YouTube is the most popular video-sharing site on the internet. Everyday, millions of people watch videos on YouTube. Users can upload, share, and view videos online. YouTube is a great way to promote your business online. Feature a video on your company, highlight specific products and services, and provide your customers with informative videos related to your industry.

YouTube Channels
A Channel is a page on YouTube that shows your business information, your videos, your subscribers, and more. You can customize your Channel to be consistent with your brand identity. A Channel creates a destination page for your business on YouTube, providing an opportunity to create ongoing relationships with your customers.

You can personalize your Channel by selecting the background color, formatting and module options. You can also customize which videos and playlists you display on your Channel. People can subscribe to your YouTube Channel. Once a person subscribes to your Channel, they will automatically receive your latest videos on their Youtube homepage.

Video Uploads
All users have the ability to upload videos up to 15 minutes in length. Longer length uploads are available to users with verified accounts. Once your account is verified, videos can be up to 12 hours long. You can now upload your videos in a High Definition format. YouTube currently offers three options: 720p,1080p, and most recently, 4K (“Original”) resolution. You can also edit your videos right in YouTube. Combine your video clips, trim your videos, add music using AudioSwap, and you can even add transitions between video clips.

Playlists
You can organize individual videos into a “playlist”. Playlists allow the viewer to view several related videos automatically. This is especially useful if you plan to feature a series of related videos.

Optimizing YouTube Videos
You can optimize your Youtube videos by featuring the right keywords in the title, description, and tags of your Youtube Video. Use the Youtube keyword tool to see what phrases people are using to search on Youtube for a specific industry or topic. Once you enter a few descriptive words or phrases, the tool displays the monthly search volume for a specific industry or topic. To view the YouTube keyword tool, please click here.

Promoted Videos
YouTube and Google AdWords have partnered to offer YouTube Promoted Videos, an advertising solution that allows YouTube users, partners, and advertisers to promote their video content across YouTube and the Google Display Network. Promoted Videos can help you reach more customers. Promoted Video Ads highlight your videos at the top of YouTube search results pages and in suggested videos. For example, someone searching for off-roading videos may see your tire store ad highlighted at the top of YouTube search results.

The Promoted Videos program is built on the AdWords auction system. Just like with any of your existing AdWords ads, you can set the maximum CPC for your keywords and define a daily budget for your campaigns. You can target your video by keyword or category and you pay only when people watch your video.

If you select the “Google Search Network” for your YouTube promotions, they will appear only on YouTube search results pages – not on other pages in the Google Search Network. Your YouTube Ads appear above or next to the YouTube search results. This is similar to how any AdWords ad may appear above or next to search results on Google, but is limited to YouTube search results only.

If you enable your YouTube promotions for the “Google Display Network”, your YouTube ads may appear on the YouTube Home Page and video Watch Pages, or across the Google Display Network whenever placements are available.

To run a Promoted Videos campaign, you need both an AdWords and a YouTube account. Once your accounts are linked to each other, you can start creating YouTube promotions to increase your exposure on YouTube.

For more information on YouTube Promoted Videos, please click here.

Video Targeting Tool
The Video Targeting Tool is a self-service platform that allows advertisers to create their own custom bundles of YouTube videos, channels, and categories. Using the power of Google search, the tool makes it incredibly easy to find relevant videos for your advertising objective. You can select from almost 1,000 different categories of video, or select all videos uploaded to particular partner’s channel (for more precise targeting), or select specific, individual videos. The Video Targeting Tool is tied to your AdWords account – you sign in using your Google account.

Please click here for more information on the Video Targeting Tool.

YouTube Insight
YouTube Insight is a self-service analytics and reporting tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the audience for the videos that they upload to the site. YouTube Insight allows you to view data for a specific video or aggregate data from all videos for a channel.

Please click here for more information on YouTube Insight.