Does your brand need YouTube advertising in 2021?

However, should all brands invest in YouTube ads? And for which industries are YouTube ad integrations most effective?

Yana Bashlykevich, the head of the Mediacube agency, a division of the Mediacube partner network, will tell you more about it. Mediacube is one of the fastest-growing YouTube affiliate networks in the world. It works with bloggers and brands all around the world (including Opera, WIX, Huawei, Nord VPN, Montoon, Wargaming and Filmora) to help people find what they’re looking for and earn more.

“Indeed, the share of the advertising budget on YouTube is growing steadily and will continue to grow. In the next few years, we will continue to see the explosive growth of influencer marketing. Experts say that its share in 2021 will grow by another 15%.”

What is happening with the market, what role does YouTube play here, and – most importantly – how can brands not lose in a game where the rules change every day?

IT, gaming and education are the spheres that are currently at their peak. If you work in these industries, YouTube video ads will definitely be useful for you.

Information Technology

Traditionally, the best results and the most effective advertising indicators are observed in the IT industry. Technology is a traditional industry champion. First and foremost, we are talking about software such as VPN, mobile utilities or anything you might call ‘tech’.

Influencer Marketing Hub notes in its report that technology has the highest reach on YouTube. In the third quarter of 2020, it reached 6bn views. Leading brands in the IT industry have spent over $68m on YouTube ads from creators.

Interestingly, most IT companies saw as the main goal of integration not increasing brand awareness, but organizing the sale of products through special applications and contests.

The IT industry is a very broad concept that includes many different directions in both the B2B and B2C segments. If you are thinking about influencer marketing, it is worth considering that people are switching from laptops and computers to mobile devices en masse. Finding good channels with a good reach rate today that are dominated by the PC viewing segment is not easy.

It’s very important to understand this when forming your marketing strategy. This means that ads are likely to be most effective for companies that develop mobile products.

We at Mediacube see that now even platforms that imply work on a PC have analog applications for mobile phones. This means that almost any digital brand or IT product can be advertised on YouTube, because there is a version for mobile phones.

More than 70% of users watch YouTube on mobile devices. This means that all those brands that can adapt themselves for mobile and understand that they can find their target audience on YouTube. Those who have a budget for promotion and testing, and who are not afraid to experiment, can ‘make it big’ on YouTube.

Advertising of tech products will be great on channels with technical reviews, unpacking, science pop, gaming and podcasts (mostly with the male audience).

Gaming

The second top YouTube category after technology is the gaming sector. In the last year, the interest in games has been steadily growing, as well as their piece of the pie in the YouTube advertising market – 20-25%. And, of course, quarantine gave an extra boost to this area. In a time of closed borders, remote work and self-isolation, the choice of entertainment and pastime was severely limited, which played into the hands of the gaming sector.

We add the fact that in a quarantine situation, the number and quality of advertising channels has also significantly decreased and moved online. Consequently, YouTube has become an important and compelling marketing channel. So to speak, games and YouTube have found each other.

Game projects are a very active advertiser. For such products, YouTube traffic is one of the most relevant. It is also relatively easy to predict performance here. In general, due to the fact that the audience is more casual, it’s quite easy to find a suitable segment for games.

Mobile games are now well monetized, with developers ready to experiment. They are willing to advertise actively and a lot. Moreover, the gaming industry looks to influencer marketing as an integral part of its marketing strategy. Interestingly, unlike in areas such as beauty and fashion, the gaming industry does not consider YouTube solely as an image platform. For the gaming industry, YouTube is the point of sale. This area accounts for almost 80% of purchases and installs during advertising campaigns.

It’s worth noting that gaming remains almost the only industry where the position of the PC is preserved. PC and mobile perform equally well on YouTube. This primarily applies to strategy games and other ‘hardcore’ genres.

Advertising of gaming products usually gives good results on channels of the same topic as in the case of tech, as well as challenges and entertainment with a male audience.

Education

The third important area that can be effectively hosted on YouTube is online education. This market began to develop actively even before coronavirus. With the onset of 2020 and the escalation of the pandemic, entire colleges and universities have moved online. Researchers note that this market, for example, in the United States alone may grow by $46.9bn by 2024.

Looking at the numbers, there is no reason not to believe this prediction. In the App Store, the Education category in 2020 became the third most popular after games and business applications, taking almost 9% of all downloads. And on Google Play, education turned out to be the second most popular category.

Many brands are still selling themselves on PC platforms. But if you don’t regard the platforms and devices from which the channel is viewed, the share of projects from the education sector has indeed increased over the past year.

If earlier this segment was quite difficult to ‘pump’, now every month new projects appear and they are in high demand. People complete one course, but they are ready to develop their skills further, so they are eagerly looking for more and more activities. In addition, some businesses, such as offline schools, have moved online. The audience that is interested in the possibility of distance learning is definitely on YouTube.

We have extensive experience in cooperation with many education platforms, such as Skillbox, Lingoda, Geekbrains and Puzzle English, and we ourselves notice an increase in the demand for advertising from bloggers.

The best channels for advertising educational projects are interviews, podcasts, news channels and lifestyle vlogs.

It’s rather difficult to find out in advance which integration will work well and which will not. All brands want to make a viral video, but for that you need to try. Think about these numbers: only 1 in 2,223 sponsored videos go viral.

At the same time, YouTube is an excellent field for experimenting, reaching new target audiences and testing a product. YouTube will continue to grow, which means more and more brands will include influencer marketing in their ad budgets.