksure.com/

Avangate (many offers)- https://www.avangatenetwork.com

Rakuten (many offers)- https://rakutenmarketing.com/affiliate

Pay per call – https://www.ringpartner.com/

You can of course do a simple Google search…

Look, there are even a bunch of Ice-cream affiliate programs.

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind entering that niche 🙂

Note: You do not need to join all of these networks, you just need one or two

Getting Paid:

This varies from network to network and from country to country.

Some networks prefer PayPal, others bank transfer or cheque.

Others offer Payoneer.

I live in Japan, and so cheques are out of the question. So I use Payoneer when Paypal isn’t an option.

You sign up, provide ID, then get sent a prepaid card that you can use to withdraw cash from any ATM.

Learn more here: https://www.payoneer.com

Now let’s move on.

Ability:

Are you able to actually make good enough videos for the niche you are considering?

To understand this you need to look at your competition and what’s already out there.

Want to get into the survival niche? Fine, but most top videos are filmed outside in the wilderness or someone’s backyard.

The cooking niche? Got a decent looking kitchen with all your expensive herbs and spices looking sexy?

Or perhaps the woodworking niche? Do you have a large garage and a set of tools/equipment?

Look at these videos in the woodworking niche. Notice they are all outside in a spacious area.

These are important things because if you only have a small space or even worse, are terrified of being on camera, then you need to choose your niche wisely.

Now of course, do not let this put you off.

You can of course begin to make videos in these niches. Everyone starts off somewhere.

But at some point you will need to level up to compete if you want to make decent affiliate commissions.

Set up Your YouTube Channel

Ok, so you have your niche and you have joined a few networks that have some products that you can promote.

You now need to set up your YouTube channel.

This is all about building the foundations for your forthcoming videos.

If you have a Gmail account you get a YouTube channel with it, but if you want, you can create a new Gmail account and then use that to set up your channel.

You need to think of your YouTube channel as a blog or a Facebook Fan Page.

By that I mean you need to make sure it is aesthetically pleasing as well as ensuring it is set up for seo AND conversions.

So, follow these steps:

• Verify you own the account. You can use a phone number or SMS.
• Create an eye pleasing channel art. The optimal image size is 2560 x 1440 pixels.
• Add an icon or avatar image. Your logo would be good here or a nice photo of you.
• Add links to your art. You can add many but only the first 5 will show.
• Fill out your ‘About’ section fully 
• Add your country
• Add a business email address
• Upload a watermark
• Add pertinent information to your upload defaults (such as an affiliate disclaimer)
• Add an associated website and verify ownership of it.

You can connect Google Ads and Analytics too if you wish.

Affiliate Disclosure in your channel

It is very important that you include an affiliate disclosure in your video descriptions.

To make your life easier, copy the below disclaimer and go to your YouTube channel settings and add it to your upload defaults.

This will mean you only have to do it once, and not on a per video basis.

Affiliate Disclaimer: While we receive affiliate compensation for reviews / promotions on this page, we always offer honest opinion, relevant experiences and genuine views related to the product or service itself. Our goal is to help you make the best purchasing decisions, however, the views and opinions expressed are ours only. As always you should do your own due diligence to verify any claims, results and statistics before making any kind of purchase. Clicking links or purchasing products recommended on this page may generate income for this website from affiliate commissions and you should assume we are compensated for any purchases you make.

Ok, so now you have your channel set up (you can improve on it later if you want), you need to think of some videos to make.

It’s time for keyword research.

Do Your Keyword Research

This involves getting into the mind of your prospective viewer.

What exactly are the phrases that they are typing in?

You can of course, guess, or you can use tools at your disposal to uncover terms to rank for.

One of the best tools for coming up with Keywords is Tube Buddy.

This tool has a whole host of features and is explained in this video:

Other tools that you can use to come up with ideas are:

https://answerthepublic.com/

https://lsigraph.com/

Or you can use Google and youtube’s autocomplete function.

Simply begin typing a word/phrase and other ideas will automatically populate like this:

For products related to affiliate promotions some common phrases people type in are:

• Product name review
• Does Product name work?
• Where can I buy/get Product name?
• Product name Vs Rival name
• Product name unboxing
• OR you can target a whole ton of phrases related to the problems the product purports to solve. 

Avoid the use of the word scam if you can.

Choosing a Product to Promote: Criteria

By now, you should have been accepted into a network or two and have an idea of what people are searching for on YouTube.

The issue now is how to choose a product to review/promote via video.

And while there is no fool proof method, here are some things you should keep in mind.

The first port of call should be the product’s JV page or affiliate tools page.

This is simply a webpage that is there to provide you, the potential affiliate, with all the information you need.

Some do a great job with this, others can be sparse (which is a warning sign in itself).

On ClickBank you can see if the offer has an affiliate tools page like so:

You should be able to ascertain enough information about the product to make a decision as to whether you are to move forward or not.

If the affiliate page spends more time talking about commissions and earnings then move on.

If the affiliate page leaves you with too many unanswered questions, then move on.

Another important aspect is getting a review copy or at least access to a portion of the product.

There is no way to do an ethical review of something you have not seen.

Of course, 90% of reviews on Youtube are like that, but we are going to do things differently. 

Simply connect with the vendor and politely ask them for a review copy. If you cannot find out how to connect with them, this again is a bad sign.

Unable to snag a review? Do not promote it. Move on.

If you are new, then send the person a message explaining that you are new, but are serious and would like a review copy or partial copy so that you an give a real ethical overview. 

This is only really doable for digital products.

If it is a physical product, or a supplement style health offer, then buy it.

This will also help your conversions as you can show that you have it on camera, which adds to your trust factor.

If you aren’t prepared to purchase it then why are you thinking of making a video to get others to do so?

Who made it?

To me at least, the name of the person behind it is very important. 

There are a lot of names in the IM arena that I do not trust (this comes from experience).

And as such, I will not touch their products.

Also, if this is a person’s first product, then often they over deliver in value as they want to impress. 

If you are new and do not know anyone, then this is not something you can apply but something to think about later.

Perhaps the vendor has a track record of good quality stuff? Or do they have a reputation as a creator of gimmicks?

Will the Product Convert?

Good marketing can make a poor offer convert. 

Conversely, a great product will not convert if the marketing sucks.

A good criteria for seeing if an offer is already converting is to do the similar web test as this video shows:

 

For brand new products this is not possible but for bigger offers, this is a great litmus test.

Look at the sales page as well. When you are new, it may be hard to judge but ask yourself if you would buy it or does the page put you off?

• Good copywriting is vital for conversions.
• Does the copy tell a story?
• Is it gripping?
• Does it reach out and push pain points?

Also, are there leaks on the page? – By this I mean does the sales page have an opt-in form for example. This could be a sign that the vendor is list building on your behalf.

I have also seen sales pages where it can be hard to find the buy button!

Not a great thing if you are sending traffic to the page via your affiliate link.

Ok…So now we need to look at the videos themselves.

The Actual Videos

Like many things in this articles, this topic could be a post in itself and while I do not want to get caught up in the technicalities of this, we should touch on a few types of YouTube affiliate marketing videos you can make.

As for tools or software, again it depends.

Softwares:

Here are some options although this list is not exhaustive:

• Camtasia or Screen Cast-o-matic
• Your Smartphone
• Content Samurai
• Lumen 5

For a Mic the Blue yeti is a great choice.

Want a hands free mic? Then here is one you can try.

More importantly is the type of video you should create to promote an affiliate product.

If you are on a budget, then check out this article here.

First we will look at product reviews.

Reviews -The do’s and don’ts of how to present a useful, balanced and trustworthy review

One of the biggest problems for prospective customers is knowing who to trust.

There are enough affiliates out there happy to promote something to make a few dollars, regardless of what it is they are talking about.

Some folk will go to outsourcing websites like Fiverr and hire spokesperson.

Others will tell you it is great because they want the vendor to promote their own products in return. I call them the circle jerk crew.

So, what to do?

To stand out and make an honest review:

• • Speak naturally. Do not ‘try’ to sell
  • SHOW the product. Share your screen.
  • Do not hide anything
  • Mention the prices and dates of the launch
  • Cover any upsells if there are any
  • Talk about the PROs and CONs (there are always cons)
  • Mention who could benefit (Is it for beginners, aged folk..etc)
  • Provide a bonus for anyone who buys via your link if it’s a digital offer (the bonus should cover a weakness of the product)

Now let’s move on to another type of video.

A Vs B Videos

One interesting type of video are A Vs B. 

You find two rival offers and compare them in your video and end up promoting one of them as per this picture.

If you can do this honestly, you’ll get some extra subscribers to your Youtube channel.

And there is nothing bad about this tactic. 

So long as the offer you are advocating really is great then all good.

If you do this but promote an offer only because it has higher payouts, then over time, people will know what you are up to.

Unboxing Videos

These are very popular videos to make and if you become very successful, you may even get given products to unbox.

For now though, you can do real unboxing videos of a wide variety of physical products.

Just remember to link to the offer with your link in the description, which brings us nicely to the next part of the puzzle.

Linking to your offer

Of course, the main goal of this process is to make affiliate commissions.

So, you need to link to your offer.

On YouTube, there are a few places and methods you can employ.

The first step is to create your affiliate link. Each network will provide you with a unique link to promote a product.

This link will usually be something long or ugly such as: http://paykstrt.com/4884/13761 which is a link to a product promoting E-commerce training (called E-com Vantage).

 You have several options but you need to make this link easier to read.

If you have WordPress, use a free plugin called Pretty Links Lite.

That ugly link now becomes: https://videomarketinginsider.com/vantage

Non WordPress users can use something like: https://app.bitly.com

Note: Amazon demands that you use THEIR service and you should not mask your Amazon links. They do provide a link shortener of their own.

Where to place these links?

The obvious place is in your YouTube video description.

You must include it in the first or second line. 

If you add it to line 4-5 or further down, it will not be visible to people.

 

The link is also viewable and clickable when watching the video.

NOTE: You must use the whole URL including the http:// or https:// part.

So facebook.com will not be enough.

It must be https://www.facebook.com/

You can also embed them in your videos too and tell viewers to go to the link in the description or to manually type it out. 

See this image as an example.

Bigger Channel?

Once you have 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours view time over a year, you will be eligible for monetization.

Get to this stage and you can add your links to End Card and Youtube End Screens and have your links clickable.

If you do not meet these criteria, you will be unable to do this.

End Screens

At the end of your videos, you can add what is called an end screen for up to 19 seconds.

As part of the upload process, you can add suggested videos, a subscribe image and even links to external websites should you meet the monetization criteria.

Here’s an example of an end screen template which you could use to model:

YouTube Affiliate Marketing – Keeping Safe

Like all big platforms, accounts can easily get shut down. 

It can happen to anyone, big or small.

While there is no foolproof way to keep 100% safe, these steps should ensure you, as an affiliate marketer, keep as safe as possible

• Do not make EVERY video an affiliate one. Do value based teachings in addition, and do not link out of YouTube on these.
• Make your FIRST several videos non affiliate
• Never use a raw tracking link. Use Pretty Links and link to your own website if possible.
• Link to other videos in YouTube cards and 
• Do not use misleading tags/meta data.
• Do not make videos on affiliate offers that go against the terms of Service
• Use common sense

So, let’s move on to one of the above points.

Linking to Your Own Website/Presell Page

You will always get much better conversions if you link to a page on your website as opposed to the sales page directly.

Why?

Well for one, you will stand out.

But it also gives you a chance to do one of 3 main things:

• Build a list
• Expand on your review 
• Pixel your audience

Build a list

It may be an old method, but building a list is as important now as it has always been.

If you direct people from a video in which you hoped to make an affiliate sale to a squeeze page, you can build a list and that gives you the chance to follow up via email.

A simple flow would be:

1. Video
2. Landing page
3. Thank you page
4. Email follow up

For example, for a review video of a membership plugin you could offer a free guide of the pros and cons of the top 5 plugins.

Then on the thank you page you can link to the affiliate offer of choice or wait until the emails you send to promote.

This video leads to a squeeze page that then promotes a course.

There are many tools used to make landing pages and more extravagant funnels such as Clickfunnels.

What else can we do?

Expand on your review

Sending people to a page on your website allows you to expand on your review. 

And of course, some folk prefer to read rather than watch a video.

For example this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYv7nqMF8vk leads to this page: https://beerswithadam.com/paykickstart-review/

I was able to add a buy button, a bonus, a table of contents and expand on the video.

Everything on your website is yours. 

So if the viewer gets distracted, it will be by your stuff, not another person’s video.

I also have a pixel on that website too which we will come to now.

Pixel your audience

One of the main reasons you want to direct as much traffic as possible to a website you own is to take advantage of pixels

What exactly is a tracking pixel?

A tracking pixel is a 1×1 image that is placed into the code of a webpage (and other places). 

It is not visible to users but behind the scenes, it does a ton of work.

Advertising networks such as Facebook, Google ads, Twitter and so on provide each user with a unique pixel.

The pixel can tell  you which content people have viewed.

If you have these tracking pixels correctly installed on your site, you will be able to find out if people are coming from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or another form of paid traffic.

Each network has specific instructions on how to install the code on your website.

And each website is slightly different.

In this video, I show you how to get your codes for Facebook, Twitter and Google, and install them on a WordPress site using FREE plugins.

To ensure you have pixels correctly installed you can use free Chrome extensions as shown in this image:

From left to right we have the Google Tag Assistant, The Facebook Pixel helper and the Twitter Pixel helper.

All show that the pixels have been installed correctly.

Now, I can go into Google Ads, Facebook or Twitter and build an audience of people who have visited my page.

From there, I can run advertisements to these people to remind them of the affiliate offer that I was selling on those pages.

This is a bit more advanced and there is a lot of free training on this on YouTube, but it will help you with affiliate sales as not everyone buys something the first time they visit your page.

So now you have all that set up, it’s vital your videos get seen by folk searching for the keywords you are targeting.

Rank your videos on YouTube

This could be a huge article on its own and is an integral part of the Video Marketing Insider program.

But unless you are able to rank your videos on the top few spots on Youtube, then you will struggle to get much action.

YouTube wants its viewers to get the best experience possible.

If you can deliver that then your videos will rank.

One key way Youtube determines this is Click Through Rate.

If your video gets more clicks for the keywords it is targeting than other videos then this sends positive signal to Youtube.

The easiest way to do this is by using amazing thumbnails.

Thumbnails are the first thing that a prospective viewer sees.

Next is the title. You need to have your keyword in your title but also use intrigue to get the click.

Emoticons help but use sparingly or you look cheap.

The above image has a Thumbnail with bright colours, an intrigue in the title (Never before seen) and emoticons.

Read our definitive guide to YouTube thumbnails here: https://videomarketinginsider.com/youtube-thumbnails/

Ranking on YouTube is key, but if possible, you also want to rank on Google.

Rank your videos on Google

Google is the Daddy and being able to rank your videos on it is going to get you a bunch of traffic.

Certain keywords are super hard to get onto Google’s first page but if you can, you’ll get more traffic than on YouTube for the most part.

Unlike Youtube, for Google, backlinks and embeds still hold a lot of sway as do YouTube Ads.

Get a mix of the three, and over time you’ll have a great chance.

It just does not happen overnight unless you are targeting product launches that have minimal competition or low competition keywords in general.

Look to get backlinks from relevant websites to the video in question.

And get your video embedded on as many properties as you can. Your own blog or website is a great place to start.

Web 2.0s are a great place too

Tumblr, WordPress (the free version), Weebly, Blogger and so on are all good places to embed your video on.

There are many more than that of course, and you can do this manually, have a virtual assistant do it or use software.

Video Marketing Insider members have access to a software called Embedinate that simplifies the process.

Google Properties

Google has a bunch of its own properties that you can embed your videos on too such as Google sites, Google My Maps and many more.

YouTube Ads

If you are a bit more advanced, and not wanting to try your hand at ranking videos, you can pay Google to show your videos to a laser targeted audience.

There are two main types of ads:

1. Discovery
2. In-stream

Here are examples of each.

Discovery Ads:

You can get your YouTube affiliate marketing video in front of an audience looking for what your product does by running a discovery ad.

They appear like this:

There are intricacies to setting these up but one thing you can do is target a set of keywords.

So, when a user of s specific demographic types in a keyword, such as ‘learn Japanese’ in the above example, your ad can appear at the top above the videos that are ranking organically.

If you have an eye-catching thumbnail and good copy, you can get the click, which means a view and potentially the viewer clicking through to your website.

In Stream Ads:

These are ads that are like mini commercials.

Most of them are annoying but done right they are super effective.

Like this one. 

A person types ‘learn to play the guitar’ and click on a top ranking video.

Before the video is a congruent ad on the same topic.

 

The viewer is taken here after clicking and the ad has done its job.

We cover how to take out these ads plus provide supporting software here.

YouTube Affiliate Marketing Summary

Anyone can be successful with YouTube affiliate marketing but like all things, it requires thought, planning, action, testing and tweaking.

 

 

It does not happen overnight.

There are many other techniques that can get you in trouble or even banned.

There’s no need to do anything black hat, use proxies, upload hundreds of videos at a time. 

Offer a particular audience value and learn how to research niches, identify keywords, make videos, rank them and list build.

You can do it.

PS…If you liked this post on YouTube affiliate marketing, then please share it.

 

 

 

 

Last updated on August 2, 2020

Storyboards – as they are known today – were the brainchild of the geniuses over at Walt Disney studios in the 1930s.

Today, they have gone beyond the animated movie scene and entered the corporate world. 

No less than 87% of marketers are making use of video content in their marketing strategies and a good percentage of those embrace storyboard as the telling media.

With video content driving no less than 64% of customers to buy a product, causing 80% more conversions than on landing pages that don’t use them, it is here to stay.

With such impressive stats in the loop, it makes sense to delve into the idea of what storyboarding is. 

What is Storyboarding?

The idea of storyboarding is to help advertising agencies and media houses better present the concepts that they would like to use in commercials. 

It consists of a series of illustrations which show the sequential arrangement of events that would occur in the said commercial from start to finish. 

A storyboard also helps incorporate all the other elements that would be involved in the video before final production begins. 

In a way, a storyboard can be likened to be the taking of visual notes (as opposed to textual alternatives) that aid the development of the video for advertisement or other purposes.

What is the purpose of storyboarding?

In video creation, storyboarding has multiple purposes with many benefits.. These upsides can be described as follows

•Idea Materialization: When a new commercial is to be developed, a copywriter is employed to create the copy to be used.

An art director then works with the copywriter to make their ideas come to life (before final production) with the aid of their storyboarding skills.

This storyboard helps to work out the ideas of the copywriter in detail while allowing the art director to showcase their creative prowess. 

By the time the storyboard is done, the advertising team will be better informed on how to shoot, portray and convey the message in different frames and scenes.

•Elemental Combinations: Another win for storyboarding comes in the way it allows for the pre-planning of elements which would go into different scenes. 

The art director will be able to illustrate which aspects will be for video, where the animations will go, how the still images will align and so much more.

They will also be able to control how the audio will go in line with sound effects and music, where applicable.

•Initial Presentation: Rather than spending all that money on shooting a video that gets rejected or sent back for minor changes, the storyboard helps get that problem out of the way. 

A senior in the agency or a team member could look through the storyboard and help make additional tweaks before final production kicks in.

•Production: Perhaps the biggest advantage of the storyboard comes at the time of production.

Even if the director knew nothing of the project earlier, they are able to decipher a lot just by looking at the storyboard.

A detailed storyboard will inform the director of the number of actors, sequences, required scenes, props and so on that are needed for final production.

Creating a Functional Storyboard

The beauties a storyboard brings to the table will not be brought to life if you cannot create a great one. In fact, the success of the video commercial is dependent on how great the storyboard is in the first place. 

For those who are interested in creating one for themselves, the steps below are for you.

 

1) Develop Template

​You can develop your template on a small or large scale. It is advisable that you develop this template on some pieces of paper before moving them to a larger (preferably white) board. 

Speaking of paper, opt for plain sheets over ruled ones.

Once you have those, you should start by drawing some rectangular boxes. Below each of these boxes, make sure you leave spaces for important details such as:

• • Actor
• • Action
• • Dialogue
• • Effects, etc.

You will also want to make sure each block you have drawn will represent each shot of the video commercial. 

By the way… There are a series of storyboarding scripts that you can get online for free. You can download one here.

 

2) Introduce the Script

​Remember the lines you left under each of the boxes? This is where they come into play.

Take the script (that must have been developed by the copywriter) and slot the dialogue into the designated boxes.

 

3) Sketch your characters

​You don’t have to be a Picasso to get this part done. Drawing simple stick figures will do the trick.

In the case of multiple actors in a single frame, you might want to add special designation to your stick figures so as to keep things simple.

If there is going to be any movement in the frame, simply use an arrow to indicate that in the desired direction. 

Another alternative to sketching images is making use of photographs. 

Don’t have time for that? Get some magazines and cut out images from them.

If all else fails, you can check out some online storyboarding tools that will allow you add speech bubbles, texts, choice images and all that fanfare.

 

4) Take Notes

​After having all the fun, you might want to add some of your thoughts for the next person that will be working on the storyboard. 

You can add in notes at the end of each scene for that.

You can also bring more life to the scenes with notes that describes what is happening, preferred camera angles and if applicable, special effects. 

Whatever you see fit to go into that frame, don’t leave it out in the notes.

On a final note, storyboarding is as interesting as it is impressive. It allows you to express your ideas for a shot in practically no time.

When next you’ve got an inspiration for a commercial in mind, you can draw fast and sloppy to refine later, but you’ll surely have a great video from it.  

Can’t draw storyboards? Don’t worry – there are a lot of experts out there who can take your idea, put a creative spin on it and give you gold!

PS…We hope you liked this Introduction to Storyboarding for Video. Please let us know by sharing this post.

Last updated on January 3, 2021

Social video Media Specs

If you want a successful social media marketing strategy, it is imperative you use video.

No ifs or buts.

The trouble is, all the different social media platforms are constantly updating older video ad formats while releasing new ones. This can be a pain for us all.

As a business you need to ensure you are using the right kind of video on the platform you chose.

Otherwise, your content may not look the best and you could be wasting valuable real estate.

Facebook is prime example of this as they offer a wide variety of options to deliver video.

A Facebook video ad can appear in a multitude of different formats from carousel video ads to canvas video ads, collection video ads and more.

Get the specs wrong at it wastes space and give the impression that you are not clued up. 

And that’s only Facebook.

So without further ado, here are all the social media video specs you need for the main platforms today courtesy of us at the Video Marketing Insider.

All major social media platforms are listed:

 

PS…We hope you liked our Social video Media Specs guide. Please let us know and share this post.

Last updated on November 11, 2020

Instagram continues to be one of the hippest, and fastest growing social media platforms.

People love the visual nature of Instagram and marketers love having access to the Facebook advertising tools on it.

Instagram has over 800 million active monthly users and experts expect it to reach 1 billion within the next year. Over 60% of its users login daily, giving it 500 million active daily users.

80% of all users follow at least one business or brand on Instagram.

Instagram video ads make up over 25% of all advertising on the platform. The amount of time users spends watching videos has increased 80% year-over-year.

The platform continues to innovate new ways for users to share videos, including the introduction of Instagram Stories. 

The popularity of the platform prompted this beginners guide to Instagram video marketing.

Video Options and Requirements

Instagram is a mobile first platform. You will need to post videos from the Instagram mobile app (will talk about IGTV later on). The desktop version of Instagram has extremely limited functionality.

You have three basic options for video on Instagram:

1. Create a video ad
2. Use a video in a post
3. Post a video on Instagram Stories

You can record a video from the Instagram app or you can upload a pre-recorded video from your mobile device.

Video ads must be 60 seconds or shorter. Engagement on video ads drops off dramatically after 30 seconds.

If you are sharing live video you can share up to an hour of video at a time. If you are uploading a video to your profile the video has to be 60 seconds or shorter.

Videos you post to Instagram Stories can only be 15 seconds long.

Just like Twitter, by default, all videos are muted.

Key Instagram Video Marketing Strategies

Video marketing on Instagram is about making a fast impression. You don’t have time to convey a lot of information. In order to be effective your videos have to look amazing.

The most effective videos on Instagram tend to be entertaining instead of informative.

Instagram makes it hard to stand out organically. 80% of all Instagram posts are never seen by anyone.

If you are going to be posting videos to your profile, you need to first invest in getting a strong following that interacts with your posts.

Most brands find that paid video ads get the best results. You have more control over who is seeing your video and you show up in more feeds.

Like Facebook, Instagram is largely pay-to-play.

While some brands have had great results with Instagram Stories, most businesses are not getting as strong of a return on investment on these short videos.

Part of the reason is that 15 seconds isn’t enough time to get much of a message across.

Another issue is that Instagram Stories was meant to mimic Snapchat, and the videos disappear after 24 hours.

The best practice for Instagram video are to shoot videos with vibrant colors and to include unusual backdrops or props to catch the attention of viewers scrolling by.

The videos should have text subtitles because most users will not unmute videos. Make sure the video has a clear call to action that users can accomplish while on the app.

Putting Together an Instagram Video Marketing Campaign

The basic rules for creating an effective Instagram video marketing campaign are the same as the ones for Twitter, but the execution is a little different:

1. Goal
2. Best Practices
3. Audience
4. Script
5. Shoot More
6. Analyze and Iterate

Your goal for the video will determine what kind of video you shoot. Instagram is very limited on what actions you can have users take.

You cannot include a clickable link in your post or ad that sends users off of Facebook.

You can have them buy from you directly through the app if you have set that up beforehand or you can have one clickable link in your profile.

You have somewhere between 15 seconds and 60 seconds to get your message across.

Given people’s attention spans, you have to get them to commit to you in the first 3 sends of the video.

Make the first part of video interesting. You need to trigger a core emotion such as fear, happiness, greed, excitement, or curiosity in that first 3 seconds.

Because you have access to the Facebook targeting tools on Instagram, it is easier for you to drill down to your core audience with paid ads.

Paid ads generally have a higher rate of return over the short-term than any other Instagram video marketing options.

Your script has to be tight though because you have such a short window.. You have no room for wasted words.

Take the time to make sure you know what every second of the video is going to be like before you shoot.

Even though you only have 60 seconds, you should still make the most of every video shoot and take more footage than you need for a single video.

You can later share stills or GIFs from the video shoot on Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, or other platforms.

The difference between a failed video marketer and a successful marketer is in the data.

Successful video marketing always comes down to analyzing what went right and what went wrong, and then repeating what went right and trying something new when things go wrong.

An ad that did not yield the desired results is really an ad that showed you what didn’t work and there fore the information gathered should never be viewed as useless or a waste of money.

Examples of Great Instagram Video Marketing

Instagram is a great research tool.

Make sure you are following your competitors and brands that you admire. See how they are using video.

Imitate what resonates with you and breakdown what bothers you.

Another way to find great examples of Instagram video marketing is on the HubSpot blog.

There you can see how brands as varied as Oreo and Buzzfeed have succeeded with video.

Bloom & Wild Shows You Don’t Need a Big Budget to Succeed with Instagram Video Ads

While looking at the Instagram videos of major brands is fun and educational, it can also be dispiriting.

Many businesses don’t have access to that kind of budget.

But, the brand Bloom & Wild shows that you can succeed with video marketing on Instagram without breaking the bank.

The brand took their existing email list and made a lookalike audience with the Facebook targeting tools.

They discovered that video ads on Instagram got the best response, so they focused on their efforts on that format.

They saw a 62% increase in bouquet orders and a large increase in first time customers as a result of their ads. The ads themselves were low budget ads.

One of the best performing ones was a simple video of someone putting one of the Bloom & Wild bouquets in a glass vase.

Bloom & Wild made up for a lack of marketing budget by zeroing in on their core audience and carefully analyzing the results of their campaigns and iterating.

To round off this post, we will talk a little about a new development, IGTV.

IGTV – A New Development for Video Marketers

Instagram TV (IGTV) is a new app for watching long-form, vertical videos.

Mobile first: IGTV is built for how you actually use your phone: vertical and full screen.

Simple and intuitive: It starts playing as soon as you open the app. You don’t have to search or browse to get started.

Curated: IGTV is focused on the creators you already follow on Instagram.

IGTV is a video-only platform, and you can’t record video directly within the IGTV app. You can only upload videos to your channel.

Videos need to be in vertical or portrait mode. The best ratio is 9:16, but a ratio as close to square as 4:5 is also supported. In anything other than a 9:16 ratio, the video won’t fill the screen.

Setting Up your IGTV Channel

You can either set up your channel via mobile or desktop.

For Mobile:

To set up your official IGTV channel on your phone, download the free IGTV app (iOS or Android). This is separate from Instagram App.

For Desktop:

Log into your Instagram account and sign in.

Below your bio, you’ll notice the IGTV tab and click Get Started.

IGTV Tips and Advice

To make the most of IGTV we suggest the following bits of advice:

• Use hashtags. Like Instagram, IGTV is very responsive to them.
• If you have 10k followers you are allowed to upload 60 minute videos. Less than that you can only upload 10 minute videos.
• This is still social media so leave comments on videos you like as well as on your own videos. Encourage folk to comment on yours too helps.
• Like creating a new YouTube channel, growth can be sluggish at first which leads many to quit. Patience is a virtue as is consistency if you want to see growth.
• You can add links in your description and in your comment section and this includes affiliate links.

The only problem for marketers at the time of writing this post is that there are no ways to monetize IGTV. We are sure this will change so get in now and be ready for that opportunity when it arises.

Successful video marketing on Instagram comes down to knowing the platform, knowing your audience, connecting emotionally with your audience, and continuous testing and improving on your technique. Click To Tweet

The same principles that help you succeed on YouTube on a budget, also work for Instagram video marketing.

PS…If you enjoyed this post on Instagram video marketing, then we would appreciate a share on Facebook.

Last updated on November 8, 2020

Twitter is making a big push into video marketing. Their algorithm rewards users who use video with increased exposure. That leads to potentially more views, clicks, and sales.

However, video marketing on Twitter  is different than on Facebook or YouTube.

Once you master the basic video marketing best practices for Twitter, you will find it easier to get attention for your business.

Twitter has different user expectations and require different kinds of video content. But, when your content meets these expectations, users will quickly respond to your brand.

Repurposing Content Across Platforms

It can seem daunting having to shoot different kinds of video for each platform. The good news is that you don’t really need to do that.

With a little creativity and advanced planning, you can repurpose content across the different platforms.

You can shoot longer videos and then cut different segments out that can stand on their own for platforms that require shorter videos.

You can also plan ahead and make sure that certain moments of your video are perfect for turning into GIFs.

While you may not be able to use the exact same video on Twitter that you have used on YouTube, you also don’t need to create completely new content either.

One of the keys to video marketing success is learning how to be efficient.

Twitter Video Mastery

Twitter isn’t the first platform you think of when you think of video marketing; YouTube is.

But, it should be one of the next ones that springs to your mind. Twitter has 100 million active daily users and 330 active monthly users.

Most of the action on Twitter is on mobile, where 80% of Twitter users interact with the platform.

When it comes to video marketing, 25% of U.S. marketers are running video ads on Twitter. Tweets with videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than tweets with photos.

Think about that for a second..

Even better, 67% of Twitter users said that promoted videos in the “First View” position were not intrusive and 73% of users found the videos informative.

But, video marketing on Twitter isn’t just about getting attention. 70% of marketers are confident that their videos drive purchases.

Twitter video marketing should be a key part of your business’s marketing strategy.

Video Options and Requirements

Twitter is different when it comes to the rules of the road for videos.

Twitter is all about brevity. They may not limit you to 140 characters anymore, but the new 280-character limit still requires you to be concise when describing what your videos are about.

Videos on Twitter must be 2 minutes and 20 seconds or shorter and must be 512 MB or smaller. Videos between one minute and two minutes tend to outperform other video lengths.

When it comes to posting video on Twitter you have four options:

1. You can record and share a video from the Twitter mobile app
2. You can upload a prerecorded video stored on your mobile device
3. You can upload a video from your computer through the desktop site
4. You can go live through Periscope

You can:

• Post a video as part of a tweet
• Post a video in reply to a tweet
• Create a video ad that appears as sponsored content in a user’s feed

Key Twitter Video Marketing Strategies

Broadly speaking, you have two main strategies for video marketing. You can create paid video ads, or you can create video content you tweet out from your account to your followers.

Most marketers have the most success by using both strategies.

Paid video ads work best when they are eye catching and informative. Users don’t mind ads in their feed as long as they are relevant.

But, because it is so easy to scroll past ads in your feed, the ads need to have a strong visual hook in the first three seconds.

By default, videos on Twitter are muted.

You either need to create videos that work without the volume, or you need to give users a strong incentive to turn up the volume on the video. You also need to instruct users to turn on the volume.

If you are tweeting videos or using videos to reply to other tweets you have to be interesting. Boring content bombs everywhere.

But, Twitter is especially harsh on stale videos. Your videos need to be entertaining, weird, or highly informative.

Because you only have a short time to get your message across, many brands use Twitter to release trailers, sneak peaks, or behind the scenes content and invite users to click a link for more.

Putting Together a Twitter Video Marketing Campaign

There are six steps to putting together an effective Twitter video marketing campaign:

1. Goal
2. Best Practices
3. Audience
4. Script
5. Shoot More
6. Analyze and Iterate

You must be clear on what you want to achieve from your campaign.

Marketing efforts aimed at awareness and ones aimed at getting viewers to take a specific action require completely different approaches.

Until you are clear on your goal, your video marketing efforts will be wasted.

Make sure you understand the best practices of video marketing on Twitter.

This includes having a video that is visually interesting, is between one and two minutes long, and a video that works without the volume or that gives viewers a reason to turn on the video.

Before you shoot anything, you need to have a great script.

The script will set the story of your video and will include themes and words that connect emotionally with your target audience.

Shoot more video than you think you will need. This extra footage may be repurposed on other platforms or can be sliced into separate Twitter videos.

It’s easier to create new content from existing footage than it is to shoot more video footage later.

Video marketing is a process, not an event. Analyze the performance of every video and make improvements.

Make sure that you are measuring how well the video meets your goals. If the video was supposed to get people to click through to your site and it got hundreds of retweets, but no click-throughs, it still failed. Marketing is about… Click To Tweet

The more you analyze and iterate, the more long-term success you will have.

How to Find Great Twitter Video Marketing Examples

Before you spend your time and money creating a Twitter video, spend time on the platform studying what others are doing.

See what videos appeal to you and what ones you scroll past. Imitate the videos that appeal to you.

On the Twitter blog you can find case studies and profiles of successful video marketing campaigns. 

How Coca-Cola Espana Killed It with In-Stream Video Ads

One stunning example of successful Twitter video marketing that was featured on the Twitter blog was Coca-Cola’s Spanish brand, Coca-Cola Espana.

The brand uses in-steam video ads to share it’s Christmas ad. The ad was carefully targeted to connect with its core audience.

The ad was about the brand’s values and tied to Christmas.

The ad received 3 million views, had a view rate of 53%, and was viewed for a total of 393,000 minutes.

The video was also associated with a custom hashtag, #EstamosMasCerca (we are closer).

What made the ad successful was that it was emotional and value based. People shared the ad because it touched them.

Any brand can replicate this process if they are in tune with their core audience.

A step-by-step guide to Twitter video

Once you have your video ready to go, there are several options available that we will go over from here.

The first is to upload your video the right way and we do that by going to our media library. Once logged in to your Twitter account, you can access that here: https://studio.twitter.com/library.

From here, simply click on upload media and upload your video file. 

If it’s over 2 mins and 20 secs, you will not be able to use it.

Once uploaded and rendered, click on the video and you’ll have the option to fill out some basic information. Make sure to include hashtags and any URLs you’d like.

If you click on edit media settings then more options become available to you as shown in the following image:

 

This is pretty self-explanatory and you just complete the information as you wish. Just be sure to follow Twitter’s own Terms of Service.

You can tweet right there and then or schedule it as the image below shows.

Should you want to take out a video ad, and select who sees your video, then you should still upload the video itself to the media section as explained above prior to creating the ad. 

Then, assuming you have your billing all ready to go, you can begin with your ad. You will want to choose ‘promoted video views’ as your option from the ones given.

From here, you need to go through the steps provided to take out your video ad. 

Naming conventions become more important as you take out more and more ads. They are for you to understand what is what and not get confused when you go back in to analyze data.

I tend to use the product or offer that is being promoted only. 

So the campaign could simply be named: Video Marketing Insider – Niches PDF

Budget what you can afford and decide between daily and total budget.

Start or end time is up to you and the offer.

 

Ok…So moving on. Now, should you want to test multiple things such as thumbnail images, copy, targeting..etc here is where naming conventions get more important.

So you could create 3 ad group under the main umbrella campaign name.

• Ad group 1 Video- Red thumb-funny headline-women-Uk
• Ad group 2 Video- Red thumb-funny headline-women-USA
• Ad group 3 Video- Red thumb-funny headline-women-Canada

From the above example, you can see the 3 ad sets differ only by where the target resides. We can come back later after the ad is running to see if there is a big difference in the GEO and amend as necessary.

I leave the other stuff untouched personally.

From here, you can choose the creative. This is why we upload the video(s) beforehand.

 

From here, it’s all about the targeting. There are many options which are beyond the scope of this post. 

While not quite as advanced as Facebook’s audience manager, you still get some pretty detailed options.

Tip: Choose one main target as if you choose multiple targets, you’ll not know which one is the reason for your conversions (or lack of).

Before you submit the campaign for review, you’ll get a chance to review everything.

If you are ok, then you can hit the blue ‘launch campaign’ button’

 

What kind of results can you expect? As you can see from this sample screenshot, you are getting very targeted super cheap video views. 

Some of these will click through to your website(if you have a link) and you can even add a twitter pixel to your site. We do, of course, advocate you add a Facebook,  Adwords and even potentially a Pinterest pixel too, as any traffic you get can be remarketed too if you want.

If you’d like a quick overview on Twitter video ads, you can watch this video here by yours truly:

PS….If you enjoyed this post on Twitter video mastery, please let us know by Tweeting it.

 

Last updated on August 3, 2020

Video marketing is a more than $135 billion industry—and is going to continue to get bigger. Every year more people are watching more videos. Video marketing is an effective tool for any business.

This is also a fast-moving industry. Every day there are new tools, tricks, and tips for gaining attention. But, one fact about video marketing is not going to change anytime soon.

Although others such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter should not be ignored, YouTube is still the most important platform for video.

If you want to make money with video you need to learn how to succeed on YouTube. Many new video marketers get intimidated by the amount of competition on the platform.

The good news is, you can have a lot of success on YouTube without spending a lot of money.

You don’t need the best camera, an expensive green screen, or a private studio to make it big on YouTube. You can have success on YouTube on a budget if you follow and master a few basic principles.

Most Important Elements to YouTube Success

Success on YouTube is about attracting eyeballs to your content. The most successful content is rarely the videos with the highest production value.

Instead, the marketers that have the most success on YouTube focus on just three elements:

1. Ranking Videos
2. Subscribers and funneling viewers elsewhere
3. Authenticity and Mindset

You can become an expert in all three of these areas without spending a lot of money.

Many successful marketers have made six-figures by mastering these elements and using their laptop webcam or the camera on their smartphone.

People are not watching YouTube for the special effects or the high production values. People are tuning into YouTube to get answers to a question or to be entertained.

That’s why learning these three elements is so critical to your success. Each element is about attracting eyeballs to your content and keeping them interested in watching your channel. 

Ranking Videos

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. It also happens to be owned by Google, the world’s largest search engine. If you want to be successful people have to be able to find your content. You have to be able to rank your videos.

This is where many people get scared. They think they can never make videos that are good enough to compete with the millions of videos on the site. But, ranking videos isn’t actually about quality.

It is all about SEO. A specific kind of SEO though, not what most folk would have you believe.

To rank in YouTube, you do not need:

• An Authority Channel (though this helps in other ways)
• Backlinks
• Embeds
• Social Signals such as Tweets or Facebook likes

So what do you need to do?

If you want to rank your videos and you have a limited budget, you need to focus on:

• Channel and Video optimization (SEO)
• Amount of Content
• Click Through Rate (CTR)

Channel and Video SEO

You greatly improve your chances at being successful if you choose a niche and keywords with high demand and low competition Click To Tweet

Firstly, you want to make sure your content pops up when those keywords entered into the search bar.

You have to be able to optimize the metadata on your videos to help them popup in search engines.

Most important of all, you need each video you post to be keyword optimized. You don’t want to keyword stuff. That is not an effective tactic and it turns people off from watching your videos.

But, everything from individual video titles to the individual video tags need to have valuable keywords that make sense for your content and ideal audience.

If you can master YouTube SEO you will be miles ahead of most of the competition.

SEO though goes beyond just using the right keywords. 

You also want to get people to share your videos because the YouTube algorithm love videos that have external sources of traffic.

Note: Backlinks are needed to get your videos ranked on Google, but are not necessary for ranking on YouTube. 

Amount of Content

You cannot be successful on YouTube with just a handful of videos unless you have money to spend on paid advertising. This post is for those on a budget though.

Now, of course you can rank a video if it is the only video on a channel if you know what you are doing, but for overall success, you’ll want to be able to rank multiple videos. Many streams make a river.

People have short attention spans and a voracious appetite for new content. That means you have to constantly be posting new videos.

This does not mean everyday as that is simply unsustainable for most. but 2-3 times a week is a good amount to aim for.

Another reason the amount of content you have matters so much is that being a successful video marketer is a numbers game.

The more optimized content you have out there, the more chances there are for you to attract people ready and willing to watch your content and spend money.

The more videos you have the better your odds are at a few of them going viral.

If you look at the top ranked channels on YouTube you will see that they all have hundreds, if not thousands, of videos.

Source: https://socialblade.com/youtube/top/50

Now, you aren’t really competing against these major players. But, they can give you an idea of the scale you need to be as successful as you want to be.

If you have a limited budget, you can still be extremely successful on YouTube, but you will have to put in the time.

Money is really a way to shortcut the time you have to spend. In the beginning, before you have begun to generate any money from your videos, you will need to put in the sweat equity to be successful.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The main key to ranking your videos on YouTube is managing your click through rate. If people are finding and clicking on your videos more than your competition, then you will rank. Period.

The YouTube algorithm wants to match people with videos they are going to watch. Videos that have a higher CTR will get featured more prominently and will rank higher in searches.

Two things you can do to boost your click through rate are to write captivating titles and to make sure your video thumbnails pop.

Your video titles need to do more than just have the right keywords. They also need to evoke an emotional response in the person searching for information.

Think of the titles you see on the magazines in the grocery checkout aisle. Those headlines on the covers sell a lot of magazines. You can use that same technique to get people to click on your video.

A title like “7 Secrets to Rapid Weight Loss Hiding in Your Freezer” is more likely to get clicks than a title like “Rapid Weight Loss Ideas”. The keywords are the same, but the first one is sexier.

Video is powerful because it is visual. It is easier for people to absorb the information in a video than in simply reading text.

If you want to improve the click through rate on your videos, you also need to make the thumbnails interesting and appealing.

The thumbnails are like small ads for your content.

Earlier we posted detailed instructions on how to get the right thumbnail for your YouTube videos. You can read it here.

You can also add meta data to your thumbnails prior to uploading.

Once you have SEO titles and thumbnails that are sexy, a healthy amount of content, and compelling thumbnails, you will see your video rankings improve dramatically.

But, this is only part of the success equation.

Subscribers

Subscribers are also critical to your success. One of the first rules of business is that it costs less to sell to existing customers than to attract new customers. When it comes to YouTube, subscribers are like your existing customers.

Subscribers will get alerts when you post new content and are more likely to watch your videos all the way through and to take action on your content.

Subscribers help you boost your video rankings by increasing your CTR and give you social proof that helps you attract more viewers.

It is a virtuous cycle. But, how do you grow your subscriber list in the first place?

You have to consciously make adding subscribers a goal. You can do this by:

• Making Sure Every Video Provides Value
• Give People a Reason to Come Back
• Ask People to Subscribe

Auto Subscription Link

When asking people to subscribe, a special subscription link should be provided each and every time you want to promote your channel. This will allow people to auto subscribe.

How do you do this?

You need to add a modifier you add to the end of your channel URL to create a special link.

Here’s how that works:

?sub_confirmation=1

1. Go to your YouTube url/channel name. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/user/adampayne75

2. Copy and paste or type in the modifier ?sub_confirmation=1 at the end of your channel name to look like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/adampayne75?sub_confirmation=1

3. Now use this as a link for your audience to automatically subscribe to your YouTube channel.

You can use a link shortener if you’d prefer to make the link nicer. For WordPress users we recommend the free plugin Pretty Links.

Provide Value

Just about everyone online is afraid of commitment. Subscribing to a YouTube channel may not seem like a huge commitment, but for many people it is a big step.

They are committing to getting alerts about your content.

If you want people to make that commitment you have to be proving them with great value. Every video you post should solve a problem or at least get people one step closer to solving a problem.

Fluff content won’t get people to subscribe.

If you want people to be excited to hear from you, make sure every video over delivers on the information it provides.

Tease Upcoming Content

You need to give people a reason to come back to your channel. One way to increase subscribers is to tease the content you will be releasing soon.

You don’t need to create a movie trailer, but you should your videos by letting people know what you will be talking about next.

This will motivate them to subscribe so that they don’t miss your next useful video.

This tactic only works if your videos are actually delivering on the promises you made in the title, video description, and the last teaser.

Call to Action

The most important part of increasing your subscriber base is inviting people to subscribe. It sounds obvious, but many marketers forget to include a call to action to subscribe in their videos.

People are busy. Most people watching your videos will be doing two or three different things while your video is on. You need to help them focus by delivering a clear call to action.

One of the most effective methods is to end the video with a recap of the value you provided, a tease of upcoming content, and a call to action to subscribe so they don’t miss valuable content from you in the near future.

Authenticity and Mindset

If you search for inspirational quotes about success you will find most of them focus on success being a journey or a process.

The truth is, if you are willing to put in the work and gradually improve over time, you can succeed at anything—YouTube is no different.

You need the right mindset to be successful. You also need to be authentic. There might be thousands of people in your niche, but there is only one you. Click To Tweet

Once you learn to tap into the power of your own story you will find YouTube to be more emotionally and financially rewarding.

Forget Being Perfect

Your first videos are going to suck. That’s okay. If you wait to get started on YouTube until you make the perfect video you will never get started.

If all you have is the camera on your phone, that’s enough to get started. With very video you shoot and post, you will gain more skills and more confidence.

In a year from now you will be a little embarrassed by your first videos. But, that will be because you have iterated and improved. If you can get a little better with every video, you will be unstoppable.

Remember, success on YouTube is, in part, a numbers game. Get started now and don’t stop posting and improving.

Connect Emotionally with Your Audience

Successful businesses in every industry and niche have one thing in common. They connect emotionally with their customers. This is true for cars and microchips.

You want to build trust and to show your audience you understand their fears and their problems.

If you have can connect emotionally with your audience, you can write your own check. People will be happy to do whatever you ask them to do.

But, if you seem fake, boring, or disinterested in them they will ignore you and move onto to something else.

Understand Your Why

You can succeed on YouTube with a limited budget. But, it is going to take work and focus. Not every day is going to be great. You need something that keeps you going when things are slow.

You need to have a powerful “why” behind you. Why are you on YouTube. You need something beyond just a desire to make money. That’s not powerful enough.

Maybe you want more time to spend with your family. Maybe you want an income stream that gives you the freedom to travel the world. Maybe you are passionate about helping as certain segment of people.

Whatever it is, you need to make sure you have good grasp on why you are doing what you are doing.

When things get tough, your why will give you the energy and motivation to keep pushing forward until you break through and achieve the success you were meant to have.

Video Creation

By following what we have spoken about so far, you have every chance your videos will be found. Especially if you pay attention to your titles and thumbnails. 

You will also come across as authentic.

But of course, you still need to have a way of creating your videos.

There are a ton of choices out there but if you are on a budget, what can you do?

Popular solutions like Camtasia, while recommended, aren’t exactly cheap.

And the mass of softwares released to a hungry market in the Make money online arena are almost never supported nor stand the test of time.

Luckily you do not need a ton of equipment.

But most of you reading this will have access to a smartphone. And many computers will have a built in webcam.

These two options will allow you to create a variety of videos:

• Talking head
• Screen recordings
• Live events (doable from your smart phone with the YouTube App)

If your budget allows, you can splash out on a selfie stick or small tripod for stability should you want to up your game a little.

For lighting, use the best source available. The sun!

Either record outside or in a room with good sunlight.

For now, if money is tight, you’ll need to use the built in mic that you have. But once you have some spare coin, we do recommend investing in a sturdy mic such as the Blue Yeti.

How to make money from your videos on a budget?

The ultimate aim of all of this is to make some money.  Doing this will allow you to re-invest into tools and softwares to take your video marketing to another level and perhaps invest into paid advertising.

At first, the obvious choice is to go the Adsense route. Now, it can be difficult to make anything worthwhile unless you have a massive following, it is free to get started and you do not need any external tools.

https://www.google.com/adsense/

The trouble with this method, is that it takes a long time and a lot of traffic to see any worthwhile results.

Adsense is great niches like Nursery Rhymes or areas related to children but for most it is not worth the effort.

So what else can you do?

Alternative List Building?

A great way to approach this if you are on a budget is to take advantage of other social media such as Facebook. And don’t worry, we are not going to be doing stuff on our personal profile.

Facebook groups (not pages) are a great way to build a list of sorts. Not the traditional list which will involve forking out on an autoresponder and landing page tools, but a list of people who you can funnel into a Facebook group.

Costs nothing by the way.

You can link out to your group and mention it in verbal calls to action. The more folk you can get to join your group the better. And, you’ll find that many folk are more active on Facebook than YouTube so you end up killing two birds with one stone.

The key to a successful Facebook group is showing up everyday. It can be tough at first when the only person liking your posts is you. But keep at it.

Facebook groups are free and simple to set up and you can now charge folk to join

Note: Not all niches are on Facebook. If your YouTube channel is about herpes, do not expect a big crowd on Facebook. In that case, the traditional email list would be the best way to go.

All that said, if you are on a budget and want to venture into video marketing, all is not lost. It’ll just take a bit more patience and dedication. 

Affiliate marketing

A final option is to link out to related affiliate offers in the description of your videos. To make the most of this opportunity you should:

• Ensure the link is in the first two lines of the description
• Works (test it)
• Is not too long. Use a shortener service (helps to track clicks as well)
• Ensure all your videos have an affiliate disclaimer. Set this up in the upload defaults as highlighted below:

 

So, in short you can be a success on YouTube on a budget if you follow our steps. It may just take you a bit longer than those who have some cash to spend to get the ball rolling.

PS…If you found value in this post, then we would appreciate it if you shared it on Facebook.

 

Last updated on September 25, 2020

Whatever search term you plug into YouTube, you’ll be shown hundreds and sometimes thousands of videos.

Naturally, we are inclined to watch the video that is ranked number one most of the time.

The fact that we do helps that video to stay at top spot. Why?

Well, one of, if the not THE most important factor when it comes to ranking, is the Click Through Ratio (CTR) of your video.

Put simply, if more folk are clicking on the video, then that is sending a message to YouTube that the video is of value. In turn, Youtube will reward this video with a ranking. Click To TweetCTR isn’t the only factor that aids in ranking though.

We also have watch time, retention rate (how long the person stays on your video) and engagement (likes, comments and subscribes).

Get all these down, at least more than your competitors, and you win.

Fail, and you lose. Simple!

Herein lies the problem though:

What Get’s the click?

When you enter a search term into Youtube and see the results, how do you decide what to watch?

 

If you are like 99.9% of other homo sapiens, then Titles and Thumbnails.

People are attracted to the image (thumbnail) and the title of the video. Get these two right and you have every chance of getting the desired result.

So as this post is all about YouTube thumbnails, let’s get cracking.

YouTube Thumbnails

Thumbnails play a huge role in what viewers decide to click on. 

Viewers click on thumbnails that feel relevant to their search as well as those that stand out from the crowd.

And as a content creator, you need to be constantly testing and tweaking various thumbnail designs in order to drive and compel viewers to click on your videos.

Your task, when it comes to creating YouTube thumbnails, is to make something that does this, while also maintaining your own unique style.

 

Let’s start from the beginning though.

What exactly is a Thumbnail?

YouTube thumbnails are the small clickable images that a viewer clicks on to look at videos.

A bit like these:

Now, from the above you can decide which one ‘you’ are more likely to click on.

Some thumbnails use text, others gross images for shock attention grabbing, and others different techniques.

The attractiveness of your thumbnail along with the title will be the main determining factor as to whether your video gets the click.

And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

A great thumbnail can make up for a lower ranking, and, over time, actually force your video up the search engine because it will ‘force’ more people to click on it.

In addition, it’s important to note that people have short attention spans. Speaking of short attention spans, here is a free gift for you. Grab your list of profitable Youtube niches by clicking the below image:

You still here? Good.

So, while people are supposedly watching a video, they may also be scrolling down the right hand side (suggested videos area).

If your video is there, and has an amazing thumbnail and title, you may well be able to ‘steal the click’.

A ton of Youtube’s  traffic comes from the suggested videos on the right hand side.

What happens if you do not make a Thumbnail?

If you are lazy and cannot be bothered to make a custom thumbnail, what happens?

Whenever you upload a video to Youtube, you will find that 3 still shots are chosen at random like in the image below (look to the right side of the image).

The three images in the above picture are all still shots from my video, but look plain and hardly rouse excitement.

If I were lazy, I could do nothing and one of those three images would be used as my thumbnail by default. This saves time but my video would not stand out from the crowd at all.

By adding a custom thumbnail, I am able to at least make the video appear better and potentially get more clicks (even with my anti-model looks).

How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail? Best YouTube Thumbnail Maker

If you want to make a Custom Thumbnail for your YouTube videos, then you’ll need a tool to proceed.

Now if you are competent with photoshop, all good, but it’s not always necessary to pay for a software in order to make a decent image.

One free tool that we recommend is Canva.com.

This is a web-based software that allows you to create images for all your social media needs, including YouTube thumbnails.

Here is a simple tutorial:

If you need royalty free photos for your thumbnail creation you can use the services at:

https://www.pexels.com/

https://unsplash.com/

https://pixabay.com/

Canva does have a library of free (and paid) images that you can use but the aforementioned sites will give you more than enough to use. Simply upload them to Canva, then drag and drop to design your thumbnail.

You can of course just outsource the creation of your thumbnails to someone on a website like Fiverr.

If you do, make sure to choose someone wisely after reading the reviews and provide them with all the information they need to proceed.

For example, provide a few shots of yourself, your logo plus give guidelines of the video topic and the colouring required.

Once you find a good designer, you’ll be able to use them over and over again.

How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail

When you upload a new video to YouTube, you will see a Custom thumbnail option under Video thumbnails after your upload is complete. 

Click on that and choose your thumbnail from your computer.

If you want to add a custom thumbnail to a video that has already been uploaded, that’s easy too.

1. Go to your Video Manager in the Creator Studio.
2. Find the video you want to change the thumbnail for and click Edit next to it.
3. Click Custom thumbnail on the right of the preview screen.
4. Upload your thumbnail and click Save changes.

YouTube Thumbnail Size

Regarding the image size, you’ll need to use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and your file size has to be under 2MB.

YouTube recommends that thumbnail images have a resolution of 1289x720px, and you cannot upload an image with a width of less than 640 pixels.

Make sure that all of your thumbnails follow YouTube’s Community guidelines. In other words, use common sense.

Ninja tip: 

For a bit of added SEO, you can add your keywords to the Meta Data of your image prior to uploading.

10 Tips on How to Make Thumbnails That Get Clicks 

1. Show What Your Video Is About

Being clickbaity can get you views, but it can also be very annoying if the thumbnail is not congruent with the video. Even if you manage to get some clicks by being overly hyped, you’ll end up with a low retention rate as people will not actually watch much of the video once they realize what you pulled.

This will adversely affect your ranking so it’s not worth it.

Be honest in your thumbnails as well as catching the eye.  

If your video is a product review, show the product in the thumbnail and maybe even write ‘review’ on it. If your video is a teeth whitening video , show your before and after gnashers.  

2. Use a Consistent Layout

Where possible, really try to use similar fonts, colours, backgrounds etc. Especially if you are creating playlists (groups of videos that have a similar topic).

Let’s say you are in the weight loss niche.

You could have one similar set of thumbnails for your ‘weight loss for kids’ videos, another for your ‘weight loss for men over 40’ videos and so on.  

Creating repeated patterns in your thumbnail design helps as the human eye is drawn to patterns.

When you create a complete thumbnail design that you repeat over multiple thumbnails and those show up together in suggested videos or the search location on YouTube, they’re going to stand out.

So incorporate and leverage the same colors and fonts again and again.

Like these from the Cartoon Hangover channel:

3. Use Your Face

Even though you may be no supermodel, people are subscribing because of the value, education and/or entertainment value you bring.

Sure they may be keen on dog training or survival, but there are other channels they could be watching and they are subscribed to you for a reason.

They are attracted to your personality and your sense of humor. So do not be shy about putting yourself in the thumbnail.

Of course you do not have to do this, but it’s not something you need to avoid either.

Some of the best thumbnails include a close up of a face  (preferably yours if you are the brand). Face pulling is fine and we recommend a transparent .PNG image.

For the best results, we advocate close ups, and a variety of differing facial expressions. Some for fun, others more serious.

4. Your Text Should Be LARGE BABY

One tendency many folk have is to try and cram too much text onto the thumbnail. You have to remember that when your thumbnail is on Youtube, it’ll be much smaller than when you are creating it.

The text needs to be large, readable and make sense. You do not need the whole phrase. Viewers don’t ‘read’ thumbnails on YouTube.

Viewers comprehend. They ‘understand’ what the image is about. 

All the above videos are about the same topic, but the bottom two are too ‘text full’. There is a lot going on and potential viewers will not read the whole thing.

Text is good, just use it wisely.

5. Check Out The Competition

Type your video’s title or topic into the search engine on YouTube and look at the thumbnails for the videos that come up. These are your competition.

You want to make a thumbnail that is similar enough to what comes up that viewers know it’s on the same topic, but different enough that it stands out.

Generally, if most of the thumbnails have the same layout, you’ll not want to stray too far but still add your own unique personality.

6. Colours are King ( and Queen)

Avoid soft pastel colours and go for bright and saturated colours. Simple!

And if you can, avoid YouTube colours such as Red, white and black as these can often blend in and not stand out (just as it is not advisable to use Blue when advertising on Facebook).

Green, Yellow, Brown are all great colours to use. So long as they are bright and stand out.

Even Youtube has said that a thumbnail that stands out will help you get a better click through ratio. So do just that!

7. Lines

Diagonal lines win over straight ones . If you look at some of the best thumbnails out there, few have basic square borders. The best ones incorporate a kind of diagonal line to separate the elements. 

8. Add your logo

If you have one,  add your logo to your thumbnails. This only adds to the consistency and that’s a good thing.

9. The Title is Vital

Look at the image below:

Look at the titles from video #1 and #3 from the above example. Number three is boring and bland. It may have the keyword in the title, but that’s all.

Number 1 has the keyword PLUS the phrase ‘3 soccer kicks you must know’. This invokes curiosity. What are these 3 kicks? Better watch the video to find out.

Extras:

Use these things in your title to make them stand out:

• Curiosity based phrases
• [Brackets]
• The Year (just keep your video title up to date by changing it each year)
• Emojis (use sparingly)
• Questions

So, that just about wraps up this Video Marketing Insider post on YouTube thumbnails.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it on Social Media and get to work creating eye-catching thumbnails to get better results with your videos. Thanks…