Twenty years after it first launched, YouTube is the most visited video platform in the world and has established itself as an important channel for marketers and their brands, writes Alex Totaro who offers some tips on how they can make an impact.
YouTube just celebrated its 20th anniversary – no mean feat for a social media network gathering over 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide, positioning itself at the heart of entertainment and even rivalling TV viewership through the established creator machine that sits at its core.
YouTube has always had a unique place in user consumption and behaviour, sitting at the crossroads between entertainment and a social media network, it provides a platform experience that remains unrivalled to this day.
The shift (and pull) to short, video-first content of TikTok, and, increasingly Instagram, has generated a fork in the road for brands in where to invest their content production efforts, both organically and paid, leaving YouTube as the awkward middle child when it comes to a content strategy that spans multiple product portfolio, narratives and campaigns.
However, the potential for natively designed content creation remains immense, not thanks in part to its sheer user base but also how users consume the content, topped off by a tried-and-true excellence in execution witnessed by key industries (such as beauty, tech, gaming and fitness) as well as blockbuster creators such as MKBHD (Tech), Amelia Dimoldenberg (Comedy), Mr Beast (uncategorisable!) and others who have risen to fame through the creation of engaging, YouTube-first mid-form content designed to be consumed both autonomously as well as in series (sound familiar?).
I think YouTube has multiple roles to play for brands, whether on a paid level, as an organic content creation play or to amplify and expand on campaign narratives. Below are some of the key elements to start bringing YouTube into your content strategy authentically, helping shift your strategy from top-down and bite-sized to a more long tail, intent-driven and consumer centric approach:
Lean in mentality: YouTube fans are doers. Not just in the kind of verticals they search for, but in how they proactively search for content they are interested in. This occurs as a search engine, looking up things at key times of a purchase journey, to name an example, such as product reviews, opinions, unboxings or key features.
This means that users will be more highly engaged when seeking out content and sets YouTube apart from algorithm-based feeds where users are now accustomed to content that comes to them. This mentality also means they will engage with channels differently, actively subscribing to those they find value in and be the first to consume new content as it drops.
Interest-based consumption: Given the above, YouTube is a platform that revolves around verticals and interests. YouTube has redesigned their UI experience to match this, with key, broad topics above to help categorise successful and busy areas such as tech, gaming, lifestyle, and travel, showcasing both a mix of new and follower-based video to watch. This delivery of content can help brands shift from a demographic-first model, in which the demographic targeting around age, gender, socio-economic backgrounds and location are eschewed in favour of actual interests.
This results in increased chances of viewership, engagement and loyalty with a brand by matching expectations with content they want to see. Interest-based strategies provide a three dimensional view of a consumers and allow brands to dive deeper into sub-cultures they naturally fit in, experimenting with verticals beyond those their services, products or offerings sit in.
Dive deep, and deeper: Very few platforms allow brands to really dive deeper into their messaging or narrative. Whether it’s going all-in on a product launch or communicating a proposition or value, the ideal length for a YouTube video is 7-15 minutes, proving both a production challenge as well as an opportunity to fully dive deep in ways audiences expect out of the platform.
Content works great a series thanks to YouTube’s playlisting UI, with recommendations and optimisation quirks that allow the platform to really sync and connect content to create a thread that guides the user. From a production point of view, shorter content has a place on Instagram, TikTok and secondary platforms like Facebook and X – but YouTube offers an opportunity to unleash a long, ‘truer’ version aimed at fans, new and existing, to experience.
Product unboxings, for example, now typically run 18-20 minutes in length, to provide a solid example of a content vertical where the platform truly shines.
With creators breaking up the content into digestible chapters, there are ways of slicing and dicing content that gives the viewer more control and choice. In a world of cut downs, where paid media plans favour repetition to land the message whilst maximising ROAS, longer content provides a more natural, organic experience where the polish of the content is at the creator’s discretion.
From a two-hour livestream with a fixed camera to a stylish product overview, YouTube is one of the only platforms where this marriage of content performs and user expectation is entirely varied.
Content formats galore: Content formats are nothing new but differ from other social media networks with a few key differences.
Whilst other short-video based platforms favour a repeatable ‘hook’ to get users engaged and past those famous first three seconds, YouTube allows brands to establish key formats to test and expand on over time. As opposed to the ephemeral nature of the social media feed, YouTube content has a longer shelf life that not only benefits search results but plays a part in creating a hub of content that is both diverse and focused in nature.
Podcasts are a great example on how content formats have evolved on the platform, with many outlets offering recorded versions with minimal production as complementary to audio-first delivery on other platforms, giving creators (and brands) another way to create unpolished, unfiltered content with a naturally longer run time that feels right at home on the platform.
Content can then be serialised to be episodic, keeping engagement high and active. Having said this, I’ve seen YouTube become the graveyard platform, where how to videos, FAQs and other instructional content is thrown in for the sole purposes of hosting whilst other engaging content lives elsewhere. Establishing a couple of platform-native formats on top of this can be a gold mine for brands looking to stand out in the crowded space that social media has become.
Advertise differently: Lastly, paid content. YouTube allows brands to place ads on interest-based content that generates affinity through the vertical’s ads will sit on. When recently looking to buy a phone, for example, I was served ads for refurbished phone websites that sat at the beginning and middle of a phone review. Once again, it’s the interest-based intent that sets advertising options apart from the usual list of suspects above and beyond TVC cutdowns that autoplay as pre-rolls as part of a wider campaign that spans other streaming platforms. Creating ads specifically for the platform can be fun and rewarding and add a layer of user signal otherwise hard to track or measure across other platforms. This has the potential to set the creative direction and strategy for future content- organic or otherwise.
As an avid YouTube user, I’ve enjoyed mapping out strategy for brands that have looked to the platform to create new content that span narratives beyond what is possible on other media.
With robust advertising options, ease of use when setting up channels and uploading content, auto captions and the myriad of best practices available on the market, creating a presence has never been more accessible.
Shooting in 16:9 by today’s standards might feel out of place, there has never been a better time to design that whacky thumbnail and create something that feels fresh yet familiar for loyal audiences that are already craving it.
Alex Totaro is Head of Digital & Social with Pluto.
