Q: I want to start a Video Marketing Campaign, but I’m not sure where to start?

A: KUDOS to you for being on top of what leading marketing companies predict to be the most effective way to reach consumers in 2017. Digital Marketers predict that by 2020, 75% of all video will be viewed on the Internet, surpassing TV. So, where do you place your video ad? The answer is easy, where there is an audience. Here are a few options:

1) YouTube – This platform reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any other cable network in the U.S.  With over 1 billion users, the audience views hundreds of millions of hours of videos DAILY. YouTube offers a “True View” campaign, meaning you’re guaranteed a set number of videos viewed completely. Something to keep in mind, YouTube announced in February 2017 that by early 2018, they will eliminate the 30-second unskippable ads and the only unskippable ads will only be 6- or 20-seconds length. Another alternative is to channel target, which allows you to target users searching within your business category.

2) FACEBOOK – Facebook video posts have increased 94% annually in the U.S. and nearly 100 million hours of video is viewed DAILY. Much of this increase is due to the Facebook LIVE feature. Best practice is a sponsored video post. Something to note, Facebook also announced a few changes coming in 2018. First, they’ll launch videos with automatic sound (right now, you don’t have sound unless you tap the video). Second, they will add a feature allowing in-view thumbnail videos to play in the lower right corner as you scroll (similar to YouTube) and finally, Facebook is testing mid-roll advertisements within LIVE videos.

3) NATIONAL NETWORK PRE-ROLL – One thing is certain with the WEB, there are NO geographic boundaries, which means the next “viral” video could come from anywhere. With this network, you can run a pre-roll video ad on across various national websites/apps, like Fox News, and WebMD, but geo-target it to serve to viewers in your market only.

4) LOCAL NEWS MEDIA SITE – Finally, you can reach a LARGE local audience using the local news media sites. The Herald Review’s website is a perfect opportunity to reach a large audience as we have over 350,000 unique users each month that view over 100,000 pages DAILY. Your video ad runs mid-story or as pre-roll and you’ll reach a very engaged LOCAL audience.

MORAL OF THE STORY, perhaps it really is true that VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR. But don’t sit by and weep about it, embrace the change and beat your competitors to the table. Call me today, even if you don’t have a video ready, we’ll get it ready.

*Statistics: businessinsider.com (Feb 2017) YouTube.com (Feb 2017)

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